Sherry Rehman, Pakistan’s ambassador to the US, speaks during an interview in Islamabad July 5, 2012. — Photo by Reuters

WASHINGTON: Pakistan’s Ambassador to United States, Sherry Reham, has resigned from her post on Tuesday, DawnNews reported.

Sherry Rehman sent her resignation to the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Mir Hazar Khan Khoso.

Serving Pakistan Peoples Party for a long time, Rehman was elected to the National Assembly in 2002 on a reserved seat for women. She again returned in 2008 as MNA on women’s reserved seats. As PPP and its allies formed a government at the centre, Rehman was appointed federal minister for information and broadcasting the same year. However, she resigned from the position in 2009.

Rehman was eventually appointed Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States after her predecessor Husain Haqqani resigned over the memo scandal. This year, she was awarded with Nishan-i-Imtiaz, the highest honour given to any civilian, for her performance as ambassador at a time when US-Pakistan relations were passing through a very difficult phase.

Serving Pakistan Peoples Party for a long time, Rehman was elected to the National Assembly in 2002 on a reserved seat for women. She again returned in 2008 as MNA on women’s reserved seats. As PPP and its allies formed a government at the centre, Rehman was appointed federal minister for information and broadcasting the same year. However, she resigned from the position in 2009.

Rehman is an open advocate of women’s rights and media freedom and is a fierce opponent of honour killings. She has also led several initiatives to formulate pro-women and pro-media legislation. In 2010, Rehman submitted a private member bill seeking to abolish death penalty under the existing blasphemy laws. The bill created an uproar among religious circles and brought her career to a standstill and with threats against her on the rise, Rehman was confined to her Karachi residence for some time.

Rehman was eventually appointed Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States after her predecessor Husain Haqqani resigned over the memo scandal. This year, she was awarded with Nishan-i-Imtiaz, the highest honour given to any civilian, for her performance as ambassador at a time when US-Pakistan relations were passing through a very difficult phase.

Rehman is also the founding head of Jinnah Institute, an independent public policy institute committed to regional peace and inclusive democracy in Pakistan. The institute arranged several track-two strategic dialogues with India and convened a similar institutionalised dialogue process between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

— Research and text by Saher Baloch

Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf. – File Photo by APP

ISLAMABAD: Deserving or not, people in federal bureaucracy need only to be well-connected in the ruling set-up to get prize postings.

Outgoing prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf signed a summary on March 14 for foreign postings of 15 officials of information
ministry, who will be looking after media sections in Pakistani missions.

Four officials who have served in Prime Minister’s Secretariat, President House and the office of former minister for information Qamar Zaman Kaira, have been posted in the UK, Germany and the US.

Some officials of the ministry are planning to challenge in court the selection procedure which they say is based on personal likes and dislikes and in violation of rules.

On top of the list is Masood Anwar who is currently working as staff officer to Salman Farooqi, secretary general of President Asif Ali Zardari. Mr Anwar has been posted as press counsellor in New York.

It has been said that his posting involves two violations. One, he has been recently promoted to BPS-20 but his new assignment is meant for a grade-19 officer. Secondly, he last served as a press counsellor in France and came back in April 29, 2010.

According to the ministry’s own rules, he could only be considered for a new foreign posting after April 29, 2013, after having served in the country for three years.

Pakistan’s Ambassador to the US, Sherry Rehman is reported to have strongly recommended Mr Anwar’s posting in the US to influence public and media discourse on Pakistan which, she said, “is an increasingly difficult and complex challenge”.

Dr Najeeb has got the post of press counsellor in Washington DC, another attractive location. He was working as a director in the office of former minister Kaira and is considered being close to him. He last served in Cairo and his mandatory qualifying period
will end in October 2013.

Shafqat Abbas, who was working with Mr Kaira as personal staff officer, has been posted in Germany, the position many in the ministry aspire for. Although he fulfills the criterion for the posting, several officials senior to him have been ignored in the process of selection.

Shafqat Jalil, who has been posted as press minister in London, has worked as press secretary with the outgoing premier Raja Ashraf. He last served as press counsellor in New York and his mandatory period to serve in the country for three years was to end on March 13, 2013. Although he was about to complete the period, his interview was held on March 5 which, according to the rules, is a violation of the criterion.

Nasir Jamal and Sheraz Latif have been given postings in Brussels and Paris respectively. Both the officials have been promoted to BPS 20 but the posts are for BPS-19, a decision officials in BPS-19 are complaining against.

The selection board was headed by Mr Kaira and its members included the secretaries of information, establishment division and foreign affairs and the director general, external publicity wing, ministry of information.

Officials who are questioning the selection procedure say the secretaries of establishment division and foreign affairs were represented by their subordinates who were easily influenced by other members of the board.

Of the 15 selected officers, eight have been given foreign postings for the first time and seven are being sent abroad for second time. Officials ignored in the selection say a rotation policy should be adopted so that all deserving officials get the chance of foreign posting.

Talking to Dawn, a senior ministry official said that although well-connected officials did use their connections the director general provided critical input regarding the postings.

MQM MPAs stage walk out as they boycott session of Sindh Assembly in a protest against passing of Sindh Jinnah University bill. – ONLINE PHOTO by Anwar Abbas

KARACHI: The reconciliation between the Pakistan People’s Party and Muttahida Qaumi Movement seen on Tuesday proved short-lived on Thursday when the treasury benches insisted on taking up for immediate consideration the Jinnah Sindh Medical University Bill, 2013 soon after its introduction through a supplementary order of the day. The bill was later passed into law unanimously by the members present in the house.

When the motion, moved by Law Minister Ayaz Soomro, was put before the house for dispensing with all relevant rules, it was carried with a majority of the members.

Even opposition members led by the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional and belonging to the PML-Likeminded and National People’s Party sided with the treasury benches, leaving the MQM members alone to oppose the motion.

The house witnessed uproar and disturbances when, opposing the motion for consideration of the bill, the MQM members chanted slogans of ‘shame, shame’, ‘not acceptable, not acceptable, the illegal and incomplete bill not acceptable’, and staged a walkout.

Syed Sardar Ahmad objecting to the attitude of the treasury benches said that the bill, 16th of 2013, was brought forward after withdrawing bill 21 of 2012 on the same subject. He suggested to the treasury benches to defer its consideration for Monday as copies of the bill had been provided to the members only a few moments earlier and its 31 pages could not be read in such a short time.

Syed Faisal Sabzwari said copies of the bill were not given to all members. The bill had serious mistakes and it was not even read by the law minister but was being made a bone of contention. Its immediate consideration would be a mistake. Besides, justification for the withdrawal and replacement of it with a new bill on the subject was not made clear, he added.

This was not the right way to set up a university, he said and added: “Are we going to set up an educational institution or destroying education? We condemn this attitude as you are setting wrong precedents.”

Speaker Nisar Ahmad Khuhro said in the past also bills were tabled according to the rules of business and after introduction taken into consideration. The law minister had already moved the motion and members were given ample time to raise objections.

He gave the floor to the law minister to speak on the general principles of the bill.

Education Minister Pir Mazhar-ul-Haq said till Tuesday he was accused of opposing setting up a university in Hyderabad and they protested against it, “but now our friends are opposing the bill which is for establishing a university in Karachi”.

Dr Sagheer Ahmad said they were not opposed to the university but the way being adopted for consideration of the bill.

He said since morning it was being repeated that they had instructions from President Zardari to get the bill passed, but what the president said to them when conveyed, it was not being honoured. Terming the PPP members’ attitude incomprehensible, he said why MQM ministers’ resignations were not being accepted. “If you are not accepting our resignations, being the health minister and member in charge under Rule 98, my move to withdraw the bill be granted or our resignations be accepted,” he said.

He said suggesting amendments to other bills on Wednesday was in accordance with democratic norms which were rejected because of the opposition’s majority, and that was not the right way.

Mr Soomro said President Zardari had said nothing about the bill. The assembly was a legislative body and “we are here for legislation and you are at liberty to move amendments to bills”.

He said at a meeting in the Bilawal House in the presence of Governor Ishratul Ibad, President Zardari had suggested that the bill be taken up. The medical university was being established in Sindh, he said.

After the third reading when the bill was put before the house, it was passed into law unanimously as the MQM lawmakers were not present in the house and had earlier walked out in protest.

Bill No 15 of 2013 — The Shaheed Benazir Bhutto City University Bill, 2013 — which was put for consideration after its introduction was allowed by the house to defer its consideration for Monday on a motion of the law minister.

Earlier, Heer Ismail Soho of the MQM withdrew her privilege motion after Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah’s statement that all members in the house were equal and all funds of MPAs’ priority programme would be released soon.

PPP minority MPA Salim Khurshid Khokhar through his adjournment motion wanted to discuss Sections 295-B and 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code. He cited instances of victimisation and registration of cases against people who had sought amendment to the sections, including the murder of Governor Salman Taseer and Minister Shahbaz Bhatti and registration of a case against ex-MNA and ambassador to the United States Sherry Rehman.

After it was opposed by the law minister on different accounts, including relating to more than one issues, the speaker quoting flaws in the motion ruled that it was inadmissible.

The house also unanimously adopted two resolutions pertaining to the revival of girls guide, national cadet course and civil defence and first aid training for all students of schools and colleges and for repealing sections of the PPC regarding corporal punishment and declared it as a punishable offence. These resolutions were moved by MQM MPA Bilqees Mukhtar and PPP MPA Shamim Ara Panhwar, respectively.

By a motion of Arif Mustafa Jatoi of the NPP, the role of Speaker Nisar Ahmad Khuhro was appreciated for conducting the proceedings of the house during his tenure. The motion was also adopted unanimously.

After the conclusion of the business on the order of the day and adoption of resolutions presented under Rule 211, the chair who had called the house in order at 11.30am, called it a day at 2.45pm to reassemble on Monday at 10am.

Pakistan’s Ambassador to the US, Sherry Rehman. — File photo/AP

KARACHI: Multan police has registered a blasphemy case against Sherry Rehman, Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States, a report published in the BBCUrdu said.

The case was registered on a complaint made by Faheem Gill, a citizen of Multan.

In his complaint, Gill has alleged that Rehman had committed blasphemy while speaking during a program aired on a private television channel on Nov 30, 2010.

The complainant said Rehman was speaking on the country’s blasphemy laws and had made some statements which were tantamount to committing blasphemy.

Multan’s senior superintendent police Ghulam Shabbir Jafri told the BBC that the case had been registered and the complainant had also been made part of the investigation. He added that evidence was being collected with regard to the case.

Ambassador Rehman complained that the United States had failed to appreciate Pakistan’s domestic terrorism problems and counter-terrorism operations, which have cost nearly 50,000 military and civilian lives and billions of dollars in expenditures and lost income over the past decade. —File Photo by Reuters

WASHINGTON: Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States on Tuesday blasted the Obama administration for continued drone strikes in Fata, calling the violation a “red line” that should not be crossed.

At a breakfast meeting with the Christian Science Monitor staff, Sherry Rehman said that drones strikes were “a clear violation of our sovereignty and a violation of international law” that threatened stable relations between the two governments.

She rejected persistent media reports that Pakistan tacitly approved the strikes while denouncing them publicly as untrue. “Let me assure you that since we have been in government, there has been no quiet complicity, no question of wink and nod,” she said.

The United States has launched hundreds of drone strikes in Fata, killing dozens of militant leaders. While Pakistan appreciates the elimination of some key terrorists, it says that the drones also have killed a large number of innocent civilians.

Pakistan warns that the civilian deaths are counter-productive as they increase public sympathy for the militants and wants the United States to stop the strikes.

The drone strategy “creates more potential terrorists on the ground and militants on the ground instead of taking them out,” the ambassador said. “We need to drain the swamp, but instead it is radicalising people.”

Ambassador Rehman complained that the United States had failed to appreciate Pakistan’s domestic terrorism problems and counter-terrorism operations, which have cost nearly 50,000 military and civilian lives and billions of dollars in expenditures and lost income over the past decade.

She said Pakistan was increasingly concerned that the US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan would leave “the kind of detritus we were left to deal with” after the last US departure from the region in the early 1990s.

But the ambassador also noted that the United States and Pakistan had overcome years of “chronic distrust and periods of crisis management” and Pakistan was now looking for an enduring, sustainable relationship with the US, based on mutual respect and cooperation.

As over a dozen senior US journalists grilled her on Pakistan’s record in the war against terror, the envoy reminded them that her country faced multiple challenges, including the war against militancy, a historic transition to democracy and its first constitutional transfer of power.

She also upheld her government’s criticism of the Academy Award nominated movie “Zero Dark Thirty”, calling it “very zero, very dark”.

The film depicts the CIA-led raid on a compound in Abbottabad where US commandos killed Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Ambassador Rehman said Pakistan was fully engaged with the US and their dialogue groups were working across a range of structured issues on which there was cooperation.

She denied the allegation that Pakistan was obstructing the peace process in Afghanistan, and said that Islamabad was willing to do all it could to “support all tracks that Kabul proposes”.

Pakistan had no favourites in Afghanistan and did not want to interfere in the internal dynamics of an Afghan-led peace process, she said.

The ambassador said that Islamabad actively participated in all meetings of the core group, which includes the US, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

She praised incoming Secretary of State John Kerry as somebody who “brings experience and knowledge” of her country to the table.

Referring to Mr Kerry’s statement at his confirmation hearing last week, she urged Washington to give her country credit for joining in the anti-terror campaign of the last 11 years and helping to stop insurgents from crossing the border into her country.

Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States Sherry Rehman. — File photo/AFP

WASHINGTON, Feb 4: Pakistan treats the Afghan peace process as an “urgent priority”, Ambassador Sherry Rehman said on Monday as the US media reported that mistrust among key players had floundered talks with the Taliban.

“Pakistan looks clearly to an Afghan-led roadmap for reconciliation, understands that this is an urgent priority,” said Pakistan’s envoy to the US, rejecting insinuations that Islamabad was trying to delay the talks.

“Pakistan also has shown support at the highest level for any track of dialogue that the Afghans deem important,” she added.

The US media reported on Monday that Mulla Omar has recently made a surprise offer to share power in a post-war Afghanistan. But “mistrust and confusion” among key players had floundered the peace effort, the report added.

The United States hopes to reach some peaceful arrangement for transfer of power in Afghanistan before withdrawing its forces from the country by 2014.

“Although the Taliban appear more ready to talk than ever before, peace talks remain elusive because of infighting among a rising number of interlocutors,” reported the Associated Press, quoting official sources in Kabul.

The report said that Taliban leaders had contacted representatives from 30 to 40 different countries, but the relationship among the key players — the US, Afghanistan and Pakistan — was “marked by distrust that keeps tugging momentum away from the peace process”.

The report claimed that “finding a path to the negotiating table” was also a main topic in a series of meetings among Afghan, Pakistani and British leaders in London on Monday.

President Karzai recently complained that the West was using the peace talks as a lever against his government. The US media also reported that both Kabul and Washington were also frustrated with Pakistan for not monitoring the activities of Taliban prisoners it released in recent months.

Pakistan counters this allegation by pointing out that it freed the prisoners at the request of the Afghan government and doesn’t have the resources to keep tabs on them.

The US media also reported that Kabul had asked for the release of the Taliban’s former second in command, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, but Washington urged Islamabad not to release him.

But Ambassador Rehman said categorically: “Pakistan has been supporting all discussions that may lead to an Afghan-led peace and reconciliation process.” The Pakistani effort, she added, aimed at strengthening joint efforts to address extremism and advance regional peace and stability.

“President Zardari has made his government’s full commitment to the project of peace in Afghanistan by assuring strenuous and sustained efforts to maintain the momentum of the process,” said the Pakistani envoy.

“US officials also appreciate that Pakistan continues to demonstrate a willingness to cooperate by taking concrete steps that the Afghan High Peace Council asks for,” she said.

Sherry Rehman. — Photo by AFP/File

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Thursday admitted a petition filed against Sherry Rehman over allegedly committing blasphemy, DawnNews reported.

The petition was heard by a two-judge bench of the apex court comprising Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali and Justice Ejaz Afzal.

The bench directed CPO Multan Amir Zulfiqar to take action in accordance with the law.

The petition against Rehman, Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States, was filed by Faheem Akhtar Gill, a citizen of Multan.

Gill had requested to the court to register a case against Rehman for allegedly committing blasphemy.

The petition claims that Rehman had committed blasphemy while speaking on a news channel two years ago.

In Nov 2010, Rehman had submitted a bill to the National Assembly Secretariat seeking an end to the death penalty under the existing blasphemy laws.

Later in Feb 2011, the then prime minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani, had categorically stated that the government had no intention to amend the law.

After Gilani’s rejection, Rehman had told AFP she had “no option” but to abide by the decision after the premier had ruled out any discussion.

In Nov 2011, Rehman was appointed Pakistan’s ambassador to the US after Husain Haqqani had tendered his resignation over the memogate controversy.

Blasphemy is an extremely sensitive subject in Pakistan, where 97 per cent of the 180 million population are Muslims, and allegations of desecrating the Holy Quran or insulting Islam often provoke public fury.