JIT reluctant to record Malik’s statement

ISLAMABAD, Dec 30: A joint investigation team (JIT) of the FIA probing the assassination of Benazir Bhutto is reluctant to record the statement of Interior Minister Rehman Malik, although it is required under the UN commission’s terms of inquiry, sources in his ministry told Dawn on Thursday.

The JIT, headed by additional director general of FIA Khalid Qureshi, has sent a questionnaire to almost all those government officials and leaders of the Pakistan People’s Party who have been directly or indirectly accused of not providing adequate security to Benazir. But it is reluctant to send the questionnaire to the interior minister.

“I have not thought about sending the questionnaire to Mr Malik,” said FIA Director General Waseem Ahmed, who recently got an extension in his service on the recommendations of the interior minister.

Mr Malik had said in a statement that the questionnaire had been sent to all accused, including former Punjab chief minister Pervez Elahi and Intelligence Bureau chief Ijaz Shah. The two have been accused of not providing foolproof security to the PPP chairperson.

Senator Safdar Abbasi and wife Naheed Khan, Makhdoom Amin Fahim and some others, who had accompanied Ms Bhutto on the day of her assassination on Dec 27, 2007, have returned the questionnaire to investigators after filling it.

“My wife and I have replied to the questionnaire. We had earlier recorded our statements before the Scotland Yard and UN investigators and the JIT,” Senator Abbasi told Dawn.

The sources claimed that the FIA had also prepared a questionnaire for the interior minister, but could not dare send it to him.

But the FIA chief rejected the claim. “The FIA has never prepared any such questionnaire for the interior minister nor is it thinking about it.” Mr Malik, who was in charge of Benazir’s security, has been accused of leaving the place a few minutes before the gun-and-bomb attack. He was in a PPP substitute vehicle, along with the present presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar and Law Minister Babar Awan. According to the party arrangement, he was supposed to be behind Ms Bhutto’s vehicle.

Former Rawalpindi police chief Saud Aziz, who is under detention, claimed in a statement that Mr Malik was responsible for poor security arrangements which led to Benazir’s assassination. He said the minister was in close contact with police and it was his responsibility to stop her from standing up and looking out from her jeep.

Members of the UN inquiry commission had met the minister a number of times and also visited his residence to record his statement. He had reportedly said that he was ready for questioning.

In the light of the UN commission’s report, the JIT recorded the statements of a number of people, but not of the interior minister.

The JIT also sent a questionnaire to former president Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf, who is in London. He has been accused of not providing adequate security to Benazir Bhutto during her last public meeting in Liaquat Bagh.

US brings students from small towns in Pakistan

WASHINGTON, Dec 30: As part of its efforts to improve bilateral understanding, the US has launched one of its largest ever students exchange programmes with Pakistan, a senior US official said on Thursday.

“To give a chance to Pakistani students to learn more about the US and Americans to learn more about Pakistan and Pakistanis,” said Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Alina Romanowski while explaining the motive behind the arrangement.

“The purpose is to build human bridges between our two countries and to encourage face to face communication.” As many as 100 undergraduate students from Pakistan will spend a semester in US educational institutions this year under the Global Undergraduate Exchange Programme in Pakistan. Although they all have to return home after the semester, they will be encouraged to apply for further studies in the United States.

The US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, in coordination with a partner organisation, IREX, will host an arrival orientation for 50 of these students in Washington from Jan 3-6, 2011.

Launched in fall 2010, Global UGRAD-Pakistan provides a substantive exchange experience at a US college or university to a diverse group of 100 emerging student leaders from underrepresented sectors in Pakistan.

Responding to a question from an Indian journalist, Ms Romanowski said the students were not screened to ensure if there were `wahabis’ among them or if they had `a terrorist mentality’, as the journalist had suggested.

“We are not screening students for their religious orientation or affiliation.” She also dismissed another Indian journalist’s concern that some of these students may not return. She said that the bureau had exchange programmes with Pakistan before and all those who came had returned home.

The students were selected from small towns in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Northern Areas, Fata, Balochistan and Sindh, besides large cities. None of them ever travelled outside Pakistan. Almost half of them are women.

Increasing cold stalks flood survivors

DADU, Dec 30: Though it’s been more than four months when floods ravaged the province but its effects continue to haunt the survivors who are now losing their near and dear ones to cold and harsh weather.The government is yet to provide them with the necessary articles.

An unlucky mother lost both, her infant daughter and mental balance.

Rozina Khoso, 32, wife of peasant Aziz Khoso of Ghari Jagir village lost her mental balance soon after the death of her two-month-old daughter, Waheedan. Her condition is not improving though her husband parted with the family’s last possession of a goat. The animal fetched him Rs4,000 which was not enough to normalize his wife’s mental condition. Her two other daughters - three-year-old Maryam and four-year-old Hajra - look towards their mother for comfort who herself is in dire need of material relief and medical intervention.

Memories of dead infant haunts Rozina who gets hysterical and runs outdoor wailing and shouting, said Aziz Khoso.

Aziz Khoso told Dawn that the increasing cold is affecting the children most but officials of federal, provincial and local governments are unaware of their sufferings. It’s been more than a week but his wife was yet to recover from her mental state while their other two surviving daughters are suffering from gastroenteritis and running fever but he has no money to get them treated. Whatever he got after selling the goat was spent on Rozina’s treatment which remained insufficient.

Another peasant, Mohammad Ali Khoso, has a similar tale to share. He too, lost his 12-month-old daughter Mariam to cold as the family, like rest of their fellow being, has no warm clothes and blankets to protect them from the freezing weather. His four surviving children are down with measles and he has no means to provide them medical relief. The mother of sick children, Islam Khatoon, said that her children have become too, week because of continuous starvation. Like others, this family too, also lost everything to floods, including buffaloes and cattle.

The flow of water in MNV drain is adding to chill she said adding that they are in need of tents, blankets and warm clothes.

A widow, Bibi, wailed that the family doesn’t have money to buy warm clothes or even an ordinary dress for her four children in increasing frostiness. Another widow, Bhagaul, said perhaps the world has forgotten the residents of this village as warm clothes and winter beddings were not distributed among them.

Some 100 families, including that of Rozina did not move to nearby towns when floods hit their village in August last, but preferred to live on higher ground on the embankment of Main Nara Valley drain.

Families returned to the village but the situation is worsening for poor peasants and their families as the freezing weather has put the lives of more than 70 children below six years of age, at risk. Their mud houses were washed away and they are now living in thatched homes without warm clothes and blankets.

One of the villages in Mehar taluka, located 18km away from the town near MNV drain is not visited by any official, aid agency or an NGO for the assessment of loss or for providing flood-hit population with relief goods.

Some 350 residents of village Rasool Bux have returned from Kotri and Karachi and brought with them tents but they too have no money to rebuild houses.

Salih Chandio said that they were waiting for the government aid to rebuild their houses and help them in cultivating land by honoring its commitments of providing free seeds and fertilizers.

Dawn contacted Mukhtiarkar of Mehar taluka Kazi Mushtaq who said that seed and fertilizer had yet not been provided to farmers of Rasool Bux Chandio, Ghari Jagir and other villages for want of a computerized list.

Over 3,000 people of Misri Khoso, Noor Mohammad Chhutto and Panah Gaincho villages in Khan Jo Goth union council in taluka Mehar are facing problems of warm cloths and blankets.

Ahmed Chhutto said that no survey was conducted by the civil society organizations and the government for providing them with warm clothes and blankets.

A closed Basic Health Unit (BHU) near Qaim Jatoi village proved the absence of staff to treat patients.

A villager Misri Khan said that the children of area were facing numerous diseases and waiting for doctors.

EDO Health Dadu, Dr Moula Bux Jamali expressed his unawareness about the deaths by cold in Ghari Jagir village. He said that he will conduct an inquiry into the deaths and outbreak of diseases in Ghari Jagir and other villages.