Posts Tagged ‘Lack of Evidence’

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Bachola Shaheen Sehabi

Friday, February 4th, 2011

Bachola Shaheen Sehbai

Despite several requests, we had not intended to address the rumours of a secret Zardari wedding that have been floated around the internet because we felt that these were so obviously attempts to invent a scandal from thin air that they did not warrant even the most basic acknowledgement. Our hand was forced, however, when we opened The News this morning to find that Shaheen Sehbai has changed his profession from psychic to matchmaker.

The rumours appeared on a couple of questionable (at best) blogs and included absolutely no actual evidence of anything except the childish imaginations of the writer named ‘Haroon’. This is even admitted by the writer who admits that “Many media analyst are still trying to find an evidence before they jump into this leak”. Neither ‘Haroon’ nor his gossip colleague Shaheen Sehbai find the need to wait for evidence, however, jumping head first into the rumour without a moment’s thought.

‘Haroon’ then justifies publishing this nonsense by writing, “The fact is none of the parties have denied this leaked news yet”, a curious bit of backwards logic.

Here are some more “facts” of this type:

1. ‘Haroon’ has not denied that he beats his wife.

2. ‘Haroon’ has not denied that he is a drunkard.

3. ‘Haroon’ has not denied that his article is a plant.

Of course, the fact that ‘Haroon’ has not denied these things doesn’t make them true or not true. Actually, it doesn’t mean anything.

There is a Latin phrase, “Semper necessitas probandi incumbit ei qui agit”, which means, “The necessity of proof always lies with the person who lays charges”. In other words, if you are going to make an accusation against someone, it is your responsibility to provide proof. The accused is not obligated to disprove some charge that you have no evidence for. This is common sense. If society operated on the logic of Haroon, everyone would be guilt of everything unless they could prove otherwise. It’s simply ridiculous.

Unfortunately, this basic rule of evidence continues to be ignored by many in our media who prefer to peddle in juicy gossips rather than facts. Indeed facts do not appear to matter to Shaheen Sehbai who saw the gossip and ran to the telephone, placing an overseas call to harass Dr Tanveer Zamani about the rumours. Worst, Shaheen Sehabi was so cheap that he would not even pay for the charges to harass this woman but “called her on her toll free phone” ensuring that she would not only be harassed but then be made to pay for the insult as well!

Upon being harassed by bachola Shaheen Sehbai, Dr Tanveer Zamani replied that she would not comment and had sought a lawyer to deal with the rumour. At this point, most civilized people would leave the poor woman alone. Unfortunately, she had Shaheen Sehbai on the line and he began harassing her even more. When the doctor refused to play his game, Shaheen Sehbai decided says he wondered “whether I had just completed the first interview of Pakistan’s prospective First Lady.”

By comparison, even Daily Express reported that the rumours were baseless and had “been started by sick and dirty minds”.

Daily Express article

This is not only a spectacularly infantile waste of time, it is shameful behaviour by a man who carries the title ‘Group Editor’ at The News. If this is an example of how The News is being edited, is it any wonder there continue to be most ridiculous rumours included in its reporting? It is embarrassing that The News would even agree to publish such nonsense.

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Posted in Jang, The News | 5 Comments »

First US Controls the Weather, Now Time Travel Also

Monday, January 24th, 2011
Time Machine

Time machine used by US Congressman in conspriracy against Jang Group?

An article by Azim Mian published in both Jang and The News claims that President Zardari has engaged in a conspiracy against the media by convincing members of the US Congress to write a letter to Hillary Clinton requesting that visas not be granted to “media men not condemning the killing of Salman Taseer”. Judging by the evidence, though, the conspiracy appears once again to be Azim Mian’s and not Asif Zardari’s.

You will recall that this reporter Azim Mian has a chequered history of ridiculous smears leveled against the president including an article of June 2010 that tried to claim a ‘well-known’ website listed Asif Zardari as a US Citizen. The website turned out to be neither well known nor authoritative, and even so by the time Azim’s article was published it did not list Asif Zardari as US citizen.

Azim Mian also reported in June that Hussain Haroon would resign his post as Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United Nations before August 2010 due to “palace intrigues and impediments in his work”. It is now over seven months since the article and five months since Azim’s prediction has proven false despite the claims of his ‘sources’. These are only two examples of the reporter’s ridiculous claims and failed predictions.

So Azim Mian has a history of making ridiculous anti-Zardari claims in apparent attempts to embarrass the government without having good facts to back up his claims. But this latest conspiracy theory is even more foolish than his past articles.

According to Dawn, the letter sent to Hillary Clinton actually requests the State Department to  “identify those Pakistani citizens that have shown demonstrable support of the assassination of Governor Taseer”.

“Some of the most prominent clerics, journalists and lawyers who have praised Mr Taseer`s death and have demonstrated support of his murderer, are people who frequently travel to the US and hold American visas.”

Obviously, this request is not aimed at “media men not condemning the killing of Salman Taseer” as Azim Mian incorrectly states. This is his first error, and probably the smallest one though it is important to note as Azim’s article could lead readers to incorrectly believe that the US is pressurizing journalists to make a statement against the murder of Salmaan Taseer which is not stated by the letter.

Azim Mian then goes on to claim that “…indications are there that the US State Department had prepared a list of journalists and others on whom entry in the US may be denied by cancelling or denying visas”. The only “list” that has been published according to our research was a group of names published by Daily Times on 20 January. But this list is unsourced except to anonymous “sources in Washington” and carries a dateline of Lahore, as Azim Mian admits in his report. Furthermore, Azim claims to have spoken with a source at the US State Department who indicated that no list of Pakistani journalists had been prepared.

If Azim Mian was simply questioning the validity of the list published by Daily Times, he might have a point – it seems suspicious. But Azim did not stop there. Instead, he added to his growing portfolio of baseless speculation and misinformation.

According to Azim, the letter to Hillary Clinton is part of a conspiracy by the president against media freedoms. Azim claims that when Zardari went to Washington to attend the funeral of Richard Holbrooke and met with US officials, he spent his time referring negatively about Pakistan’s media and specifically Jang Group. Azim claims that:

It was in this scenario that the aides of the Zardari-Gilani government taking notice of the sentiments, perceptions and also complaints of their boss lobbied with the anti-Pakistan congressmen and made them to write a letter to Secretary Clinton.

Please recall that this is the same visit termed ‘mysterious’ by Jang Group because the president did not take a large government contingency along with him. If this trip was so mysterious, one might ask, how does Azim Mian know what Zardari said in these private meetings? What is the evidence to support this conspiracy theory? Actually, there is none.

In fact the only basis for Azim Mian’s conspiracy is his claim that “informed circles are of the opinion…” This is not fact by his own admission, but merely the opinion of some people who do not even want their names associated with it. It seems Azim Mian’s anonymous sources are as trustworthy as his colleague Ansar Abbasi‘s.

This brings us to the final point, the one that does away with this foolishness for good. It turns out the error of Azim Mian is quite obvious and an easy one to prove. In fact it is telling that the reporter and his editor gave so little thought to this story that they could not realize it before they published it in two newspapers. You see, President Zardari met with US officials on 14 January during which time they discussed pressing issues, according to reports from both The White House and Ambassador Husain Haqqani who was present for the meetings.

How do we know these meetings didn’t include discussions of Jang Group followed by lobbying US Congressmen for a letter to be sent to Hillary Clinton? The letter to Hillary Clinton was written on 13 January 2011 – the day BEFORE the meetings.

letter to hillary clinton

First page of the letter to Hillary Clinton dated 13 January 2011

second page of letter to hillary clinton

According to The News Zardari was driving from New York to Washington during this time because he is afraid of heights – a ridiculous assertion, but one that shows just how desperate some people are to smear Zardari at any cost. Actually it was reported by APP that Zardari did not arrive in Washington until Thursday evening. Furthermore, if the letter is dated 13 January, it means that the Congressmen would have had to begun coordinating even before that date. Not only was Zardari not in Washington before the 13th, he was not even in the US.

If Azim Mian’s conspiracy theory could be true it would require that Asif Zardari complained about the media in his meetings with US officials on 14 January, and then some unnamed “aides of the Zardari-Gilani government” lobbied these four US Congressmen and convinced them to travel back in time to write a letter to Hillary Clinton. It simply defies all reason.

Tension between the media and the government has been present since day one. Jang Group in particular has been a loud voice accusing the government and President Zardari specifically of wanting to curb media freedoms, but certainly not the only one. And yet it is now three years into the government’s term and still these voices continue to make such accusations freely. If President Zardari intends to curb media freedom, he is doing quite a poor job of it. And I understand that some of our esteemed colleagues in the media believe that the US has a machine that controls the world’s weather, but now we are asked believe that they can travel through time also?

The government has a responsibility to be honest and forthcoming with the people and not to attempt to curb the media’s ability to inform the people. But the media has a responsibility to be honest and forthcoming with the people and not spread baseless accusations and ridiculous conspiracy theories also. Three years into the government’s term and the media is still free – how long until the media will accept their own responsibilities and stop wasting everyone’s time with such nonsense?

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Posted in Jang, The News | 3 Comments »

Ansar Abbasi’s Gol Gappay

Monday, December 27th, 2010

Ansar Abbasi's Gol GappayAnsar Abbasi’s column for The News today made my mouth water this morning, but I could not figure out why. Abbasi’s column, featured on the front page of the newspaper, claims that “Big names” including at least one minister are figured in a scandal of allotting 1,000 plots in Islamabad. Walking down the street after reading the article, I found myself inexplicably drawn to a vendor selling pani pooris. That was when I realized why Abbasi’s article made my mouth water – it was like a giant bowl of media gol gappay!

Now this may sound strange, but please consider the similarities – both Abbasi’s headline, ‘Big names, minister figure in plots scam’ and gol gappays are quite enticing to the eye, but when you finally get it close you realize that it is simply puffed up and hollow inside!

Here’s what Abbasi offers to his readers today:

A source claimed that amongst the influential, the federal minister and informal monitor have huge vested interests involved in these allotments. The source even said that each of these influential figures were aspiring for hundreds of plots apparently to be allotted to victims.

The source, however, could not produce any documentary evidence to this respect but said that an independent inquiry into the matter, review of the whole process adopted for the award of the package, questioning of all the concerned officials and interview of those listed as victims would unveil the real faces behind the scam.

An unnamed source claims that some unnamed influential people including an unnamed federal minister are involved with a bogus plot allotment scheme in Islamabad. According to Abbasi’s own words, “the source, however, could not produce any documentary evidence to this respect”.

Despite having no names of those involved, no names of sources, and no documentary evidence, Ansar Abbasi still manages to write almost 700 words about the alleged scandal. For that, he should receive the new Media Gol Gappay Award.

Thankfully, the pani poori wallah had some spicy pani and chunteys as filling. Perhaps next time Ansar Abbasi can think to provide some facts to his readers as well, and not leave them with a hollow shell of an article only.

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Posted in The News | 46 Comments »

Blasphemy and Opportunism

Saturday, November 27th, 2010

Ansar AbbasiAnsar Abbasi’s column of 26 November is a curious piece of work. He begins by reporting some statements of Law Minister Babar Awan about repeal of the blasphemy law. According to Ansar Abbasi, the esteemed minister has said that he opposed repeal of the law and that no one should think of repealing it while he is in office.

Abbasi then observes that this is a difference in opinion between Babar Awan and Salmaan Taseer, the latter favouring release of Asia Masih – the Christian woman who was recently sentenced under the controversial law. Because these two politicians of the same political party disagree on the issue, Ansar Abbasi claims that “it shows serious cracks within the ruling elite about its policy on the blasphemy law.”

This was the first item that raised my eyebrows. Actually, two officials having a disagreement on an issue is quite common, is it not? Especially when these two men are not even part of the same government – Babar Awan is a federal minister and Salmaan Taseer is a provincial governor – how is it some evidence of cracks within ‘the ruling elite’? And who exactly does Abbasi mean when he says ‘ruling elite’? Surely Mian Nawaz Sharif and Altaf Hussain must be considered members of the ‘ruling elite’ and they disagree with President Zardari and each other seemingly every day! It seems that Ansar Abbasi has thrown in this bit of his opinion in order to take a swipe at the governing political party and not due to any substance.

This possibility is made even more probable once the reader continues through the final paragraphs of Ansar Abbasi’s column. Here, he deviates from the topic of Babar Awan’s statements and begins listing a series of accusations against the minister as if to soil his name only. Ansar Abbasi mentions Harris Steel Mill case and Monticello University, neither of which have anything to do with the blasphemy law. He then goes on to say, “Babar Awan is also generally believed as the man responsible for the government’s confrontational mode with the judiciary.” Really? This is ‘generally believed’? And what evidence does Ansar Abbasi base this claim on? Has he done some polling of the nation? And even if it were true, what would it have to do with the blasphemy law? Perhaps this is only another instance of Ansar Abbasi being both source and reporter.

The statements of a minister on a controversial law such as the blasphemy laws adopted under General Zia are important news items to be reported. The people should be aware of what their government officials are saying on important topics. But Ansar Abbasi’s practise of infusing his own opinions and adding paragraphs about unrelated scandals reeks of political opportunism, not journalism. Please, Mr Ansar Abbasi, stick to the facts.

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Posted in Jang, The News | 8 Comments »

The Nation Front Page Article On Taxes Misleading, Lacks Evidence

Thursday, November 11th, 2010

The Nation (logo)The Nation‘s glaring front page article on proposed tax changes carries a sensational headline that is not supported by any evidence in the actual article. During a time of rising cost for essentials such as sugar, claiming that new taxes will further raise prices is certain to cause alarm.

The reporter Javaid-ur-rehman’s column begins with the sensational headline, “New taxes to trigger tsunami of price hike” and the paragraphs on the front page of the newspaper repeat this claim.

The Federal Cabinet on Wednesday accorded approval to the flood tax and Reformed General Sales Tax (RGST) Bill and to be presented in the current session of the National Assembly. However, many economic analysts believe that it would trigger a tsunami of price hike and inflation in the country.

But nowhere in the article do there appear statements from any economic analysts who state that the bill will cause any price increases. Actually, nothing in the article supports this idea.

The article does explain that the taxes would increase for individuals who earn over Rs.300,000 and business that earns over Rs.10 Billions each year. According to World Bank data on Pakistan from December 2009, GNI per capita (average income) in Pakistan is US$950, or Rs.81,082.5

Nowhere does the reporter explain how the tax policy will create such price increases if it only affects those who earn over three times the average income.

During a time of financial crisis especially, media should not create alarm about price hikes. Reporters should stick to the facts only and not try to influence political debates also. The article by Javaid-ur-rehman is misleading to readers because it makes a serious claim that is not supported by the evidence presented.

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Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

Shaheen Sehbai's Fools Gold

Thursday, November 4th, 2010

Shaheen Sehbai's Fools GoldShaheen Sehbai appears to be challenging for ‘Best Drama Screenplay’ with his column for The News, “$260 billion gold mines going for a song, behind closed doors“. Sehabi’s front page article is filled with back-stabbing, conspiracies, and corporate intrigue. Unfortunately, it is lacking in any real investigative reporting.

From the beginning, Shaheen Sehbai takes such a sensational tone that he threatens to discredit any legitimate argument about oversight of discussions on the mine. For example, he writes:

Before these highly enticing visits of the mining tycoons to clinch the deals, which followed intense behind-the-scene negotiations and bargaining through middle men, some highly bizarre developments have been taking place, leaving experts and the rest of the mining world stunned, amazed and confused.

These companies want that the mining licences should be issued by Pakistan immediately after their exploration licences expire soon. But there are legal hitches and pressure is now being put through the backdoor to get the target.

In recent years, so many games have been played to keep Pakistan’s share in the enormous treasure to a bare minimum, thanks to some greedy politicians and bureaucrats who sold their country’s natural wealth.

This sounds like the plot of some film, not a piece of serious investigative journalism. Why not simply provide the evidence without all the spices also?

Actually, this may be the problem – all spices and no meats. Sehbai claims to have conducted a “deep study” of documents and interviews to back his claim, but he can name none of these documents.

Reading the piles of documents, statements, interviews and legal papers available with The News, the picture that emerges is one of a grand deception, loot and plunder that never happened before on such a scale and the facts, untruths, half-truths, attempts to sabotage, frauds and backdoor bribes, are all documented.

Considering Shaheen Sehbai’s own record of “untruths, half-truths, attempts to sabotage and frauds”, perhaps he will not be so offended if readers would like a little bit more explanation of these documents. In fact, if he is correct and he has evidence of “a grand deception”, why not publish this evidence like the New York Times published The Pentagon Papers? Or, if Mr Sehbai is concerned about his confidentiality, he could send them to the Wikileaks website.

Instead, he chooses to shroud his claims in a mystery. Only he can see the evidence, and we are expected to trust him.

But there is other evidence that counters Sehbai’s claims. Only last week, APP reported that the PM was holding public talks with a delegation from Chile – public and open talks – during which time he stated that Pakistan is conducting talks to ensure the best deal is reached for the Pakistanti people.

The Prime Minister said that Pakistan really wants foreign investment and intends to encourage the best firms and companies which can give the best results. It is with the same intention that the government has prepared investor friendly policies and opened up various sectors for the interested investors, he added.

The Prime Minister said that it was an encouraging sign that the foreign companies wanted to avail the investment opportunities in the mineral sector in Pakistan for their mutual advantage.

Pakistan has a vibrant private sector best suited for public-private partnership for the good of the people of both countries, he added.

The Prime Minister assured full support and fair deal in handling the Reko-Diq project and would provide all possible cooperation for early launching of this mega project.

Shaheen Sehbai also tries to claim that there is some trick being played by the mining company named ‘Tethyan’.

An Australian mineral exploration firm originally started the exploration and invested some $30 million but in 2006 sold the company to a Canadian and Chilean joint venture for $230 million. The old company was an Australian public company Tethyan Copper Prosperity Limited and the new company was named Tethyan Copper Company (TCC) of Pakistan. A trick game is being played in these cosmetic changes. The Canadians and Chileans, according to publicly declared information to their shareholders and regulators, took 37.5 per cent share each, while Pakistan only had the remaining 25 per cent.

But this is no trick. Actually, it is public knowledge that has been reported in the press.

Tethyan Copper – jointly owned by Canada’s Barrick and Chile’s Antofagasta – holds 75% of the project and the Balochistan provincial government owns the remaining 25%.

Sehabi next tries another sleight of hand trick by quoting stories about an Afghani mining corruption which has nothing to do with the Reko Diq mine.

According to a Washington Post report on Nov 18, 2009: “The Afghan minister of mines accepted a roughly $30 million bribe to award the country’s largest development project to a Chinese mining firm.”

Quoting a US official, the Washington Post said: “The alleged payment to Mohammad Ibrahim Adel was made in Dubai within a month of December 2007, when a big Chinese metallurgical group received the contract for a $2.9 billion project to extract copper from the Aynak deposit in Logar province. Aynak is considered one of the largest unexploited copper deposits in the world.”

What does this have to do with the story of Reko Diq? Nothing. Sehbai seems only concerned with making readers angry about mining and corruption so that they will assume that any Reko Diq agreement is also tainted with corruption, even if there is no evidence of such.

Sehbai pulls another sleight of hand later by saying that a company that owns some shares of Tethyan is “being accused on the web of some strange activities”.

The Canadian company, Barrick Gold, with 29 mines all over the world, is already being accused on the web of some strange activities. These include spills of cyanide, mercury and other heavy metals, police and legalistic repression of critics, threats to water resources on four continents and even food poisoning, as well as rape.

And this should tell the reader everything he needs to know about Shaheen Sehbai’s journalistic ethics. How can someone who claims to be a professional journalist write such slander? Surely Sehbai is aware that any living person can write anything on the web with no oversight and virtually no consequences. That he would include such as his evidence shows that he is willing to stoop to any lows to write a sensational tabloid article, not serious investigative news.

Sehbai even says that CM Balochistan was asked if he is being pressurized by Zardari, only to have the CM reply that the answer is no! Why does Sehbai report the CM’s reply “as an after thought”? Is it because he is trying to influence readers not to believe the CM’s own word?

Shaheen Sehbai may not believe the word of the CM Balochistan, but he is certainly willing to believe the word of his fellow “reporter” of The News, Ahmad Noorani even though this very site has proven before that Mr Noorani includes incorrect statements in his articles.

The Reko Diq mine is a project worth billions in investment for Pakistan. Certainly such an important venture must be taken with public discussion and transparent process so that we can be sure that Pakistan gets the best possible result and the most benefit for the people of this country. But public discussion and transparent process does not include sensationalism and fictions. The people deserve the facts, not Shaheen Sehbai’s drama screenplays.

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Posted in Uncategorized | 9 Comments »

Shabbir Mir's Shabby Reporting on BISP

Thursday, October 28th, 2010

Benazir CardA report in Express Tribune of 24 October lacks the necessary evidence to support the claim of the article. Shabbir Mir’s article, “Jiyalas abound in poverty reduction scheme” alleges that “you have to be a PPP jiyala to get government money…in Gilgit-Baltistan”. This is a serious charge of corruption that should require a minimal level of corroborating evidence. Shabbir Mir provides none.

Rather conducting the research necessary to provide actual statistics on the recipients of government aid, the reporter Shabbir Mir appears to have asked opposition politicians for statements, and then reported them as actual facts.

“I personally distributed about 500 BISP forms among needy people in my constituency, but over 90 per cent of the deserving people have not received any response,” said an embarrassed Hafizur Rehman, regional president of PML-N.

…

PML-Q lawmaker Mirza Hussain from Hunza-Nagar district said none of his constituents were included among the beneficiaries, saying that to be a recipient, “you have to be involved in jiyalaism”. Muzaffar Rallay, another PML-Q politician from Astore said that the situation in his district was not any different.

Other quotes come from unnamed sources, making it impossible for readers to properly evaluate the person’s position.

“The process is not that transparent,” said a source who has closely monitored the BISP. “You will find more beneficiaries in areas with a strong PPP affiliation, but too few in areas lacking a PPP vote bank,” he said, adding that areas like Amphary, Majini Muhalla, Khomer, Nagar, and Nagral are some of the examples where beneficiaries are in abundance.

Without knowing who this source is that claims to have “closely monitored the BISP”, readers do not know if the person is actually speaking with authority or if he is a political operative who stands to gain from spreading rumours.

And this is really all that exists in Shabbir Mir’s article – rumours.

What is particularly disappointing is that, in the closing paragraphs of his article, Shabbir Mir even says that BISP headquarters is willing to release data including who is actually receiving money under the program. So why did the reporter not wait until this data was received, analyse it, and provide an evidence based report? Instead, Mr Shabbir Mir decided to simply report rumours based on the statements of politicians who have an interest in spreading a particular message.

The efficiency and effectiveness of government programs must be evaluated only on actual facts – not statements from politicians of any party. Especially accusations of corruption and cronyism must be determined by evidence, not rumours. This reporting on poverty reduction schemes by Shabbir Mir is shabby. We expect better.

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Posted in Express Tribune | No Comments »

Skiander Shaheen's Bhoot Story

Wednesday, September 15th, 2010

Majid Nizami’s newspapers have long been a reliable source of conspiracy theories and accusations against alleged spies of all sorts. The Nation became internationally notorious last year when it accused an American journalist of being a spy with no evidence. Unfortunately, this has happened again.

Nawa-i-Waqt reporter Skiander Shaheen has continued the practice recently by alleging that an American agent has been operating under the cover of relief work. Upon consideration, though, Mr Shaheen’s allegations are hard to believe.

First, Shaheen syas that the person was using an official email id for FBI and that the internet service provider (ISP) confirmed that it is being used by FBI. But if the person is using an official FBI email id and FBI ISP, how is he an undercover agent? It is certainly possible that the individual is in the country on a valid visa doing work under the direction of law enforcement or ISI. This would not be unusual. Many American officials are present in Pakistan and Pakistan officials in the USA also.

Also, where is the evidence that he is linked to any flood relief activities? It is irresponsible to correlate unconfirmed hearsay and unsupported allegations with work on flood relief because it will have a natural effect of undermining the important good work being done to help flood victims.

Rather than continuing to write bhoot stories about phantom agents, the reporters who work for Majid Nizami’s newspapers should be spending their energy investigating important issues such as flood relief and countering false stories and conspiracy theories. That would be truly for the good of the nation.

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Posted in Daily Nawa-i-Waqt | No Comments »

Please, Keep It To The Facts

Monday, September 6th, 2010

The following comment was left on a column by Ms Beenish Ahmed for Huffington Post. Ms Ahmed writes about the rumours being circulated that Asif Zardari has purchased a London flat for some £140 million. Whereas Waj’s evidence was an email being forwarded around, Ms Ahmed’s proof comes from statements of Dr Saeed Elahi in The News.

Dear Miss Beenish Ahmed,

There are a few problems with your story that I think require addressing. First, you say that The News confirmed that Asif Zardari purchased the flat. But the article you link to says that this was a claim of Dr Saeed Elahi – an opposition MPA from PML-N. How is this a confirmation? Also, while Mr Sehbai has certainly made this claim also, the original source of the rumour appears to have come from an email being circulated (http://pakistanmediawatch.com/2010/08/27/waj-s-khans-real-estate-rumours/) which is clearly a political propaganda.

Second, your concluding paragraph suggests that the rumours are as yet unproven, but you also claim that Mr Zardari has “habit of skimming government moneys for personal use”. This is a very serious charge – what proofs do you have to support this claim?

It seems that the overall point of your article is commendable – that media organizations such as The News should not “twist the truth for political appeal” which you deem “occupational corruption”, but even in your argument you are making several assumptions that perpetuate rumours without any supporting evidence. Please, keep it to the facts.

As I point out in the comment, it does appear that Ms Ahmed is trying to be fair. She does correctly point out that,

If the story is a false account, it will only prove a willingness of one of Pakistan’s most revered media outlets to twist the truth for political appeal, in other words, enter into the same sort of occupational corruption it tries to hold the government responsible for.

Unfortunately, as noted in the comment, she also repeats other claims that may exist in the popular opinion, but have not been proven by any actual evidence. This makes them neither true nor false, but unkowns. This is something that we believe is a regularly occurring problem in media that is difficult to fix, but must be addressed: Only reporting actual facts that can be proven, not “facts” that are really “assumptions” or “beliefs”.

I was encouraged by Ms Ahmed’s clear attempt to move toward an objective review of the story, but her repeating rumours and her failure to report that the source at the foundation of her claim, Mr Saeed Elahi, is an opposition politician demonstrate that there is still more work to do.

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Posted in Blogs | No Comments »

Dean Nelson Responds

Wednesday, August 18th, 2010
New Delhi based British reporter Dean Nelson

British reporter Dean Nelson

Mr Dean Nelson whose column in the British newspaper Telegraph we recently criticised, has responded to our post. His comment appears on the original post, and is published again in full at the end of this post.

It has also been brought to our attention that Mr Dean Nelson has been falsely accusing this blog of deleting his comment, of censorship, and of hiding his comment. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth.

Regular readers, and most people familiar with how blogs work, know that comments are automatically placed in moderation queue for review. This is a standard practice to prevent obscene, threatening, or spam comments from being published. All honest comments, even those critical of our posts, are published in full, as regular readers can attest. Mr Dean Nelson is welcome to review previous posts and comments to verify this fact.

Regarding Mr Nelson’s complaints, though, we feel we must point out the following:

Dean Nelson’s article carried the sensational headline, “£300m earthquake aid ‘misused by Zardari’”. Nothing in his article, however, supports this accusation. Nowhere does he suggest how Zardari is responsible for misusing funds. Nowhere does he suggest how Zardari is responsible even for diverting funds. Nowhere is there even an allegation from his anonymous source that Zardari is responsible for any budgetary matters related to ERRA or New Balakot.

Actually, with claims of budgetary matters it would be more realistic to hold the Prime Minister responsible who, as Chief Executive, could be held responsible for funding cuts. But even then, where is the evidence that the PM had anything to do with this? Actually, we will demonstrate that the opposite is supported by the facts.

The fact is, Mr Dean Nelson accuses Asif Ali Zardari of personally misusing 300 million in foreign aid for victims of the 2005 earthquake. He provides no evidence to support this claim, making the headline itself defaming and potentially libelous.

As for his claim that “the most important evidence of all” is the absence of New Balakot, I invite the respected journalist to do more than simply visit the site and then make wild assumptions. A quick review of recent news provides the following information that suggests much more plausible alternatives to Mr Dean Nelson’s theory of Zardari misusing the funds:

1. Dawn: New Balakot project: Bakrial residents refuse to surrender land

“It is injustice on the part of the provincial government to displace us by acquiring our residential and agriculture land to settle the earthquake affected people of Balakot,” Zahoor Ahmad, head of the committee constituted by the people of Bakrial to defend their lands, told Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Hazara Division, Mohammad Suleiman on Thursday.

“We will not vacate our land and houses until our agriculture and residential lands were not excluded of the New Balakot project,” he warned.

…

Work on the project was suspended some eight months ago after the death of a man during a violent clash between police and the residents over evacuation of their houses causing huge financial loss to the government.

2. Dawn: Work on New Balakot City resumes after 8-moth break

Relocation of old Balakot was agreed in consultation with the then provincial government and local politicians, who decided to provide land for rebuilding the new town free of cost at Bakrial, while the land in old Balakot remained property of the owners. The idea was to shift the people to new location for their safety.

Things, however, turned complex after the provincial government sought money for land acquisition from the federal government.

Erra fought for the case and in addition to Rs61.25 million paid to people of old Balakot under rural housing subsidy and a prefabricated house worth Rs400,00 to affected families, it got Rs1.5 billion approved to be paid as compensation for 11,463 kanals where a new city was to built, hosting nearly 5,000 families.

The amount of Rs1.5 billion was paid for land acquisition in November 2006 and Erra had been negotiating resumption of work and demanding land free of encumbrances from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government for the past nine months.

Even now Erra has received partially cleared land, where the reconstruction has commenced.

3. Daily Times: ERRA starts rebuilding Balakot City

The relocation of the old Balakot City was decided in consultation with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government while local politicians had agreed to provide land for the new town, free of cost at Bakriyal, while the ownership of land in old Balakot City would remain with the property owners. But the reconstruction came to a halt due to the unwillingness of the provincial government to provide land free of cost. ERRA had planned to shift the residences of the people to a new location. But the reconstruction had to be halted when the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa demanded money for land acquisition. ERRA Deputy Chairman Lieutenant General Haroon Aslam recently held a meeting with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti and discussed the issue in detail and highlighted the decisions taken in the council meeting chaired by Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani.

As is clear, there have been multiple obstacles to the completion of the project – something not unusual for such expensive and expansive projects in any country, especially when such a project involves the reallocation of land. In this instance, landowners and residents of Bakryal have been protesting since 2007.Does Mr Dean Nelson believe that Asif Ali Zardari has been orchestrating some conspiracy since before he was even elected?

Despite these setbacks, it is clear from these reports that the provincial and national governments were working together to resolve difficult issues to everyone’s satisfaction. Nowhere is there any suggestion that Asif Ali Zardari had anything to do with the delays, much less the misuse of funds.

As for claims that funds were inappropriately diverted to some other project, again there is not evidence to support this accusation.

According to a Daily Times report of 6 April by Ijaz Kakakhel, budget allocations were reduced across all sectors.

Keeping in view an emergent financial situation, the sources said the government has informed all federal ministries / departments and organisation to prepare priority lists for their respective developmental schemes under total PSDP Rs 290 billion for 2010-11.

With total Rs 290 billion federal component of PSDP, Rs 10 billion is likely to be allocated for Earthquake Reconstruction & Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA), which makes total value of PSDP Rs 300 billion. Last year’s (2009-10) allocation for federal component of PSDP was Rs 421 billion and Rs 25 billion for ERRA. The proposed PSDP allocation of Rs 290 billion is 31 percent lower than the last year PSDP 2009-10 allocation Rs 421 billion. The proposed PSDP 2010-11 allocation for ERRA Rs10 billion is 60 percent lower than last year allocation of Rs 25 billion.

The article goes on to report that the government by way of the Prime Minister had requested that the PSDP budget be enhanced, but that such a move would threaten the International Monetary Fund program.

Mr Dean Nelson claims in his response that his evidence consists of,

“…minutes of meetings, correspondence, ERRA schedules, and the most important evidence of all: The absence of New Balakot as a promised new settlement.”

The delays in completion of the project are well explained above. Without having access to the documents provided to Mr Dean Nelson, it is hard to know what exactly is in them. But it sounds like Mr Dean Nelson spoke with someone at ERRA who is disappointed that they did not receive the full amount of funding that was requested. But what agency receives the full amount of funding that is requested every year in any country, especially during a financial crisis?

In Mr Dean Nelson’s own country, Finance Minister George Osborne announced £6.2bn budget cuts this year. Does Mr Dean Nelson believe it proper to infer from this policy announcement that the Queen Elizabeth has misused these funds? Such a claim would be absurd. So it is with Mr Dean Nelson’s claim that Asif Ali Zardari has misused £300 millions.

In the face of overwhelming and documented evidence to the contrary, one cannot help but wonder why Mr Dean Nelson chose to publicly accuse Asif Ali Zardari of personally misusing £300m in earthquake aid. Is it a manifestation of personal or political ill-feelings towards the president? Or is it a result of sloppy and improper reporting?

Furthermore, as Mr Dean Nelson himself admits in his response, Pakistan is currently suffering from a ‘trust deficit’ that threatens our ability to raise the funds necessary to address the current flood crisis which has been called the worst disaster in recent history. Does Mr Dean Nelson deny that publishing sensational and misleading accusations of government misuse of relief funds contributes to this image problem? Publicly accusing President Zardari of misusing £300m in disaster relief funds exacerbates a problem that is believed to be preventing Pakistan from receiving vital international aid. If it was true, it would be the fault of Asif Ali Zardari. If it is easily demonstrated to be not true, who is responsible then? That Mr Dean Nelson did not intend such is beside the point. Actions have consequences, and it is not unrealistic to contend that Mr Dean Nelson’s column may be a contributing factor to Pakistan’s difficulties in raising relief funds.

Mr Dean Nelson is correct in one respect, and we will admit as much. Our original post made too much of the fact of his station in Delhi. This is an irrelevant distraction and we regret our error in suggesting that his station in Delhi has any bearing whatsoever on the accuracy of the reporting in his article. We politely ask our readers to judge Mr Dean Nelson’s article and our subsequent review only on the merits of the facts presented.

We stand by our complaint that Mr Dean Nelson fails to provide any evidence whatsoever supporting his scandalous claim that Asif Ali Zardari misused £300m in earthquake relief funds. Mr Dean Nelson also fails to provide any substantive evidence to support a claim of malfeasance related to ERRA or New Balakot project. We believe that the evidence presented above more than handily refutes Mr Dean Nelson’s article, and we look forward to his correcting the record.

Mr. Dean Nelson had the following response to our original post:

Dean Nelson says: August 16, 2010 at 11:00 pm

I object to this ‘analysis’ of my piece on earthquake aid being redirected by the Pakistan govt to other projects.

I don’t know who supports your group, but if it has any understanding of journalism, especially in a country like Pakistan, then it will understand that sometimes sources need to be protected.

In these circumstances the journalist must make a judgement: Is the source reliable and authoritative? Do I believe the source? What supporting evidence is there for the claim?

My original source in this case had minutes of meetings, correspondence, ERRA schedules, and the most important evidence of all: The absence of New Balakot as a promised new settlement. I visited it and it wasn’t there despite it being scheduled for completion last month.

I’m satisfied my story is true, which is why it was published.

Beyond this story you make claims that I have some kind of bias against Pakistan or an agenda to dissuade donors to its flood funds. Why would anyone want people to withhold donations for people so clearly suffering? You don’t provide any evidence but a commentary piece on why Britain is courting India for trading gains.

In India I am as severely criticised as I am by you and other government supporters for my commentaries on Kashmir or for suggesting that Pakistan deserves better friends for allies.

Here are the links to them:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/deannelson/100032154/indias-achievements-put-pakistan-in-the-shade-now-it-is-time-for-western-manipulation-to-cease/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/pakistan/7923727/Pakistans-burning-sense-of-injustice.html

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/deannelson/100050312/the-world-wants-to-think-the-best-about-india-so-we-turn-our-back-on-kashmir/

It is a sad reflection on the psychological relationship between Indians and Pakistanis that objective reporting on one is seen as siding with the other.

I love India and Pakistan equally, and I’ve been traveling in both for twenty years and reporting both for five.

They each have great strengths and serious problems, and I report on and comment on both.

There are many in Pakistan who have criticised the government’s handling of the flood crisis, and many governments around the world who have held back or given to the UN fund rather than the PM’s flood relief fund because of concerns about trust and transparency. Nawaz Sharif raised this point with the PM on Saturday when they agreed to create an independent fund to address these concerns and allow people to give with confidence.

I can’t see how reporting on these concerns or exposing redirection of aid funds is an attempt to dissuade people from giving.

For the record, I wish Pakistan nothing but peace and prosperity, and I hope the millions affected by the floods right now get ALL the aid sent to them as soon as possible.

I hope this addresses the points you’ve raised. What I don’t understand is why you didn’t contact me first before writing this ‘analysis’ to ask me why the source wasn’t named.

All I can tell you is that the source could not have been better placed or informed. Right now the source is very afraid. Pakistan doesn’t really have a whistleblower culture.

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