‘Lady guides’ hired during Zardari’s Turkey visit not paid

By Umar Cheema

ISLAMABAD: In an embarrassing scandal, which has ashamed officials who are trying to play it down, a Turkish court had to order the Pakistani Consulate in Istanbul to pay about $8,000 to five Turkish girls who were hired during the December 2008 visit to Turkey of President Asif Ali Zardari as "lady guides" but were never paid for their services.The girls, provided by a travel agency, were supposed to 'facilitate the entourage' during the president's visit to Istanbul, but payment was later refused, sparking a legal battle which was finally settled after a court order in February this year.

The payment was only made after the partial freezing of the accounts of the Consulate General (Istanbul), which hired the girls as the court cautioned that further non-compliance could lead to the freezing of all official accounts as diplomatic missions don't enjoy immunity in civil suits.

All this happened in December 2008 when the Counsel General of Pakistan in Istanbul hired the Turkish girls as 'lady guides' who remained at the disposal of the entourage for two days. The whole exercise was carried out in an un-authorised manner as the then ambassador, Lt-Gen (retd) Iftikhar Hussain Shah, was kept in the dark and there was no budgetary allocation for such services.

The girls were hired from a non-registered tourism operator, casting doubts about the nature of their services. A grade 20 official of the Customs Group, who was then the consul general in Istanbul, hired these girls. He has now been posted at a lucrative position in the Employees' Old-Age Benefit Institution (EOBI) in Karachi.

The Foreign Office appears to be highly embarrassed about the case but has tried to put an official spin to rationalise it. A list of eight questions sent to the Foreign Office returned with a two-line response of the FO spokesman, Abdul Basit.

"Services of interpreters were hired by our Consulate General in Istanbul for two days to facilitate the delegation. The requisite payment to the Turkish agency concerned has since been made and regularised," Basit said in a message to The News.

While the FO spokesman called these ladies "interpreters", nowhere in the thick file of letters and documents has it been mentioned that they were hired for interpretation. These letters, copies of which are available, describe them as guides, lady guides and facilitators for the entourage of the president.

A former Pakistani ambassador to Turkey, Lt-Gen Humayun Bangash, when asked whether he had ever hired such guides for official visits of the president to Turkey, rubbished the idea, saying: "I don't want to get into such controversies. Ours was a different time and there were big issues to discuss. We were supporting the Taliban and neutralising India's propaganda."

Background discussions with informed officials in the Commerce Ministry, Foreign Office and reading the documents reveal how two consecutive Pakistani ambassadors opposed this spending, including the incumbent, Tariq Aziz-ud-Din Ahmad, who was later deprived of promotion to BS-22. Tariq was decorated with the Sitara-i-Shujaat for his services as ambassador in Afghanistan.

At the time the hiring of the girls was done, Iftikhar Shah was the ambassador and Wahid Khurshid Kanwar, the Counsel General in Istanbul. Shah's consent was not acquired as he denied a claim by Wahid that he was taken into confidence.

Tariq Aziz-ud-Din, Shah's successor, pursued the issue, writing a bundle of letters back home seeking advice on how to pay the girls and under what head since there was no allocation for such practices.

A three-page letter by Tariq, the incumbent ambassador, sent to the commerce ministry and the Foreign Office reveals that the agency, M/s Ozgun Travels, appears to be a dubious enterprise as their telephone and fax numbers were non-functional. Also, it is not a registered agency. He further wrote that paying for the services is not possible through budgetary allocation as there is no head for such services nor permission was obtained to hire the lady guides.

Meanwhile, M/s Ozgun Travels went to the court and had the consulate served with a court notice for revised payment inclusive of the hiring charges plus the penalty of late payment. Dr Yousaf Junaid, the successor of Wahid Khurshid in Consulate General (Istanbul), wrote a detailed letter to the commerce and foreign ministries in January 2010, briefing about the possible consequences of non-payment.

"We have received a court notice for payment of revised amount of Turkish Liras 11,886.33 (US $7,800), inclusive of penalty for late payment, within three days. Habib Bank Limited Istanbul, where the Consulate maintains its account, has also been ordered by the court to immediately pay the said amount," said the copy of his letter obtained from a commerce ministry's official.

He said failing to comply with the court directive will not only lead to the bank facing a contempt notice "but there is also the possibility of freezing of Consulate's official account." He further wrote that "considering the fact that our accounts are partially frozen and Habib Bank may face penalties, it is requested that necessary approval to make payment" should be made. "In terms of Government of Pakistan's accounting procedures, rules and regulations, this Consulate cannot make the subject payment," he further wrote.

The payment was made in February 2010 to avoid the continuing embarrassment. As the then Counsel General, Wahid Khurshid Kanwar, was on the commerce ministry's strength. The secretary commerce, Zafar Mehmood, was also contacted but could not be reached. On a previous occasion Zafar, who had served in Turkey, downplayed the issue, terming it an ordinary incident. Wahid could not be reached and Iftikhar Shah was out of the country.