Butt experiences tough day in court - Spot Fixing Scandal

Salman Butt, after experiencing his tenth and most difficult day of the alleged spot-fixing trial yet on Tuesday, was accused by the prosecution of lying to the jury after being forced to answer several awkward and uncomfortable questions.

Butt was in the witness box for over five hours and will have to take the stand again on Wednesday as Aftab Jafferjee QC for the prosecution has not yet even reached the three no-balls in question on which alone the jury have been ordered to base their verdict.

Butt was asked about his little blue book, which was found in the suitcase that police discovered in his hotel room on the night of the raids on the third evening of the Lord's Test. It contained all his scribblings about income, expenditure and money "still to be received" and Jafferjee used the contents of that pocket-sized notepad to grill Butt.

He was asked why it did not mention the £30,000 that Butt was due from an apparent bat sticker deal with Majeed's company Capital Cricket. "It's up to me about what to write and what not to write. It's my diary," Butt replied, becoming agitated many times by Jafferjee's probing. Often he turned to the female interpreter to convey his thoughts when things became very tense.

Jafferjee quizzed Butt on why he withdrew US$181,000 from his Bank Alfalah account in Lahore on the day of his police interview on September 3, days after the scandal had broken in the media. Butt has transferred the amount into his mother's account.

"It might have happened on the same day as my interview but it was not something that I aimed to happen on the same day," Butt answered. "I can't explain why (I withdrew it). You are trying to portray something else, but you don't know anything about the Muslim culture," Butt snapped as Jafferjee continued to poke at the topic.

He added: "We didn't know how long we were going to be here (in England)," Butt said. "We were being investigated by the police and we didn't know if we would be allowed to leave."

Jafferjee also questioned Butt on his relationship with Majeed and asked why he tolerated the agent, even though Butt has revealed to the court that Majeed would send him text messages that suggested Butt would help him fix matches. Butt had already told the jury on Monday that he confronted Majeed about these and the agent said he was testing him. But Jafferjee then raised further text messages that suggested Butt tolerated Majeed's behaviour and concluded they shared a "corrupt relationship".

Jafferjee also quizzed Butt on why he spent so much money on luxury watches. Butt admitted to buying a £12,500 Rolex, a £5,000 Bulgari watch, $6,000 on a Tag Heuer in India while playing in the Indian Premier League - that purchase despite a 40 per cent discount being given - $5,000 on an Omega watch from Dubai and $12,000 on a Breitling. Butt agreed that he liked to buy luxury goods but argued that they were investments because he would make money also when he eventually sold them.

Despite a player-agent relationship spanning about three years, the court heard that the only payment that came from Majeed via a cheque or bank transfer was for £9,600 deposited in Butt's Clydesdale Bank account two days before the Pakistanis arrived in England on June 24, 2010. All other payments would be in cash.

Jafferjee questioned Butt on whether he thought it strange that a global sportswear brand like Adidas would pay him just £800 per appearance yet Majeed was willing to pay him £30,000 for a bat sticker to advertise his company Capital Cricket in 2010, and also £5,000 "to cut a ribbon" - as Jafferjee phrased it - at an ice cream parlour.

Not convinced by Butt's answers, several times Jafferjee accused him of lying to the court, including the time when Butt could not answer why he was in team-mate Wahab Riaz's room after midnight with Kamran Akmal and Azhar Majeed, the brother and business partner of Mazhar.

Butt also accused the Pakistan team security manager Major Najam of lying in his statement, making fun of the official by calling him "007".

The former Pakistan captain and opening batsman Butt and his former team-mate Mohammad Asif are facing charges of conspiracy to cheat, and conspiracy to obtain and accept corrupt payments, following that Lord's Test last year when they allegedly conspired with agent Mazhar Majeed, teenage fast bowler Mohammad Amir and other people unknown to bowl pre-planned no-balls. Butt and Asif deny the charges.

S. Korean firm plans to invest $500m in Pakistan

KARACHI: Lotte, a South Korean firm, is planning to expand its operations and invest half a billion dollars in various projects to be executed in Pakistan, said Ambassador Choong Joo Choi on Monday.

Several other companies are also engaged in negotiations with Pakistani authorities for investment, mainly in power and petrochemical sectors, the Korean ambassador said at a press conference.

The envoy said his country had funded several projects in Pakistan such as the newly-inaugurated institute of garment technology and water supply and sewerage drainage projects, adding that Koran cooperation had also been extended to the national capacity-building institute for water quality management, training of Pakistani government officials and vocational training of youths of Malakand.

He said that at present more than 20 South Korean companies were based in Pakistan and some of the Korean brand names had their subsidiary and production lines.

He said that Ssangyoung, another Korean company, had just completed repair work of KPT berths while Posco had also made initial investment in the country.

South Korea, a member of the Friends of Democratic Pakistan, offered $180 million soft loan to Pakistan. “It is an offer in the form of an extremely soft loan,” said Ambassador Choong Joo Choi.

WIND ENERGY: In a related development, Hienergy Korea Canmore Co. Ltd. announced that it would invest $100 million in the wind energy projects in Sindh, besides 50MW projects in SITE and Nooriabad.

This was said by the leader of the company who met Sindh Minister for Industries Rauf Siddiqui on Monday.

Let it be more than a day

By Siddique Humayun

Today I will start my discussion with a question. It is perhaps one of those questions that never strike an ‘able’ human who is rowing his boat through the storms of life, in case of Pakistan, living through a generation that has not experienced much besides confusion, chaos and catastrophe.

So, let me ask you, how many new private and/ public buildings do you see today that are built with a wheelchair facility? How many billboards do you see promoting programs on anything and everything ranging from women health fitness to Spanish courses compared to a braille class? I will be honest with myself; the last time I talked about disabled people was in my university years, while questioning a fellow student who had chosen the topic for his semester project.

It never occurred to me to ponder over the lives of those unable to walk, talk, see or hear. For I like many other in this world have taken these blessings for granted. While climbing stairs, I sometimes climb two at a time, just because I can; without ever giving it a thought about someone who is in a wheelchair wondering how will he go past those 3 steps because there isn’t any ramp. While my problems may start after I enter a building, his start on the very doorstep.

Many centers and private organisations work for disabled people all over the country, but a serious initiative from the Pakistani government is so far, nowhere to be seen. Forget implementation, in this case, many policies are yet to be formulated. The machinery is busy in satisfying foreign elements while our own bodies keep piling up, the ministers are busy satisfying their hunger for protocol while the common man is chained in taxes and inflation, and the disable remain in an oblivious mirage of hopelessness.

October 15 was celebrated as the White Cane Day across the country, yet ironically the majority of us remained as oblivious to it as we are to those who are physically and mentally less privileged than us. Several seminars and forums were held that highlighted the discrepancies in the policy making against the visually impaired such as they are not issued credit cards, neither are any special packages designed for them by banks. Such people can become an integral part of our society as well as contribute to the GDP if given moral and financial support by the government and NGOs. It was only a few years back that a visually impaired girl passed the CSS examination and was allocated in the Foreign Service group. We currently have a blind cricket team though more needs to be done to bring these people to the upfront instead of treating them like mere ‘props’ that showcase certain days of the year for several organisations.

I know most will argue, in a country, where the ‘able’ are plundered in the socio-political scenario, how can we make the case for the disabled. By just posing the question we are classifying the physically impaired in a different category whereas they have a claim to their rights just like the average citizen, perhaps more.

It is funny, most of my friends ask me why is that when they go abroad they see so many disabled people as compared to Pakistan and I just silently stare at them not wanting to reply; which is that it is not the statistics but our negligence which deprives them of their required level of comfort to move around as freely as the rest of us. So, let it be more than a day for the disabled, let it be more than a thought, and more than words that go out to these lovely human beings, let it be action.


The author is a policy analyst and a social worker from Islamabad who believes that the glass is half full. He can be reached at siddique.humayun@gmail.com and www.weekend.pk


The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Shining Pakistan.

Gilani asks Naval chief to recruit Baloch youths

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani directed Chief of Naval Staff Admiral M. Asif Sandila on Monday to encourage recruitment of Baloch youths and to continue the policy of induction of women as officers and sailors into Pakistan Navy.

Talking to the new chief of naval staff, who had called on him at the Prime Minister’s House, Mr Gilani said that Baloch youths should be inducted into navy on the pattern of Pakistan Army which had recruited around 6,000 people in the province.

The prime minister said that navy should set up recruitment centres, educational institutions and hospitals in remote and less developed areas of the country, especially Balochistan, Sindh and southern Punjab.

He said the completion of road between Gwadar and Ratodero would provide connectivity between the port city and the rest of the country and boost trade.

“It will also increase many times operational activities at the port,” he added.

Mr Gilani said the government would continue to extend all possible support to beef up the defence capabilities of Pakistan Navy.

He prised the relief efforts of Pakistan Navy for people affected by heavy rains in Sindh.

“Navy conducted well-planned operations in Sanghar, Tharparkar and Mirpurkhas to save lives in the aftermath of unprecedented rains,” he said.

Admiral Sandila expressed gratitude to the prime minister for reposing confidence in him and said he would spare no effort to come up to the expectations of the nation in the defence of the country.

Cross-border attacks from Pakistan on the rise: US

WASHINGTON: Cross-border attacks emanating from Pakistan against US-led forces in Afghanistan have increased since the US raid that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, the Pentagon said Monday.

Asked if there was a recent rise in artillery or rocket fire across the border into Afghanistan, press secretary George Little told reporters in an email: “This summer, June-August, we did see an increase in cross border incidents.”

The Pentagon offered no other details and did not link the trend to the May raid by Navy SEAL commandos deep inside Pakistan that took out al Qaeda’s leader.

But US soldiers at bases in Afghanistan’s eastern Paktika province told the New York Times that rocket fire had dramatically increased from Pakistani territory since May.

It was unclear if the fire, usually 107mm rockets, was the result of an emboldened insurgency, retaliation by the Pakistani military or some mixture of both, the Times reported Monday, quoting US military officers.

In some cases the rocket fire came from insurgent positions just inside Afghanistan, with crews then rushing back across to Pakistan, the newspaper wrote.

There were at least 102 “close-border” attacks against three US outposts in Paktika since May, compared to 13 such incidents during the same period last year, it said.

When contacted by US troops, Pakistani military officers at the border often say they are not aware of the rocket fire or cannot see it, even though the fire is often coming from positions next to Pakistani military or Frontier Corps posts, the Times reported.

Given the degree of sophistication and coordination displayed in the attacks, some US officers strongly suspect the Pakistani military or intelligence service is involved in the rocket fire, the paper said.

The rise in cross-border fire comes amid deep strains in US-Pakistan relations in the aftermath of the Bin Laden raid and following accusations from former top US military officer Admiral Mike Mullen that Islamabad was supporting Haqqani militant attacks on US forces in Afghanistan.