Latest development from British Parliament in London http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/?m=1405" title="See more information about George Galloway">George Galloway speaks and demands answers from the Minister on the King of Khatmal's status in UK
AND SLAMS DICTATOR MUSHARRAF
I have an interest in Pakistan. I hold the highest
civil award that the country can bestow, the Hilal-i-Quaid-i-Azam,
given to me at the end of the 1980s for my work for the restoration of
democracy in Pakistan at the end of an earlier bout of military
dictatorship supported at the time by the then http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Government - British Government .
I also hold the second highest civil award in Pakistan, the
Hilal-i-Pakistan, given to me for my work on behalf of the rights of
the people of Kashmir. Until the military overthrow of democracy in
Pakistan, I worked closely with all the democratic parties in the
country. It is worth establishing a time line. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Musharraf - General Musharraf , as we used to call him when he seized power in a military coup in 1999�before we began to call him http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_Musharraf - President Musharraf ,
an office to which he appointed himself�came to power having imprisoned
and then exiled the democratic political leaders in the country. In
2002 he held a referendum, an extraordinary one even by the standards
of eastern potentates, in which he won 97 per cent. of the vote. The
referendum was described by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transparency_International - Transparency International
as blatantly rigged, and the accompanying parliamentary elections in
2002 were described in the same way by all international and
disinterested observers. At that time Musharraf made a promise that he
would cease to be chief of http://www.theyworkforyou.com/glossary/?gl=100" title="http://www.army.mod.uk/" class="glossary - the army general staff, a promise on which he has reneged. In September 2006 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amnesty_International - Amnesty International
issued a detailed report on human rights abuses in Pakistan, alleging
that the Musharraf Government were responsible for violating "a wide array of human rights". The
alleged violations included torture, unlawful detention, enforced
disappearance, extrajudicial execution, unlawful transfer of persons to
the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States - United States and other countries, and arbitrary arrests. That date, September 2006, is important. Two months later, in November 2006�just over six months ago�the British Prime http://www.theyworkforyou.com/glossary/?gl=35" title="Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of..." class="glossary - Minister visited President Musharraf, and this is what he said. He paid tribute to General Musharraf for "symbolising the future for Muslim countries the world over." I want the House to keep those words in its mind. The Prime http://www.theyworkforyou.com/glossary/?gl=35" title="Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of..." class="glossary - Minister praised Musharraf, the military dictator of Pakistan, for "symbolising the future for Muslim countries the world over." Let us see what has happened in Pakistan since the Prime http://www.theyworkforyou.com/glossary/?gl=35" title="Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of..." class="glossary - Minister
uttered those words. The chief justice, Iftikhar Chaudhry, insisted on
hearing cases of "missing persons" and objecting to the privatisation
of a steel mill. I think we know who may have taken over; perhaps new
Labour's biggest donor, Mr. Mittal, who has given millions of pounds to
the Labour party. The chief justice would have none of it and was told
by President Musharraf that he must resign. He refused to resign and,
on 16 March, just three months after Prime http://www.theyworkforyou.com/glossary/?gl=35" title="Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of..." class="glossary - Minister
Blair held Musharraf as symbolising the future for Muslim countries,
the chief justice was supported by demonstrations throughout the
country by lawyers, civil society groups and http://www.theyworkforyou.com/glossary/?gl=29" title="The Opposition are the political parties in the House of Commons other than..." class="glossary - Opposition
parties, which were savagely assailed by General Musharraf's armed
forces. That included the first of many attacks on independent
television stations. On 26 April, the chief justice made a 26-hour journey by car from Islamabad to Lahore and was welcomed by vast crowds along the way. On 12 May, the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_of_Sindh - Government of Sindh , a coalition Government of Musharraf's king's party and the Muttahida Quami Movement, led from London by a British citizen, Altaf Hussain,
to whom I shall return, laid siege to the city. The main thoroughfares
were blocked, lawyers and their supporters were attacked outside the
Karachi Bar with batons and the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MQM - MQM
militants fired bullets indiscriminately into the peaceful
demonstrators. Eleven members of the Pakistan Peoples party were
killed, 10 members of the Justice Movement of Imran Khan, with whom I
met today and who is meeting the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leader_of_the_Opposition - Leader of the Opposition tomorrow�I am not sure whether the http://www.theyworkforyou.com/glossary/?gl=35" title="Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of..." class="glossary - Minister
will find time in his busy schedule to meet Imran Khan�were wounded, as
were scores of others. Last week, just seven months after the Prime http://www.theyworkforyou.com/glossary/?gl=35" title="Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of..." class="glossary - Minister
said that Musharraf symbolised the future for Muslim countries around
the world, all independent television stations were closed down and a
draconian ordinance on the press was introduced. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Rights_Watch - Human Rights Watch , an organisation oft quoted approvingly by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Her_Majesty%27s_Government - Her Majesty's Government , says that "As
president, Musharraf has arbitrarily amended the Pakistani constitution
to strengthen the power of the presidency, marginalize elected
representatives, and formalize the role of http://www.theyworkforyou.com/glossary/?gl=100" title="http://www.army.mod.uk/" class="glossary - the army in government" and claimed military impunity for abuses. It goes on: "These abuses include extrajudicial killings, torture, arbitrary arrests". In http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guardian - The Guardian
today, there is a story about how those independent television stations
have been taken off the air and journalists fired upon. One television
station, Aaj TV, was attacked for six hours in Karachi during the
unrest accompanying the chief justice of Pakistan's visit to the city.
The report states that a large demonstration was tear-gassed, bullets
were fired, batons and rubber bullets were used, television stations
were taken off the air and 52 bullets were fired into the television
studio of Aaj TV. The http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US - US State Department�I quote it because the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Government - United States Government often act in synchronicity with our own�says that the MQM, which is the power in Karachi, "has been widely accused of human rights abuses since its foundation two decades ago" and it goes on: "In the mid-1990s, the MQM-A was heavily involved"� not alleged to be heavily involved� "in the widespread political violence that wracked Pakistan's southern Sindh province". Three Members of Congress, led by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Biden - Joseph Biden , another man close to new Labour, wrote the following letter just a few days ago to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condoleezza_Rice - Condoleezza Rice : "Dear
Secretary Rice...we have witnessed the spiral of civil unrest and
harshly-suppressed protest in Pakistan...We ask that you publicly call
for an immediate end to the violence, and urge the government of
Pakistan to commit to holding free and fair elections by the year's
end." Nothing less will be acceptable from the http://www.theyworkforyou.com/glossary/?gl=35" title="Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of..." class="glossary - Minister this evening. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Biden - Joe Biden
and his fellow Senators say that President Musharraf's dismissal of the
chief justice has sparked protests from tens of thousands, "spearheaded by bar associations, and supported by moderate political parties and civil society organizations". They say: "The violence in Karachi appears to show disturbing signs of collusion between MQM and government forces" leading to the deaths and wounding of http://www.theyworkforyou.com/glossary/?gl=29" title="The Opposition are the political parties in the House of Commons other than..." class="glossary - Opposition party militants and other protestors�and they go on, and on. They say in the final paragraph: "The
national interests of the United States and of Pakistan are both served
by a speedy restoration of full democracy to Pakistan, and by an end to
state-sponsored intimidation�often violent�of Pakistani citizens
protesting government actions in a legal and peaceful manner. We urge
you to make a public appeal to this end, and to raise these matters
forcefully in your interactions with Pakistani government officials." Again, nothing less will be acceptable from the http://www.theyworkforyou.com/glossary/?gl=35" title="Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of..." class="glossary - Minister when he addresses the House this evening. Following
my discussions today with Imran Khan, I want to emphasise that my
primary concern, and that of most Pakistanis living in Britain, is
this: why is Altaf Hussain being allowed to conduct from a sofa in
Edgware a terrorist campaign and a campaign of extortion of businesses
and citizens in Sindh, and why was he given British citizenship? I
would like the Minister
to answer the following question tonight, and if he does not have the
answer to hand I would like him to write to me to inform me of it: was
Altaf Hussain ever refused British citizenship, and if he was, what
changed between that refusal and the granting of citizenship to him? It
is extraordinary that in the middle of a so-called war on terror there
is such a bloody reign of terror in a major Pakistani city�and there
are millions of Pakistanis who are citizens of our country. A terrorist
cell is operating from Edgware in the form of the MQM. Every day, Altaf
Hussain, a British citizen, addresses his puppets in Karachi, giving
them instructions on how they should govern, including how they should
handle peaceful demonstrations. The http://www.theyworkforyou.com/glossary/?gl=35" title="Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of..." class="glossary - Minister
smiles smugly. He might think that this is a small matter, but if this
man, instead of being a stooge of General�sorry, President�Musharraf
and of a Government allied to his own, were a hook-handed, glass-eyed
ranting mullah, he would at best already be in Belmarsh and at worst he
would be on a plane being deported to the country from where he
absconded from murder charges. This man is the
godfather of Sindh�he is the godfather of Karachi�and he is living high
on the hog from the extortion of the citizens of Karachi. I really do
not know why the http://www.theyworkforyou.com/glossary/?gl=35" title="Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of..." class="glossary - Minister
finds this funny. It is a serious matter. The question that must be
answered is this: how long will the British Government tolerate this
situation that is occurring under their noses? Citizenship was given to
Hussain under this Government in 1999, and it is my belief that he was
refused citizenship under the previous Administration. I want to know
why he was given citizenship, and why he is being allowed to operate
with impunity. Far from symbolising the future
for the Muslim countries around the world, General Musharraf
crystallises the problem which western Governments have in those
countries. We tell people that we are invading countries in order to
defend democracy and liberty, but we support dictators who crush
democracy and liberty as long as they do so in concordance with western
policy on other matters. The slogan, "My
enemy's enemy is my friend" is a deeply flawed one, but the Government
do not seem to have learned that. They did not read the novel
"Frankenstein" to the end. Dr. Frankenstein created a monster, but he
lost control of it because we cannot control monsters. Across the
border in Afghanistan, we helped to create the monster of jihadism and
Islamist fundamentalism that became bin Laden and became the Taliban,
on the principle that my enemy's enemy is my friend. However, Madam http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deputy_Speaker - Deputy Speaker ,
as we are finding in Iraq and to some extent in Palestine, our enemy's
enemy is not always our friend. Sometimes, our enemy's enemy is worse
than our enemy, and by allying ourselves with the former, making him
our friend, we become complicit in the crimes that he commits. Nobody
in the Muslim world can believe that this Government are really
interested in democracy and liberty in the Muslim world, so long as
they are kissing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonel_Gaddafi - Colonel Gaddafi
in the tent at Sirte�the same Colonel Gaddafi who brought down the
Lockerbie airliner, we were told, with the deaths of hundreds of
people; the same Colonel Gaddafi whom we said funded the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IRA - IRA 's
bombing campaign in Britain through the '70s and '80s; the same Colonel
Gaddafi whom we said shot down an English policewoman in a London
square. Nobody can believe that Colonel Gaddafi deserves the kisses of
the British Prime http://www.theyworkforyou.com/glossary/?gl=35" title="Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of..." class="glossary - Minister . Nobody believes that Colonel Gaddafi has changed�just that he has changed sides. Nobody
believes that General Musharraf really is the President of Pakistan,
and to treat him as if he is is an insult to the hundreds of millions
of Pakistanis living under the iron heel of his dictatorship, not to
mention the Pakistanis living as citizens in Britain, many of whom have
traditionally voted for the Minister's party. So I hope that the http://www.theyworkforyou.com/glossary/?gl=35" title="Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of..." class="glossary - Minister will bear that in mind when he answers this debate. General Musharraf is a tyrant who is about to fall. I urge this http://www.theyworkforyou.com/glossary/?gl=35" title="Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of..." class="glossary - Minister not to do as the now http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Owen - Lord Owen did in backing the tyrant http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shah_of_Persia - Shah of Persia
until the last moments before he fell. It was because of western
support for tyrants such as the Shah until the last moments that the
radicalisation of such as the Islamic revolution in Iran took place. My
last words are these. Pakistan is a nuclear power. After Musharraf
falls, no one knows who will replace him. Whose finger will be on the
nuclear trigger in Pakistan once Musharraf falls? The Government would
be doing Britain the favour that Biden and others are doing America by
intervening now to distance themselves from this tyrant and to help the
democratic forces come back to power in Pakistan.
------------- Kismet Domino: Faith/Courage/Liberty/Abundance/Selfishness/Immorality/Apathy/Bondage or extinction.
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