Former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has admitted that an expensive necklace, donated by the wife of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for the flood-hit people of Pakistan in 2010, is in his possession, a report in the local media said on Saturday.
Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had recently ordered the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to investigate the disappearance of the necklace donated for flood-stricken people by Emine Erdogan in 2010. The minister had told reporters earlier this week that the necklace had gone missing from the warehouse of the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA).
According to the report, Gilani said he has 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.” The former PM said that after the necklace was donated by the Turkish first lady, he had planned a visit to a flood-relief camp in Sindh where a couple was getting married. Gilani said that he had intended to gift the necklace, whose market price was estimated at Rs 200,000, to the bride but to his surprise he was greeted by eight girls who were to be married that day. The former PM then decided to keep the necklace with himself and instead gift Rs 200,000 each to the eight couples.
Gilani disputed NADRA’s claim that it had acquired the necklace in an open auction, saying the necklace is still in his possession.
On the other hand, former NADRA chairman Ali Arshad Hakeem told the newspaper 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.
According to the report, 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.
This story is one of a kind. None of the contentions seems to make sense. May be there are missing links in reporting & as such it is not making sense.
In Pakistan nearly everybody suffers from selective amnesia esp.the politicians. Take the case of this not very expensive nrecklace. The former PM is given this to help the flood victims—a very noble gesture but since we are told that it was from his "adopted" sister he values it too much and keeps it but does not inform anybody. He attends a wedding and donates eight times the value of the necklace to eight marriages. What a noble gesture to save a necklace! Can the publiic see this symbol of love to Pakistan please . Oh before i forget does the wife of PM Erdogan call Gilani as her "adopted" brother? The mystery deepens after so many years. It smells of rotten eggs through and through!
Hahaha! Oh boy! This is the stuff of an Agatha Christie novel. Same type of lowly characters. Who will save the day? Somebody went fishing and found lots of rotten dead fish which bound to happen in a cesspool.
Happens in every country. We had a similar incident in Turkey with some businessman donating a 700.000 dollars worth of watch to one of the ministers and much money to 3 other ministers in cabinet. and nobody knows for what service. Consequently, AKP (Erdogan's Party) lost he upper hand in the parliament after a recent election on 7th of June. Now we're all waiting for a coalition with or without AKP. All thanks to corruption having been brought into light by Fetullah Gulen organisation on 17/23 December last year provided with some voice recordings including Erdogan and his son talking about hiding the received bribe money.
The only race of people who still like Pakistanis are the Turks. And now our Pm who says he belongs to the Syed family has stolen necklace given by the Turks for charity.
What must the Turks be thinking of us ?
We are a disgusting, shameful, theiving, race.
If we Pakistanis had any shame we would have taken
All this goes to show is that even the Turks now believe what the rest of the world knows.
Pakistanis have no shame, are crooked to the core, are a shameful people with no respect for anything.
If Pakistanis had any shame they would have taken Gilani out on the street and publicly in front of the media and the world thrown dirty tomotes at him.
Shame on us.
Comments are closed.