Word: zardari
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
There was more bad news for Washington out of Islamabad late Wednesday, Dec. 16, this time from Pakistan's Supreme Court. The court overruled an amnesty on corruption charges that had been granted to President Asif Ali Zardari and other senior figures, spurring efforts by political opponents to force America's top ally in Pakistan to step down. The move follows a week in which top U.S. military commanders struggled to persuade their Pakistani counterparts to go after Afghan Taliban groups based in Pakistan, while U.S. diplomats complained, through the media, of increasing harassment by Pakistani authorities, which was seen...
...full 17-member Supreme Court bench declared that the amnesty protecting Zardari from prosecution was illegal, reviving old corruption charges and raising the prospect that senior members of the government could be dragged into court. On Thursday evening, Dec. 17, the National Accountability Bureau, a government-corruption watchdog, began the process of issuing arrest warrants, freezing accounts and barring some of the accused from leaving the country, local media reported. (See pictures of a Pakistani lawyers' movement celebrating the reinstatement of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry...
...this is where Washington and Islamabad's interests collide. The U.S. has warned Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari that it expects Pakistani security forces to take action against the Afghan Taliban as well as the Haqqani network and Hizb-e-Islami, but Pakistan is loath to act against militants on its territory who confine their operations to Afghanistan, focusing instead on those extremists who directly challenge the Pakistani state. An unpopular and politically beleaguered Zardari is in no position to help Obama...
...cases will be something of a legal and political minefield, because, says Ispahani, they were prepared by Musharraf's regime with political intent. And while Zardari's ruling Pakistan People's Party (PPP) publicly expresses confidence in the Supreme Court, some of its members privately fear that Chief Justice Chaudhry, whose sacking by Musharraf Zardari had refused to reverse until forced to by a nationwide protest movement, may not be in a forgiving mood. Opposition figures, however, warn that accused officials could wield undue influence over the prosecution, which is controlled by the government. (Read: "Why Pakistan Matters...
...Whatever the outcome of Zardari's latest round of legal troubles and the political crisis they portend, their effect is likely to be a further weakening of his grip on power and more distraction from Pakistan's war against extremism...