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"Zardari is friend of friends, and there are no rules and regulations for friends," a senior PPP leader told IOL. |
ISLAMABAD — Benazir Bhutto's second government was sacked in 1996 by then-president Farooq Leghari amid corruption scandals.
Bhutto, her husband Asif Zardari, then a minister, and several of their associates faced several accounts of corruption and criminal charges.
Zardari, nicknamed Mr Ten Mr. Percent on charges of kickbacks, was kept in custody from 1997 to 2004 on charges ranging from corruption to murder.
Loyalists and friends, many charged in the same cases, quietly sneaked out of the country and lived in exile.
After he was granted bail and released in 2004, Zardari went into exile and lived between Dubai and London, where many of his loyalists were staying.
Bhutto, Zardari and their associates returned to Pakistan under the controversial National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), issued by President Pervez Musharraf as part of a power-sharing deal with Bhutto.
Zardari, now the co-chairman of his slain wife's Pakistan people's Party (PPP) and the new kingmaker, is being accused of giving his exile loyalists key posts in the PPP government of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani.
"Zardari is friend of friends, and there are no rules and regulations for friends," a senior PPP leader told IslamOnline.net, requesting anonymity.
Following are members of what some in Pakistan now call Zardari's exile-club.
Rehman Malik
Malik, the former director of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), was appointed last March as Premier Gilani's advisor on interior affairs and narcotics control.
"He has never been a PPP member, but he is now treated like the most senior leader," the disgruntled senior PPP leader told IOL.
He described Malik as the "de facto" prime minister.
"Sometimes, even premier Gilani doesn’t know about the orders issued by Malik," claimed the PPP leader.
He cited the recent postponement of by-elections on the orders of Malik without informing the prime minister.
Malik faced corruption charges in the 1990s.
He fled the country soon after the ouster of Bhutto's second government in 1996 and returned only on October 18, 2007, when all cases of corruption and misuse of authority against him were withdrawn under the NRO.
During the years of exile, Malik’s sprawling house in a posh locality of London was reportedly used as an international secretariat of the PPP.
Some say he borne out the expenses of the PPP meetings and the leaders’ stay in London for years.
Malik is credited with brokering the power-sharing deal between Musharraf and Bhutto and being the brain behind the NRO.
He is seen as the main link between Musharraf and Zardari.
Shamsuddin Siraj
The first appointment Gillani made as prime minister was to name Siraj, who came to the limelight during Bhutto's second tenure, as his Principal Secretary.
Siraj, who hails from a family of Karachi, was booked after the dismissal of the government in 1996 on a number of corruption charges.
But he soon fled to London where he stayed for years.
Through out the years of exile, Siraj remained a close confidant of Zardari.
Like Malik, he too was given clemency under the NRO.
The new government of Gilani revoked the old orders pertaining to his suspension from civil service and gave him the new high-level post.
Hussain Haqqani
Haqqani, a long-time friend of Zardari, was appointed ambassador to the United States in April.
A week before the appointment, he was designated "Ambassador-at-large" by the Gilani government.
Haqqani, 53, too spent the past eight years outside Pakistan, though not haunted by legal charges.
As soon as the PPP government was installed, he returned and received his new posts.
A veteran politician, Haqqani worked as a journalist in the 1980s and as adviser to premiers Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi, Nawaz Sharif and Bhutto from 1988-1996.
He started his career from the student wing of the country’s largest Islamic party, Jammat-e-Islami. In few years, he joined Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N).
In 2000, Haqqani’s US-based lobbying firm was awarded an image-building contract by President Musharraf.
Musharraf's spokesman, Major General rtd Rashid Qureshi, who at that time was director general of the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR), told IOL the contract was soon revoked because the firm miserably failed to promote Pakistan’s image in America.
Salman Farooqi
Farooqi, a former senior bureaucrat and one of Zardari’s closest friends, has been appointed as ambassador–at-large.
The appointment came in recognition of his services for the country and the PPP, though party leaders say Farooqi has never been a PPP member.
Farooqi was charged in massive corruption cases to the tune of billion of rupees.
He spent many years in exile in the US to escape facing the cases against him in Pakistani courts.
But soon after the NRO and the formation of the new government, Farooqi returned to Pakistan.
Zulfikar Mirza
Mirza, a long-time friend of Zardari who fled soon after the sacking of the Bhutto government in 1996, has been appointed as home minister of the Sindh province.
Mirza faced various corruption cases and a murder case in the 1990s.
He remained absconding abroad for years to escape legal charges and only returned after all charges were withdrawn under the NRO.
After the PPP triumph in the February general elections, he rose through the party ranks.
He is the only member of the so-called "exile club" who has been elected as member of the assembly of Sindh, Bhutto's home province.
Mirza is the spouse of National Assembly Speaker Fahmida Mirza.
Wajid Shams-ul-Hassan
Shams-ul-Hassan, who was co-accused in an antique smuggling case along with Zardari, is expected to be soon appointed Pakistan High Commissioner in Britain.
A journalist-turned politician and a longtime member of the PPP, he served in the same post during Bhutto’s second term.
A Zardari friend, he lived in London for the past 14 years during which he never set foot in Pakistan.
Shams-ul-Hassan is now back thanks to the NRO after all the charges against him were withdrawn.
Javed Talaat
Talaat, a former finance secretary charged in the ARY Gold case along with Bhutto and Zardari, has been nominated for the prestigious post of Pakistan's Executive Director at the World Bank in Washington.
During his service, Talaat had never been a controversial bureaucrat but the ARY Gold case made him a suspect.
Talaat, now 70, left Pakistan after the sacking of the Bhutto second government and lived in exile for almost 10 years.
He is too a beneficiary of the NRO.
Ahmad Riaz Sheikh
Riaz Sheikh, a former deputy director of FIA and a long confidant of Rehman Malik, has been appointed as joint director of the Pakistani Intelligence Bureau (IB).
Like other Zardari's loyalists, he was dismissed from service after the dismissal of the Bhutto government in 1996 and convicted in corruption charges.
After the NRO, all the charges against him were dropped.
He has recently been reinstated and even paid the salaries and other dues of the years of his dismissal.
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