Pakistani cop who allegedly became Karachi's biggest gambling don illustrates shady underworld

Pakistani cop who allegedly became Karachi's biggest gambling don illustrates shady underworld

By SEBASTIAN ABBOT and ADIL JAWAD Associated Press KARACHI, Pakistan — A corrupt, low-level cop with a healthy dose of street smarts rises to control hundreds of illegal gambling dens in Pakistan's largest city. By doling out millions of dollars in illicit proceeds, he protects his empire and becomes one of the most powerful people in Karachi. The allegations against Mohammed Waseem Ahmed — or Waseem "Beater" as he is more commonly known — emerged recently from surprise testimony by a top police commander before a crusading anti-crime Supreme Court judge. The story has given a rare and colorful glimpse into the vast underworld in Karachi, a chaotic metropolis of 18 million people on Pakistan's southern coast. The sprawling city has become notorious for violence, from gangland-style killings and kidnappings to militant bombings and sectarian slayings. Further worrying authorities have been signs that the Pakistani Taliban are using the chaos to gain a greater foothold in the city. For months, the Supreme Court's Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry has been leading special hearings on Karachi's crime, berating the city's top police officers for failing to act. This past week, he demanded they move in to clean up so-called "no-go" areas — entire neighborhoods where police fear to tread — according to local press reports. Further fueling the problem is rampant police corruption, undermining efforts to combat the city's violent gangs and extremists. Among the public, the police nationwide are seen as the country's most crooked public sector organization, a high bar given claims of pervasive corruption throughout the government. The allegations surrounding Ahmed further fuel questions about the overlap between Karachi's underworld and its police forces. After the testimony to the Supreme Court earlier this year, police officials in Karachi provided The Associated Press with additional details over his reported rise. The AP made repeated attempts to contact Ahmed, who has been removed from the force and fled to Dubai, but was not successful. Ahmed came from a poor family in Karachi's old city and joined the police force in the 1990s. He soon started working as a "beater," a low-level thug who works for more senior cops to collect a cut from illegal activities in their area, such as gambling, prostitution and drug dealing, said half a dozen police officers who knew him personally at the time. They all spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. Ahmed, who sports a bushy black mustache and usually dresses in a simple, white shalwar kameez, earned a reputation for carrying out his illicit work efficiently, said two police officers who have known him ever since he joined the force. That reputation helped him forge relationships with more senior figures, and eventually he was collecting money for some of the top police officers and civilian security officials in Karachi, they said. The heavyset 40-year-old also attracted the attention of a local boss who controlled the largest concentration of illegal gambling dens in Karachi, located in the city's rough and tumble Ghas Mandi area, where Ahmed worked, said the policemen and a local journalist. The two teamed up to expand their gambling empire to other parts of Karachi and surrounding Sindh province. Gambling was not always illegal in Pakistan, a nation of 180 million people that gained independence from Britain in 1947 as a sanctuary for Muslims who did not believe they could thrive as part of what is now India, a majority Hindu state. Despite the religious undertones of Pakistan's founding, the country's major cities, such as Karachi and Lahore, were relatively liberal places in the first few decades after independence. Alcohol flowed freely in nightclubs filled with dancing girls. But in 1977, Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto banned gambling and alcohol for Muslims in an attempt to appease Islamic hard-liners. Drinking and gambling, which are forbidden in Islam, didn't stop, but much of it was driven underground. The gambling dens in Ghas Mandi are hidden behind nondescript facades down dark alleyways with tangled electrical wires hanging overhead in one of the oldest and densest populated parts of Karachi. In one den, a dozen men dressed in shalwar kameez sat in a semicircle on the floor playing a local card game, mang patta, beneath bare bulbs hanging from the ceiling. The men sipped tea and tossed 100 rupee ($1) poker chips at the dealer. In an adjacent room, a handful of men played chakka, a game that involved guessing the numbers that would appear when the dealer rolled three dice out of what looked like an old leather Yahtzee cup. Rupee notes were placed on a table as bets and held in place by a large metal washer. Everyone stopped their games when the Muslim call to prayer came over a loudspeaker from a nearby mosque — and they promptly resumed the dice and cards once the prayer ended. In this Friday, March 23, 2012, photo, Pakistani police officers during a crackdown operation against criminals in Karachi, Pakistan. For months, the Supreme Court's Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry has been leading special hearings on Karachi's crime, berating the city's top police officers for failing to act. The past week, he demanded they move in to clean up so-called “no-go” areas _ entire neighborhoods where police fear to tread _ according to local press reports.(AP Photo/Shakil Adil) Ahmed earned tens of thousands of dollars each day from hundreds of such gambling dens, said the policemen and journalist who knew him. He also collected extortion money from drug dealers and brothels and smuggled diesel fuel into Karachi from neighboring Iran, where it is much cheaper, they said. He distributed cash to senior officials, and the pay-outs made him one of the most powerful people in Karachi's police force, said his acquaintances. He won significant influence over who was posted to senior positions, thus providing him with protection, they said. Known as a man of few words who rarely loses his cool, Ahmed also handed out money to Karachi's powerful criminal gangs and traveled with roughly a dozen armed guards as an insurance policy. He was sailing smoothly through the underworld until one of the Supreme Court sessions in January. A petitioner outlined to the court allegations of Ahmed's illicit activities and his power in the police force. Chief Justice Chaudhry then asked senior police officers and civilian officials who were present about the allegations. They all expressed ignorance. But Deputy Inspector General Bashir Memon spoke up and backed the petitioner's claims. "I said yes, Waseem 'Beater' is present among the ranks of the Karachi police. He controls the gambling business in Karachi," Memon told The Associated Press. "I also confirmed that he is involved in the transfer and posting of junior and senior police officers." Another senior police officer in Sindh province, Sanaullah Abbasi, also testified that he knew Ahmed and that he controlled gambling dens in Karachi. Chaudhry lambasted the senior officials for not going after Ahmed and asked Memon whether he was concerned about contradicting his colleagues. "I replied, 'I only told you the truth,'" Memon told the AP. As a sign of Ahmed's power, Memon said he was told the same day he would be transferred out of Karachi, but the Supreme Court canceled the transfer order. Ahmed was dismissed from the police force after the Supreme Court hearing, according to two senior police officers, and government records indicate he flew to Dubai and has not returned. Hassan Abbas, an expert on the Pakistani police at the New York-based Asia Society, said Ahmed's case provides a stark illustration of the level of corruption in the Karachi police force, which he described as the worst in any of Pakistan's major cities. Criminal cases are currently pending against 400 police officers serving in Karachi, said Abbas. Civilian officials, who also benefit from corruption, have shown no willingness to reform the system, making the force relatively ineffective in cracking down on criminal gangs and Islamist militants in the city, said Abbas. "The chaos in Karachi provides criminal gangs with the cover they need to operate," said Abbas. "Corruption provides an incentive to continue that chaos." http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/ec5b6db62e9243ce9ed639cd8caadb3f/AS-Pakistan-Police-Corruption-

Sports Betting Corruption Trial

Butt and Asif accused of corruption on basis of 'guess work', court hearsDefence pleads not to assume Pakistan cricketers guilty of fixing slots of Test match, as prosecution points to 'facts and evidence'
Matt Scott The Guardian

Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif have been accused of "deceit, greed and corrupt practice" on the basis of "coincidence, innuendo and guesswork" a court heard on Monday.

Butt, the former Pakistan captain, and Asif, who was last year ranked the world's second-best bowler, deny involvement in a conspiracy to cheat at gambling and to accept corrupt payments over no-balls bowled at Lord's during the fourth Test between England and Pakistan last year.

In his defence Butt's counsel, Ali Bajwa QC, told the jury that the prosecution had "thrown everything it can at its case, tearing apart Butt's life, but had done so by employing an assumption of guilt".

"We have a fantastic sense of justice in this country," said Bajwa. "We have a foreigner on trial and it is his good fortune that it is in this country. All manner of cases are based upon innuendo, pressure and assumption [and] so much has been thrown at you with coincidence, innuendo, guesswork.

"But we are asking you to uphold the proud tradition of juries. There simply is not enough evidence to give a true verdict to say he [Salman Butt] is guilty."

Aftab Jafferjee QC, for the prosecution, however, pointed to 13 "facts" that, he told the court, condemn both Butt and Asif. Chief among them were the facts that Asif delivered a no-ball at precisely the time predicted by Butt's former agent, Mazhar Majeed, and that Mohammad Amir, another Pakistan bowler, had done the same. At the time Butt was the captain and the arbiter of when the bowlers would bowl. Added to this, were what Jafferjee referred to as a "telling triangulation" of telephone traffic between Majeed and the two players on trial.

"Butt has received text messages from Majeed on the subject of fixing," he said, dismissing Butt's description of such messages as "jokes".

Bajwa did not seek to deny that a conspiracy had taken place, only that his client had not been part of it. "There is no dispute in this case that there was at the very minimum a fix between Majeed and Amir." Bajwastressed the weight given by the prosecution to the words of Majeed, whom he likened to an untrustworthy second-hand-car salesman. He pointed out that Majeed had been on the edge of bankruptcy at the time the alleged crimes took place, owing £704,000.

This, said Bajwa, gave Majeed "an incentive to exaggerate to impress" when speaking to an undercover journalist, a man he had been led to believe was a wealthy Indian businessman interested in betting on fixed events at cricket matches.

In his closing speech to the jury, Jafferjee picked on one secretly recorded exchange between Butt and Majeed. The discussion between player and agent came while the journalist - the News of the World's fake sheikh, Mazher Mahmood was discussing ways of proving that Majeed had "control" over his players.

Jafferjee said of that telephone conversation: "Everything Butt says is confirmation. Every word that is uttered, entirely confirmatory of an understanding."

Bajwa responded: "The transcripts do need to be read very carefully. You can take them superficially, in which case your verdict will be very easy. But you need to read between the lines and a very different version of Majeed and of this case begins to emerge."

Jafferjee exhorted the jury to consider the cricketers' activities in plain terms. "This is a case of corruption through the vehicle of a sport. It is no different to a fraudster [manipulating] markets and saying, 'You do not understand the markets.' You the jury do understand deceit, greed and corrupt practice by some on the inside who are lucky enough, through talent, to have the opportunity to exploit it." The trial continues.