A So-Called Good Governance!

What a Beautiful Title has been chosen by the Punjab Chief Minister for himself. It is very strange that he even does not feel ashamed to be called a Servant just as he never felt ashamed while singing Habib Jalib’s poems. No doubt, he has established the highest standards of service but remember that most of his service was for himself and his family.

A recent example of this service is the order through which he residence at Jati Umra has been declared as his Camp Office. The residence, spread over 750 acres of land, was formerly the premier’s camp office. So the Government was responsible for its security at the expenditure from public money. More than a thousand Punjab police personnel were on this duty, and are still there although now Nawaz Sharif is not the prime minister.

After the disqualification, all of this should have ended. On the day Nawaz Sharif was disqualified, the Punjab police forces must have been withdrawn that evening. So this whole camp office drama is like a robbery on public money. If you are the Prime Minister, you have been provided a palace in Islamabad for your office and Residence. Ships are at your disposal. When traveling, they have such a big protocol that even the Queen of Britain doesn’t have such a long motorcade as our paper lions take along.

If we put this whole debate aside, it is still unique. That when the Prime Minister was disqualified, then what is the justification of a camp office.

But it is difficult for them to live without more than a thousand people as security. Ever since they are in the politics, they have never expended anything from their own pockets, instead they love to use public money for their own purposes. It will be a stupid who thinks that they could pay for the security if the Punjab police had withdrawn security from Jati Umrah. So in order to maintain legal legitimacy, it was necessary to continue Jati Umrah as a camp office so that the expenses incurred on its security could be paid from the public money. This is the background of the historical order of the servant of the high priest.

But the ruling family could not predict what the response would be. There was an earthquake in the media and especially on social media, which resulted in the “Khadim e Aala” to retreat. The order has not been withdrawn but its immediate application has been withheld. The story turned out to be that the “Khadim e Aala” was considering declaring a part of the Jati Umra as camp office instead of its all property.

We bound to believe that these people have very strong nerve and clever. The Model Town residence of the so called “Khadim e Aala” was held as the camp office until the by-election of NA-120 was over. This means that all the expenses incurred on it was Government’s responsibility. Even the tea cups and milk offered to the guests was paid from government money. The waiters with a black-Vest were also Government servants.

After criticism by PTI during the election, the official position of the Khadim e Aala’s private residence was abolished just on papers whereas the security remained the same and the staff remained unchanged. In addition, several offices are under the auspices of the Khadim e Aala e.g. 7 Club Road, 90 Shahrah e Quaid e Azam and the Civil Secretariat etc. etc..

A news from Muhammad Hassan Raza was published in Daily Dunya two days ago, in which he disclosed that more than Four billion rupees have been spent on the house and offices of the Khadim e Aala in last eight years. An amount of Rs. 50 crore is allocated for these offices for the current year. What else could set a better public service example while they sing Habib Jalib’s poetry on the other side. It’s not enough for every artist to reach such a level of drama.

During the present regime, another bomb was blast when a report was managed from the Punjab Police that Jati Umrah has a big security risk and when asked what to do for this, the IG Police Mr. Mushtaq Sukhera replied so innocently that it should be secured with a Bombproof wall to be constructed around it. Obviously, it was well liked proposal for the Sharifs. Therefore, this proposed Bomb Proof Wall was constructed around the private Residence of Nawaz Sharif with a cost of a big amount of Rs. 700 million from the Budget of Punjab Police. What a good Governance of the Rulers…….?

There was a time when Pakistani politicians used to spend out of their own pocket for their politics. They used to meet the expenses of their election by selling some piece of their proprietary land or some other assets. Then there was a little change during the time of Ayub Khan when some big industrialists gathered under the shadow of the Ayub government and they donated a little to the ruling Convention League. Late Urdsher Kaus Ji once told me that Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto received Rs. 100,000 from his father for an election campaign but when the election was postponed, his father went to Bhutto and asked him to return the money. Bhutto, lying on the bed, was enjoying Iranian pistachios at that time and replied was this all. When Bhutto did not agree to return even after strong demand the Senior Kaus Ji sarcastically said, “OK, give me this pistachios in lieu of”. When he returned home, he asked the family as a joke, “to eat this pistachios very carefully as it is the most expensive pistachio in the world”.

Now you cannot find such stories. Time has changed now and money has entered in politics which has entirely changed the shape of politics in the country. Just imagine, that the Sharif family had grown so rich in terms of money in 1980s & 90s, they did not need any money from anyone else for an election campaign. But even then when during 1990’s elections ISI distributed money among the politicians under the command of General Aslam Beg, Nawaz Sharif did not refuse to accept this money. Similarly, the present Chief Minister always welcome such money. A document signed by the then ISI Chief General Asad Durrani is on record in the Supreme Court of Pakistan, which confirms that Nawaz Sharif was given Rs.3.3 Million and present Chief Minister 22 million. The present CM has never commented on this but Nawaz Sharif has given a written statement to the FIA that there was a lot of turmoil in the elections so he does not remember any such amount. However, he is ready to pay this amount back with interest if it was really given.

I have mentioned this story many times. The reason to repeat it again is to tell that those who easily forget the ISI money, who can deny the agreement with Pervez Musharraf before going to Saudi Arabia that they will not come back for the next 10 years, who could keep the UAE work permit in his pocket being a prime minister, who can bring baseless stories from Qatar, whose descendants can say that not to mention their assets abroad as they do not even have any property in Pakistan, who say that they heard the news of massacre of Model Town just on TV, For such people it is not a big deal to grant the status to their private properties as their Official Residences .

(Published in Monthly Tribute International on 01-01-2018)