Elections are not scheduled to take place until 2013 but the race for the power seat has already begun.

LAHORE POST

Is the House of Gujrat going down, thanks to PTI and Imran Khan who takes pride in leading a tsunami that would inundate the corridors of the corrupt and pervert forces whether they come in the way or remain aloof on the sidelines? Or is this tsunami directed against other political forces?

While trying to find an answer, one has to take into account the general impression being propagated by certain quarters that PTI has virtually assumed the role of a superman-crushing ‘Krypton’ for the superman of Nawaz League, Mian Nawaz Sharif. But an indepth examination of the prevailing situation reveals different facts as the main victim appears to be PML-Q that has been relegated from the third political force to the fourth or fifth position with the advent of PTI since the people have, of late, started questioning the raison d’etre of Chaudhrys’ party which, at one time, drew strength from two sources.

One, the military establishment headed by General Pervez Musharraf and secondly, from the meteorite that surfaced on our political landscape after separating from Mian Nawaz Sharif who was at that time taken for a maverick as he had the ‘audacity’ of putting up hurried defiance against the then president of Pakistan Muslim League, Muhammad Khan Junejo, who had been elected through majority votes of Muslim Leaguers.

That anger I mean that anti-Nawaz sentiment of ‘merit-loving’ nay ‘Junejo-loving’ is all over since long (one, however, wonders as to how merit still remains a priority in our political ranks which have undergone so much of decay). And also gone is the Musharraf factor. So, no question of the ‘strength behind’ still remaining intact as is most often claimed by some Chaudhry-lovers.

Now, not even the position of senior minister suffices to bolster up the weak areas and sensitive spots within the body politic of Muslim League of Ch Pervaiz Elahi and Ch Shujaat Hussain. The only hope left within the party is the personal ‘charisma’ of Chaudhry brothers or cousins.

Asking some saner elements within the intelligentsia and political circles as to what should we understand by the term Chaudhry’s ‘charisma’ and whether it reconciled with the ‘Zabist charisma’, the reply was simple and forthright. And that was: “generous use of resources”. What resources and what generosity? The direct ‘affectees’ of this generosity say charisma that instills zeal and fervour among the masses is no more needed. What is needed is job security rather the jobs? What is needed is protection against dacoities, chronic corruption, injustice and socio-economic disparities, not merely fiery speeches that only set the masses’ souls on fire with no follow-up practical work that would bring salvation.

In this context, the ‘affectees’ say that Chaudhrys have surpassed all other leaders in this area that of beneficence but this leaves one question to be answered whether by saying so are the Q-Leaguers or Chaudhrians promoting the idea that governance is all about winning the hearts through doles or is it to be dealt with at a broader, national scale that involves scientific planning, farsightedness and global goodwill, the essential ingredients of becoming the ‘Meere Karwan’ (the mentor and saviour of the caravan of nation).

It is easy to claim that one qualifies to be a ‘Meere Karwan’ but it is extremely difficult to prove one’s mettle in the arena where there is no room for political trickeries and gimmickry that have become history, thanks to the mass awakening. In my humble opinion, if at all a tsunami is coming, it is coming in the shape of this mass awakening or under inspiration from this awakening. The one who musters the power to channelize the tide and the immense energy it generates, will be the ultimate winner.

mianrehman1@gmail.com

Published in The News, December 13^th, 2011

LAHORE POST – Struggle for a Judicious Society

LAHORE POST

Whatever the arguments to the contrary that the media and legal wizards might like to forward, no answer has yet been found to this question being asked by common citizens for the last six plus decades as to why the country has not yet been able to build up a failsafe system of proving the allegations in judicial forums against the corrupt, the plunderers, the terrorists and hardened criminals and desperadoes.

In plain words, it simply means why it is so that the wrongdoers whose evil credentials are known to the entire society and the people in their neighbourhood and even in other towns and villages, are most often pronounced innocent on the basis of scanty or no-evidence.

Does the evidence evaporate in thin air? And if at all, it has to evaporate in thin air, why it is so that the culprits get scot-free in more than two-third of cases instituted against them under the Pakistan Penal Code or other laws in force including the infamous Anti-Terrorism Act and the practically crippled Anti-Corruption Act known as 5(2) 47 in legal jargon, since this Act dates back to the year 1947 and 5 ( 2) are its provisions dealing with acts of corruption committed by people in position of authority.

People are not so naïve to ask this question which is an exceptionally valid question because this sorry state of affairs in our system has brought sufferings in the lives of millions of people. Moreover, the people draw comparison with the legal systems of other countries of the world where proving a wrongdoer wrong is not an impossibility as it so happens in majority of cases in our country.

However, now people have started hoping lot of improvement following the emergence of judicial activism inspired by Chief Justice, Mr Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who has rectified many errors in the system.

But most of the people are still not easily willing to accept the declaration made so vehemently by the House of Sharifs especially its scion in real power (Punjab is still deemed to be the hub of power), Mian Shahbaz Sharif, that ‘those having doubts about our assets, should prove it in the court’.

The underlying belief -or misconception- is that in our country there can be proof of honest means but no proof of dishonest means of income that include tax evasion, under-invoicing, power pilferage, regular bribes given to functionaries from different departments who happen to be on the regular payroll of some enterprising entrepreneurs to help them out in moments of distress (including financial distress).

This ‘proving-and-’proof’ business has also become a commonplace thing following the frequent statements of PM Syed Yusuf Raza Gillani and many of his partymen whose rhetoric ‘go to the courts if you’ve any evidence against us’, has become a routine gossip.

Anyway, it is a moment of delight for the masses that their supremos have at last realized the significance of presenting themselves and their assets’ details before the public, through media. Even if these presentations contain half-truth, some kind of benefit of doubt must be given to the leaders undergoing this realization.

Perhaps they have played the right cards at the right time. At least now one can guess that their assets are in safe hands. For sure, this is no allusion to the strategic assets being in safe hands, since safe hands protecting the vital or national strategic assets can go unsafe once the half truth turns out to be a total lie. So, the politicians at the helm of affairs better abandon the rhetoric ‘go to the courts’ and instead start treading the fair path.

A day before writing these lines, I’ve, however, received a communication from one Ejaz Khan of Lahore. It goes like this, “I have gone through your column titled ‘Budha in CM’s casing’ in ‘The News’ a few days back. Besides other things, it mentions the transparent methods resorted to by the Sharif family for the purchase of land for their Jati Umra palace at a time when Mian Nawaz Sharif was the Prime Minister of Pakistan. Through this letter, however, I want to point out that some officials of Punjab government including the TMA Iqbal Town functionaries and police officers, from SHO to the SP levels, are frequently sending sugar-coated but really threatening messages to the local agro-based industrialists who also earn foreign exchange and are doing business according to rules and regulations and standard practices just in the close neighbourhood of Jati Umra. On the face of it, the industrialist-hunting) is being done under the garb of rules which, according to my information, are being followed by these businesses but the real story is that some under-the-surface move is going on to intimidate the industrialists and show them the door and expand the palaces at lower-than-the-market land prices’.

Following this communication, a little probe was conducted. It was revealed that SHO Raiwind City Operations, Lahore has, through a cop deputed for this purpose, summoned some agro-based industrialist neighbours of Jati Umra but that they are being ‘summoned’ for some wrong reason or any ugly motive, has not yet been proved. However, given Mian Nawaz Sharif’s and Mian Shahbaz Sharif’s repeatedly declared commitment to honest means and humanitarianism, one hopes that the functionaries will not be allowed to misuse the name of the Punjab chieftain and his elder brother what to talk of expansion of palaces through official machinery’s clout or even otherwise.

mianrehman1@gmail.com

Published in The News, December 6^th, 2011

LAHORE POST – Struggle for a Judicious Society

LAHORE POST

Having no sound reason to rebut the official clarification issued by the Supreme Court office, some holier-than-thou Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) activists and lobbyists have now started backtracking on their previous sweeping statement that the Pakistan Muslim League-N supremo, Mian Nawaz Sharif, was given full protocol by the apex court’s protocol wing when he went to the court to appear in connection with his petition filed against the highly inflammable Memogate occurrence. And now starts a guess game initiated on the part of these PPP activists. Now they say that had their party

Co-Chairman, Asif Ali Zardari, gone to the apex court, he would not have been accorded any kind of protocol, formal or informal, even though Zardari holds the highest office of the state that of the President of Pakistan. In a way, these people are suggesting the prevalence of some kinds of ‘pro’ and ‘anti’ biases within our legal system and simultaneously, they are posing to be totally naïve about the immunity issue. But there seems to be no justification in this kind of poisonous mindset to which these

Zardari-lovers are subscribing just within their imagination. After all, why should the courts engage themselves in such activities that exude taking sides? No way, the PPP activists are going to prove wrong, even if a probe is carried out. The question in fact is that of judging the things in their true perspective i.e. on the most relevant and natural yardsticks. The yardstick that applies to this debate/controversy is that the courts welcome with open arms only those who come with clean hands. It is the clean hands or clean track record that brings respect and honor, call it by any name, official protocol or whatever. I think here lies the problem. I mean to say that the root cause of most of our problems and ills is this reliance on irrelevant yardsticks. Take for instance the trumpeted trampling of our sovereignty by US Seals and their formidable companions when they raided the Abbottabad compound housing the most renowned mutineer of the world (powers), OBL (Osama bin Laden). No conscientious as well as conscious soul among us Pakistanis would ever endorse that American action attacking our Haakmeete Aalaa (sovereignty and independence) but how come endorsing the same sacrosanct sovereignty’s ruination at the hands of OBL and OBL-inspired, nay OBL-spoiled, forces? The same rule applies to this Memogate. Can anyone in this part of the globe give even the slightest benefit of doubt to a haughty envoy who dared invoke the jurisdiction of the ‘court’ of the ‘monarch of Washington’ to tighten the noose around his own jugular vein (read the country’s armed forces), let alone pardon this sin that some ill-intentioned elements are trying to paint as a mere conspiracy or if, the pressure is mounted, to concede that it could be nothing more than an omission. What nonsense? The nation, that stands emotionally charged courtesy the sunlight brought on the horizon by the national media out of patriotic urge, is not willing to accept such silly pleas. But one thing must again be analyzed in depth on the basis of relevant yardsticks and that is examining this issue with all its aspects in view. If one were perturbed over the possible ‘arousal’ of foreign masters to do some arm-twisting of our armed forces (that they dare not), there should have been equal concern over the revelation that something ugly is brewing up back at home which might bring the edifice of democracy crumbling down. If all that calls for agitations, petitions and other such options and devices, some saner elements should have tried getting to the truth, either on their own or with the help of wisdom with which our legal and judicial sages are fully well-equipped. Not seeking their guidance, in my opinion, is unfair. I was rather expecting of Mian Nawaz Sharif who has put in so many years of his versatile existence in the realm of politics for stability, that he would one day be able to unearth the actual facts behind so many myths maddening our common man with bundle of theories of conspiracies and fancy stories. Or there is a possibility that the younger Sharif, the eagle (Shahbaz) of Punjab, might abandon his polygamous

(read aesthetic) pursuits in the foreseeable future to embark on the mission of clearing these myths and misconceptions as he is already very famous not only for his strong headedness but also for his clear-headedness that empowers him to make things clear and yet clearer.

LAHORE POST – Struggle for a Judicious Society