PAK'S WEIRD WAYS
Tax Evasion Pak style
Lahore: Pakistan’s cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan has claimed that President Asif Ali Zardari, Chief Ministers of three provinces and 61 percent of MP’s have never paid any taxes, reflecting the widespread corruption in the country.
Khan alleged that Zardari and former Premier Nawaz Sharif were hand in glove. While Sharif had paid only Rs 5,000 as tax. Zardari paid no tax, he claimed.
About 61 percent of Pakistan’s parliamentarians and Chief Ministers of three provinces have also never paid any taxes, he claimed.
Khan appealed to the Supreme Court to open a case filed by former Air Force Chief Asghar Khan so that the nation could know how much money politicians had received from an intelligence agency, which he did not identify.
He also asked Sharif to return 3.5 million that he had allegedly received from an intelligence agency.
“Sharif had convinced me to boycott the 2008 election but then he could not keep his own word and went for the polls,” he said.
“Sharif has wrongly been taking credit for the restoration of deposed Supreme Court judges, as he terminated his march (aimed at reinstating them) at Gujranwala after getting an assurance that the PML-N would be given the government in Punjab,” Khan said.
LeJ chief got stipend from Pak govt while in jail
Islamabad: Malik Ishaq, the chief of the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi who is accused of plotting the 2009 attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore, received a monthly stipend from the PML-N government in Pakistan’s Punjab province while he was in prison, a media report said.
While in jail, Ishaq, who was freed on bail recently, enjoyed Punjab government’s financial assistance ever since the PML-N came to power in 2008, 'The Express Tribune’ newspaper quoted unnamed officials as saying.
Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanuallah, who has himself been under a cloud for his alleged links with the Sipah-e-Sahaba terror group, confirmed the disbursement of the stipend to Ishaq. However, he contended the amount was given to Ishaq’s family, and not to him, according to orders of the court.
The daily reported that its own investigation had revealed that there was no court order pertaining to the matter and that no such stipend was paid to Ishaq during the tenure of former military ruler Pervez Musharraf.
Pak Sikhs barred from celebrating festival
Islamabad: The Sikh community in the eastern city of Lahore has been barred form organising a religious celebration at a disputed gurdwara after a religious celebration at a disputed gurdwara after a religious group persuaded authorities that celebrating the Muslim holy day of ‘Shab-e-Barat’ is more important than the Sikh festival.
The musical equipment of the Sikhs was thrown out and their entry to the gurdwara barred due to the efforts of the Dawat-e-Islami, a Barelvi proselytizing group. The Express Tribune newspaper reported. Police were deployed outside the gurdwara to prevent Sikhs from conducting a religious ceremony until after the end of Shab-e-Barat.
The Sikh community wanted to commemorate an eighteenth-century saint at the gurdwara. Gurdwara Shaheed Bhai Taru Singh at Naulakha Bazaar in Lahore was built to honour the memory of a Sikh saint who was executed in 1745 on the orders of the Mughal governor of Punjab, Zakaria Khan. Every July, Sikhs have held religious ceremonies to commemorate his sacrifice. Though the gurdwara was taken over by the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) after partition. Sikhs were allowed to continue using it with relatively few restrictions. Four years ago, the Dawat-e-Islami claimed the Gurdwara was located on the site of the grave of a 15the century Muslim saint, Pir Shah Kaku.
The group claimed Kaku was the grandson of Baba Fariduddin Ganjshakar, an “implausible claim” since Ganjshankar died in 1280 while it claims that Kaku died almost 200 years later, in 1477, the daily reported.
The Sikh community had approached ETPB, which allowed both communities to observe their religious rituals according to their own beliefs at the gurdwara. The Dawat-e-Islami used it every Thursday for prayer services while Sikhs used it once a year for the anniversary of Taru Singh’s martyrdom. This year, when Sikh men went in to set up their musical instruments, they were thrown out by men from Dawat-e-Isalmi and prevented from re-entering the shrine. Members of the Sikh community, many of whom fear to be identified, said the leader of the group of men, Sohail Butt, claimed that the gurdwara was now a mosque and Sikhs would not be allowed to bring in their musical instruments any longer. But admitted he had prevented Sikhs from performing their ritual, claiming that the gurdwara was inside the courtyard of the mosque.
Lahore: Pakistan’s cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan has claimed that President Asif Ali Zardari, Chief Ministers of three provinces and 61 percent of MP’s have never paid any taxes, reflecting the widespread corruption in the country.
Khan alleged that Zardari and former Premier Nawaz Sharif were hand in glove. While Sharif had paid only Rs 5,000 as tax. Zardari paid no tax, he claimed.
About 61 percent of Pakistan’s parliamentarians and Chief Ministers of three provinces have also never paid any taxes, he claimed.
Khan appealed to the Supreme Court to open a case filed by former Air Force Chief Asghar Khan so that the nation could know how much money politicians had received from an intelligence agency, which he did not identify.
He also asked Sharif to return 3.5 million that he had allegedly received from an intelligence agency.
“Sharif had convinced me to boycott the 2008 election but then he could not keep his own word and went for the polls,” he said.
“Sharif has wrongly been taking credit for the restoration of deposed Supreme Court judges, as he terminated his march (aimed at reinstating them) at Gujranwala after getting an assurance that the PML-N would be given the government in Punjab,” Khan said.
LeJ chief got stipend from Pak govt while in jail
Islamabad: Malik Ishaq, the chief of the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi who is accused of plotting the 2009 attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore, received a monthly stipend from the PML-N government in Pakistan’s Punjab province while he was in prison, a media report said.
While in jail, Ishaq, who was freed on bail recently, enjoyed Punjab government’s financial assistance ever since the PML-N came to power in 2008, 'The Express Tribune’ newspaper quoted unnamed officials as saying.
Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanuallah, who has himself been under a cloud for his alleged links with the Sipah-e-Sahaba terror group, confirmed the disbursement of the stipend to Ishaq. However, he contended the amount was given to Ishaq’s family, and not to him, according to orders of the court.
The daily reported that its own investigation had revealed that there was no court order pertaining to the matter and that no such stipend was paid to Ishaq during the tenure of former military ruler Pervez Musharraf.
Pak Sikhs barred from celebrating festival
Islamabad: The Sikh community in the eastern city of Lahore has been barred form organising a religious celebration at a disputed gurdwara after a religious celebration at a disputed gurdwara after a religious group persuaded authorities that celebrating the Muslim holy day of ‘Shab-e-Barat’ is more important than the Sikh festival.
The musical equipment of the Sikhs was thrown out and their entry to the gurdwara barred due to the efforts of the Dawat-e-Islami, a Barelvi proselytizing group. The Express Tribune newspaper reported. Police were deployed outside the gurdwara to prevent Sikhs from conducting a religious ceremony until after the end of Shab-e-Barat.
The Sikh community wanted to commemorate an eighteenth-century saint at the gurdwara. Gurdwara Shaheed Bhai Taru Singh at Naulakha Bazaar in Lahore was built to honour the memory of a Sikh saint who was executed in 1745 on the orders of the Mughal governor of Punjab, Zakaria Khan. Every July, Sikhs have held religious ceremonies to commemorate his sacrifice. Though the gurdwara was taken over by the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) after partition. Sikhs were allowed to continue using it with relatively few restrictions. Four years ago, the Dawat-e-Islami claimed the Gurdwara was located on the site of the grave of a 15the century Muslim saint, Pir Shah Kaku.
The group claimed Kaku was the grandson of Baba Fariduddin Ganjshakar, an “implausible claim” since Ganjshankar died in 1280 while it claims that Kaku died almost 200 years later, in 1477, the daily reported.
The Sikh community had approached ETPB, which allowed both communities to observe their religious rituals according to their own beliefs at the gurdwara. The Dawat-e-Islami used it every Thursday for prayer services while Sikhs used it once a year for the anniversary of Taru Singh’s martyrdom. This year, when Sikh men went in to set up their musical instruments, they were thrown out by men from Dawat-e-Isalmi and prevented from re-entering the shrine. Members of the Sikh community, many of whom fear to be identified, said the leader of the group of men, Sohail Butt, claimed that the gurdwara was now a mosque and Sikhs would not be allowed to bring in their musical instruments any longer. But admitted he had prevented Sikhs from performing their ritual, claiming that the gurdwara was inside the courtyard of the mosque.
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