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Wajid Shamsul Hasan not NRO beneficiary
Name inclusion hurts
Interview Ashraf Ansari
Islamabad—Pakistan High Commissioner in London Wajid Shamsul Hasan
feels hurt by mention of his name with reference to NRO
beneficiaries, saying he was not one of them.
In a telephonic interview from London, he told this scribe in the
very outset that he was sorry to note that some how his name
regularly got mentioned in reports on the beneficiaries of NRO along
with others.
The High Commissioner referred to the scroll run by a private TV
channel and other channels immediately after the Press Conference by
the Minister of State for Law Mr Afzal Sindhu following his
disclosure of the list of the NRO beneficiaries to the media on
November 21. It quoted the minister that the name of Wajid Shamsul
Hasan, High Commissioner of Pakistan to UK, was mentioned by mistake
as a beneficiary of NRO. “Subsequently I talked to the Law Minister,
he personally regretted and conveyed to me the error was due to a
mistaken identity. My name was mentioned in place of some one who
had a resembling name.” The minister promised that he would soon
make it clear in some popular TV programme.
In several TV interviews the High Commissioner set the record
straight that he was not a beneficiary of NRO nor the two cases
against him were registered by NAB and that he had accepted the
office of the High Commissioner only after his name was cleared by
the courts.
Wajid Shamsul Hasan said, though he was sure that his name would not
be among the list of beneficiaries since his cases were
quashed/discharged in due course by the trial court and the High
Court of Sindh, he was pained to see his name was constantly finding
place in media reports. “It is all the more hurting now that despite
the clarification by the Minister concerned my name continues to be
mentioned as a NRO beneficiary,” he lamented.
Wajid Shamsul Hasan brought the following points on record:
“1.Soon after the dismissed of PPP government by Farooq Leghari I
was the second person after Mr Zardari, ordered to be arrested by
him since he knew I was very close to Shaheed Mohtarma. He thought
that “Wajid Bhai” would give in to his pressure, intimidations and
torture but despite being very sick I resisted FIA threats of
serious consequences and torture.
2.I was arrested first in a case related to alleged misappropriation
by me in the funds for hiring of British detectives on the
instructions of the then Chief Minister of Sindh for investigation
in Mir Murtaza Bhutto’s case. However, I was released by the Sindh
High Court on bail on the production of receipts duly authenticated
by the Pakistan High Commission in London.
3.In the meanwhile FIA was asked to probe if there were any other
charges against me and a FIA team was sent to London. It could not
find any evidence against me.
4.Though I was under treatment in Karachi for a kidney stone, I was
arrested by the FIA. Its investigators exerted lot of pressure on me
to commit perjury against Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and Mr
Asif Ali Zardari. I categorically refused to submit to their
persecution and declined to sign anything.
5.The FIA wanted me to sign a statement under 164 Cr PC against
Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and Mr Asif Ali Zardari.
6.Following my bail in the first case and my refusal to commit
perjury a second case was registered by FIA accusing me of
involvement in the container case on the orders of Farooq Leghari’s
Minister of Interior.
7.FIA arrested me again two days before the formation of Mian Nawaz
Sharif’s government. I went through yet another period of
persecution that lasted many months.
8.Once Mian Nawaz Sharif’s Senator Saifur Rahman came to head
Accountability Cell, my troubles worsened. FIA insisted on me to
implicate Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and Mr Asif Ali Zardari.
9.During detention in a FIA safe-house in Islamabad my condition
deteriorated. I was passing blood in my urine and my sugar level
became so low that I was to go into coma and I was shifted to PIMS
and confined in police custody.
10.In the period of my incarceration in PIMS, I was visited by the
top information officials of Mian Nawaz Sharif’s government with the
same demand that if I wanted my freedom then I should sign a
statement implicating both Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and Mr Asif
Zardari.
11.On my refusal, I was taken away forcibly from PIMS and
transferred to Adyala jail on the orders of Senator Saifur Rahman,
Chief of Accountability of Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif. In the
hospital discharge orders, PIMS doctors had clearly stated that any
more torture of me or stress could prove fatal for me.
12.Although container case was registered in Karachi I was illegally
detained in Islamabad and Rawalpindi and even on demand by the
Special Court, I was not transferred to Karachi to seek legal
redress. Subsequently in this case too I was given bail by the Sindh
High Court and allowed to proceed to London for medical treatment.
On medical grounds I was also given exemption from appearance in the
court.
13.When the cases prolonged much too long—nearly a decade, my
lawyers applied for quashment of the cases.
14.However, my lawyers were told by the courts that for quashment, I
will have to be physically present in Pakistan. Subsequently on my
return to Pakistan in April 2007, both the cases were subsequently
quashed and I was discharged by the Special Anti-Corruption Court
and High Court of Sindh.
15.I may add that the then government had also put me on ECL.
However, the Rawalpindi Bench of the Punjab High Court, headed by
Justice Fakir Muhammad Khokar struck off my name from ECL with
severe strictures against Ministry of Interior for having committed
a great wrong by putting my name on ECL.
16.Besides my innocence proven in the courts, I can proudly state
that the journalistic community of Pakistan stood by me on grounds
of the merit of my cases rather than friendship, association or any
other consideration. Scores of columns were written in my favour. I,
however, regret to state with great pain that some of the well-known
journalists who had joined Farooq Leghari’s government and Mian
Sahib’s, holding key positions, did try to pressurise me to commit
perjury if I wanted to walk out of my incarceration as a free man.
17.How I was treated during my long period of incarceration, denied
medical treatment for days, only to be provided when I was about to
conk off, kept in “C” class and made to sleep on floor in 10 X 12
cells, though I was suffering high blood pressure, diabetes and
dysfunction of kidneys. All this would require a separate document.
18.What sort of horrendous treatment I was meted out during my
incarceration is in the knowledge of many people including some
senior journalists.” |
