Saturday, July 11, 2009

Khalid Sultan's Campaign of Lies Backfires

When I wrote in yesterday's post that Khalid Sultan's empire had struck back clumsily I had no idea that it could be as clumsy as it has shown itself to be.

A whole army of property dealers, camp followers, baggage carriers, cronies and sycophants, headed by Mian Anwarul Haq, Sheikh Binyamin of United Real Estate, and Shabbir Mughal - notorious blackmailer from Kashmir Colony -, was let loose to spread a campaign based on barefaced lies and shameless fabrications that Khawaja Saleh had created a group and they were pushing Khalid Sultan to pack up and leave. These liars were asking residents and plot owners to sign a petition against "some mischievous persons" who were rocking the boat.

They never told prospect signers that in none of the four letters written so far by Residents was such a demand or Khawaja Saleh was trying in any way to dislodge Khalid Sultan from his presidential perch.

On the contrary, it was Khalid Sultan who had asked Khawaja Saleh to join him on the Managing Committee and use his influence and friendship with Chaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar, minister of defence, to move things forward where they had gotten stuck. Khalid Sultan invited Khawaja Saleh to come to Islamabad and arrange a high level meeting in the Defence Department to help on sewerage system in D C Colony. Khawaja Saleh was instrumental to pull this off for Khalid Sultan.

At the time when Khalid Sultan and Khawaja Saleh were working on sewerage issue the residents, on their own and not knowing what these two guys were doing, had written a letter to Arshad Cheema to remind him of his promise he had never kept. Khawaja Saleh was on the redar even at that time.

I have a copy of that letter and names of all fourteen persons who had signed the letter. Khawaja Saleh's name is nowhere to be seen. I am reproducing it here and the original copy can be seen in the office of the society:

Dated: 28 April, 2009

Mr. Arshad Cheema

Secretary P.G.E.C.H.S. Society Ltd.(D.C. Colony), Gujranwala Cantt.

Dear Mr. Cheema

On Sunday, April 12, 2009 while inaugurating couple of businesses in the Satlej Block market of D. C. Colony you addressed the congregated residents and promised them that:
• A campaign to eliminate wild stray dogs from the streets of the colony and to exterminate rampant mosquitoes would start very soon.

• You were also gracious enough to announce publicly that you will start having weekly “formal” meetings with the residents on every Saturday after Maghrib Prayers in the public park.

We, the undersigned, regret to say that after having killed only a few dogs the campaign to eliminate stray dogs was abruptly stopped and ferocious dogs were left roaming the streets to dog the residents and threaten to attack whoever happens to cross paths with them. An incident of dog biting has also been reported since.

The campaign to exterminate mosquitoes was never allowed to even take off. Droves of mosquitoes continue to pest and bug residents and there is an imminent danger of causing life-threatening dengue virus disease and malaria.

Much more to our regret, you showed quite a disregard for keeping your promise to show up for any of the promised meetings either on April 18, or on April 25.

We refuse to entertain the notion that your failure to keep any of your promises or to show up for either of the scheduled meetings stems from your disdain for the well being of the residents of the colony or your lapse was in any way intentional.

But, we expected, and still expect, some courtesy to have us, at least, informed as to the reasons for the lapse. We hope to hear from you soon.

Yours sincerely,

(Handwritten) P.S. You had also agreed on April 12, 2009, that security staff of 35 (about 12 in an8-hour shift) is not sufficient and adequate to cover the security needs of the residents and you promised to immediately increase security staff. We are waiting for any news on this aspect.

- You also agreed to provide us with a community center on temporary basis until permanent is completed.

c.c. Mr. Khalid Sultan, President P.G.E.C.H.S. Society Ltd.(D.C. Colony), Gujranwala Cantt


After Arshad Cheema received this letter and told Khalid Sultan about it he was ordered to call a meeting of the residents in the Sutlej park and invite Khawaja Saleh there and introduce him as a Representative from the residents to be a member of the Managing Committee.

And that is what Arshad Cheema did.

At that meeting when Arshad Cheema introduced Khawaja Saleh as the new representative of the residents and proposed him to be the next member of Managing Committee.

It was one of the members of the Core Group of residents who opposed this decision and told Arshad Cheema and the residents publicly that the residents had their own plan and proposals and they would discuss it if given chance.

At the end of that meeting Khawaja Saleh told the congregation that Khalid Sultan was coming to have lunch with him at his residence and he invited residents to come to that lunch and air their proposals in the presence of Khalid Sultan.

At the lunch meeting Core Group asked for more than fifty per cent representation of residents on Managing Committee (and never asked Khawaja saleh to be a representative on Managing Committee).

Khalid Sultan not only conceded to this demand of fifty per cent representation on managing Committee but also said that there will be sixty per cent representation of residents and as the first step, Khalid Sultan himself proposed Khawaja Saleh to be the first one to go in. Khalid Sultan ordered Arshad Cheema at that lunch meeting to put these decisions in the minutes.

You can see it was Khalid Sultan himself who was anxious to bring Khawaja Saleh on board.

Anyhow, the clumsiness of the Khalid Sultan's campaign of lies is obvious from the fact that one of the signers, who has a very high judicial post, called his good friend Mian Anwarul Haq on phone this morning and told him that he must not forward the letter on which he had received his signatures mischievously, or if he wanted to forward it anyway he must scratch his name and signatures from it, or bring it back to him so he can read it.

Mian Anwarul Haq kept calling Abdurrehman Dar and others who had refused to sign his letter yesterday (and some of those who did) and kept telling them that he had no plans now to forward his letter and he wanted to be buddy buddy with residents and the Core Group - again.

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