Necklace donated by Turkish PM’s wife for flood victims goes missing

[Devil Soul]

Necklace donated by Turkish PM’s wife for flood victims goes missing
By Irfan Ghauri
Published: June 11, 2015
ISLAMABAD:
A necklace donated by wife of Turkish Prime Minister for the flood affected people has gone missing from the stores of National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA).

Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, minister for interior, told reporters that he has asked Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to launch an inquiry into the matter.

The necklace was donated by the wife of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan when she visited Pakistan to help flood affected people in 2010.

Interestingly, instead of going for an open auction, the PPP government sold the ornament to NADRA for Rs1.5 million.

An official of NADRA told The Express Tribune that there are some unconfirmed reports that then NADRA chief later delivered the framed necklace to the PM’s house.

Barred from entering NADRA

Nisar said there was a complete ban on foreigners visiting NADRA without permission from the interior ministry. “Even ambassadors cannot visit NADRA employees without permission from the ministry,” he said.

The government is investigating reports that some important data has been shifted by some foreign NGOs from Pakistan to foreign countries. Similarly thousands of CNICs which were issued to foreigners by NADRA employees have been detected.

Around 500 employees of NADRA are suspected to be a part of this scam. Nisar said action against these employees will be taken once the investigation is completed. However, he announced that those who cooperate might be shown some leniency.

Flawed verification of vote audit

The minister claimed that some of the employees deputed to verify voter thumb impressions from counterfoils of ballot papers, deliberately gave incorrect reports.

The minister said in one of such cases the initial report for a constituency contained 3,000 bogus votes. However once NADRA verified these votes they turned out valid, he said.

Headway in Axact scam

Answering a question, the minister said that additional evidence has come up in the Axact scam from some foreign countries.



Published in The Express Tribune, June 11th, 2015.

 

[Tipu7]

If it's reality then it's matter of shame

 

[Zarvan]

If it's reality then it's matter of shame

We are becoming a shameless society.

 

[Hyde]

koi na koi kha gaya beech main

Such a shame that it didn't even go to auction in the first place. Such a matter of shame to the good gesture shown by the wife of Turkish PM. Such a shame by NADRA who could not even keep one necklace safe, such a shame by the Government who gave it to NADRA in the first place.

 

[khawaja07]

Choor chamakay hain saray. Burn them on a hot grill. I want to hear those piggies squeeel!

 

[Kompromat]

This is just embarrasing.

 

[Gunsnroses]

What a shame!!

 

[Jazzbot]

So Ch. Nisar, should we expect an action against PPP after this? Or you're still going to save democracy and move on?

 

[Paksanity]

Sheer embarrassment and shame!

But I have to give it to Ch. Nisar. He brought out the matter instead of slipping it under the carpet. As a nation we need to face up our deeds no matter how embarrassing. Only then we can improve.

 

[SBD-3]

Necklace donated by Turkish PM’s wife for flood victims goes missing
By Irfan Ghauri
Published: June 11, 2015

Interestingly, instead of going for an open auction, the PPP government sold the ornament to NADRA for Rs1.5 million.

An official of NADRA told The Express Tribune that there are some unconfirmed reports that then NADRA chief later delivered the framed necklace to the PM’s house.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 11th, 2015.

Isn't he "Na juknay wala, na biknay wala" Tariq Malik?

 

[Yousafzai_M]

Hmm if I have read correct, the necklace was already sold to Nadra so its actually Nadra's property that has been stolen.

As to who stole it, my money is on Zardari.

 

[Devil Soul]

Missing necklace found, but plot thickens
IFTIKHAR A. KHAN —

'The necklace belongs to my sister and is with me.'—APP/File
ISLAMABAD: The mystery of the ‘missing’ necklace, donated by the wife of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for the flood-hit people of Pakistan in 2010, appeared to be resolving on Friday as former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani admitted that it was in his possession.

However, talking to Dawn, the former prime minister and former National Database and Registration Authority chairman Ali Arshad Hakeem offered conflicting accounts.

Also read: Missing necklace stumps sleuths

Mr Gilani said he had close ties with the Erdogan family and Mrs Erdogan was like a sister to him. “The necklace belongs to my sister and is with me.”

He said that after the necklace was donated by the Turkish first lady, he expressed a desire to visit a flood-relief camp in Sindh where a couple was getting married. He said he was invited to a camp and to his surprise, was greeted by eight girls waiting to get married.

He said he had the necklace evaluated and the market price was put at around Rs200,000. He said he had taken the necklace there with the intention of gifting it to a bride, but since there was only one necklace and eight couples, he decided that each couple should be given Rs200,000.

He confirmed that the necklace had been donated by Mrs Erdogan, but was bought back by the Turkish people so they could give it back to her. He said he also wanted to do the same again.

Mr Gilani told Dawn that the Prime Minister’s Flood Relief Fund helped generate Rs7 billion. “I could have paid the amount from that or out of the discretionary fund, or I could have ordered the chief minister to make the payment,” he remarked, but said that while at the event, his staff had told him that the amount had been “arranged”.

He said the necklace had not been auctioned, adding that had it been purchased by Nadra it would have certainly been in their possession. “It was with me and it is still with me,” he remarked.

However, Mr Hakeem told Dawn that Nadra had decided to purchase the necklace so it could be returned to Mrs Erdogan.

Referring to the mass wedding ceremony in a Sindh flood-relief camp, he said that photos from the ceremony were also prepared so they could be sent to Mrs Erdogan to let her see how her gesture worked. He said that both the necklace and the albums had been sent to the Prime Minister’s House, ostensibly to be sent back to the Turkish first lady.

But Mr Gilani disagreed, asking, “How did he arrange the amount and on whose orders? I did not order him and most probably the interior minister (Rehman Malik) also did not order him to do so.”

Stressing his close ties with the Erdogan family, the former prime minister said that his son Ali Haider’s honeymoon had also been arranged by the Erdogan family in Istanbul.

Published in Dawn, June 13th, 2015