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Pakistan's propaganda drive over Jammu and Kashmir has suffered a serious setback with its key lobbyist, Labour MP George Galloway, turning out to be on the payrolls of Saddam Hussein.
Galloway, a known India-baiter who was rewarded with two of Pakistan's highest civil awards - allegedly received millions of pounds regularly from the Saddam regime, according to revelations made by the London based Daily Telegraph.
The back-bencher MP from Glasgow has actively aided Pakistani campaign by speaking against "brutal repression in Kashmir'' by Indian security forces. He had even founded an organisation, National Lobby on Kashmir. Though Galloway has denied being a "paid supporter'' of Pakistan, the latest revelations on his Iraqi financial dealings cast a long shadow about the earlier charges. A foreign ministry spokesperson here yesterday said MEA has sought reports from the London high commission on the controversy.
Galloway was the subject of a BBC investigation five years ago which named him kingpin of a secret campaign called the Pakistan Projection Fund, which aimed to lobby Islamabad's relationship with the British establishment in the 90's. One of the chief objective of the campaign was to lobby with the British and woo them to toe the Islamabad line on Kashmir.
Documents obtained then by the BBC
showed Galloway had set up a company, Asia Voice, to publish a newspaper
with pro-Pakistani views with funding received directly from the Benazir
Bhutto government. Initially £1,35,000 was paid to Asia Voice, which
was allocated another £1,89,000 by the Nawaz Sharif government. Correspondence
between Galloway and the Pakistani leadership also pointed to the channelling
of funds for the creation of the National Lobby on Kashmir.
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