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To: IQBAL LATIF who wrote (46311)	5/26/2004 2:20:43 AM
From: IQBAL LATIF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50167

Zardari again refuses to face Swiss inquiry By Mubasher Bukhari LAHORE: The government has again offered Asif Ali Zardari, the jailed spouse of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, an opportunity to go to Switzerland to appear at an inquiry into the SGS case against him on June 30, sources close to Mr Zardari told Daily Times on Tuesday. Sources said that the government contacted Mr Zardari, who has been admitted to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences for treatment, a couple of days ago and asked if he wanted to appear before the Swiss magistrate or not. “Mr Zardari refused on medical grounds,” sources said. Sources said that Ms Bhutto would also skip the inquiry because of her trip to the United States and engagements in the United Kingdom. “She will leave for the US today to deliver lectures at different American universities. She will stop over in London on her return and will hold at least 14 meetings with party leaders arriving there in the first week of June,” sources said. They said that neither Ms Bhutto nor Mr Zardari would appear before the magistrate. Their lawyer will represent them. Senator Farhatullah Babar, spokesman for Ms Bhutto, said that both Ms Bhutto and Mr Zardari had not taken any decision yet. But he said it was not mandatory for either of them to appear before the investigating magistrate. He said the government had not only dropped charges against the Swiss company, but also acquired its services again, which was proof that the Pakistan People’s Party government’s decision to hire the company for pre-shipment inspection was correct. He demanded the government show a copy of the letter which it claimed was written to it by the Swiss company for a settlement.

To: IQBAL LATIF who wrote (46311)	5/26/2004 2:24:12 AM
From: IQBAL LATIF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50167

< I beseech you to join the courageous Muslims who have denounced, in unambiguous language, not only the killing of Nicholas Berg, but the growing practice of killing innocent human beings as a means of communicating grievances — regardless of how valid or urgent the grievance.> An appeal to Muslim scholars —Judea Pearl I urge Muslim clerics to cast their denunciation in plain religious vocabulary, to proclaim these crimes to be sins, or blasphemy, and to remind their followers that the murderers of Nicholas Berg, Fabrizio Quattrocchi and Daniel Pearl will be punished by God Himself The world has had to witness the horrific murder of Nicholas Berg, a young American man from Philadelphia. Two years ago, my son, Daniel Pearl, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, was the victim of a similar attack on humanity. Daniel’s legacy as a bridge builder and dialogue-maker compels me to communicate a personal message to the many friends he left behind in the Muslim world. I am not directing this letter to the followers of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who is thought to have beheaded Nicholas Berg, or to Osama bin Laden. Rather, I am speaking to those who can win the minds of the young and faithful to the side of hope: intellectual leaders who pride themselves on peace and modernity, and clerics, imams and mullahs who have been voicing concern over the hijacking of Islam by a minority of anti-Islamic extremists. You now have the opportunity to bestow honour on your faith and pride on your children. I beseech you to join the courageous Muslims who have denounced, in unambiguous language, not only the killing of Nicholas Berg, but the growing practice of killing innocent human beings as a means of communicating grievances — regardless of how valid or urgent the grievance. No civilised society can survive the intensity of modern conflicts unless such killings are repelled back to the realm of the inconceivable. As a father of a person who experienced the horrors of captivity, I can personally feel the anguish of the parents of the Iraqi prisoners who were abused in the Abu Ghraib prison. I nevertheless appeal to you, intellectual leaders of the Muslim community, to unilaterally refrain from joining the cycle of accusation of ‘who treated who worse’ and help transform it into a contest of pride: ‘Whose role models are more humane’. This transformation can become a reality if condemnations of the recent horrors are not left to political leaders, but become a public outcry at the grassroots level. I therefore urge Muslim clerics to cast their denunciation in plain religious vocabulary, to proclaim these crimes to be sins, or blasphemy, and to remind their followers that the murderers of Nicholas Berg, Fabrizio Quattrocchi and Daniel Pearl will be punished by God Himself, as it is said: ‘We have prepared fire for the wrongdoers’ (Qur’an: 16). Muslim clerics can further guard the image of Islam by issuing fatwas against the perpetrators of those acts, thus mobilising their communities to take a proactive role in the apprehension of those perpetrators, and in bringing them to justice. (Recall, the murderers of Daniel Pearl are still at large, and his abductors are still mocking justice, two years after their conviction.) The American public has reacted to the Abu Ghraib atrocities with outrage, seriousness and resoluteness. I am proud of this reaction because I know that self-criticism is a prerequisite to progress and self-improvement. My grandchildren will live in a better society because of this outrage. To Muslim clerics I say that you, too, have a chance today to shape your children’s future, by turning your condemnation into a public outcry. As a devout disciple of my son, I feel an obligation to communicate this appeal to you: Let us make those inhumane killings a thing of the past. I hope you accept the sincerity of my appeal by virtue of the respect that my son held for your faith, his unshaken belief in humanity and, in particular, by virtue of the faithful way he amplified the voices of your brothers and sisters from Iran to Yemen, from Sudan to Pakistan. Let us create the conditions for mutual respect, not mutual accusation. Judea Pearl, a professor of computer science at the University of California in Los Angeles, is the father of the Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl who was brutally murdered in Pakistan in 2002. This article, which first appeared in WSJ, was sent for publication in Daily Times