Corruption in Pakistan

CORRUPTION
IN PAKISTAN
An Overview


Corruption in the sense of civil and Government military servants and
Public officials and politicians of Pakistan pocketing public funds or taking bribes from local and foreign individuals, governments and businessmen, getting expensive land at discounted rates, and surrendering barren land in lieu of scores of millions in bank loans, is too well known and documented by in-country and international agencies, to be worthy of any unusual notice. After all, the country has had the dubious distinction of being on the top of the list of corrupt countries several times. But the factors underlying the problem merit a second look.
Bribery is as old as human history. In all societies, greasing the palm has been the accepted method of facilitation of all activities. It has been variously and euphemistically named tribute, nazar (presentation), facilitation fee etc. What distinguished it from a gift was the element of coercion. Vassals paid it to overlords, aristocrats to the king, traders to state officials, lawbreakers to policemen, and litigants to judiciary officials.
In India under the British rule, it became an art form. It was generally called “Income from above” implying divine favor; it was most prevalent among the police, minor court officials, and revenue services. . In most instances salaries were grossly inadequate and had to be supplemented. Senior civil and police servants, judges, teachers and physicians with rare exceptions were immune to the practice, not because they were well paid-teachers were certainly not- they deemed it beneath their dignity/honor. New inductees to senior civil services, if not wealthy in their own right, were kept as guests in their supervisor’s homes till such time as they were able to afford to live on their own and resist temptation. Corruption in whatever form was stigmatized and looked down upon by the majority of people.
Highly educated persons led Indian independence movement. The majority among them were university graduates, and top ranks were almost exclusively drawn from the ranks of individuals who had gone to England for higher education. They were, by and large, men and women of high moral integrity. Lawyers, academics and social workers dominated the Indian national congress. Muslim league on the other hand, except for Mr. Jinnah, who was heads and shoulders above all others in the party and a few middle rank leaders, was led by landlords- usually the progeny of men who had supported the British against their compatriots in the 1857 war of independence.
Independence-partition saw wide spread devastation, with influx of destitute refugees into both countries, India and Pakistan. Pakistan being much smaller was overwhelmed and nearly succumbed to the onslaught. But corruption was kept at the pre-independence level. In the fiduciary sense leaders from Jinnah down were patently honest. Most notably Jinnah and Liaquat the first Prime Minister were men of high probity in every sense. Liaquat, altruistically , did not even take advantage of the legal facility of claiming the property of Hindus and Sikhs left in Pakistan, in lieu of the property he had to abandon in India.
The rulers who followed Jinnah and Liaquat, though corrupt in the political sense, were fiscally upright. Ghulam Muhammad, who became Governor General following Liaquat’s assassination, violated the constitution but did not amass any wealth. Nazimuddin who followed Liaquat in PM’s office was weak and let his ministers and bureaucrats get away with intrigues, but no financial scandals were associated with his term in office. Iskander Mirza, defense secretary in the early days of Pakistan, aided and abetted Ghulam Muhammad’s grab for power, but after being exiled by Ayub Khan, had to work as a manager of an Indian restaurant in England. H.S. Suhrawardy , scion of a wealthy family, an outstanding lawyer, who commanded fabulous amounts of money as his fee, died a relatively poor man. Senior civil servants lived with in their means. Affluent fathers won’t consider army officers, as suitable candidates for their daughter’ hand, as they had no prospects. Generals, if not wealthy in their own right lived a modest post retirement life.
Ayub Khan, conspiring with landlord-politicians of the then West, now all Pakistan, not only subverted the newly emerging political process-a constitution had been passed and elections were due in a few weeks-but after a breather of two to three years, ushered in an era of corruption at an unprecedented scale He may arguably be regarded as the pioneer of large-scale and pervasive corruption in Pakistan. His son Gohar Ayub, a captain in Pakistan Army, served as his agent general. Gohar was awarded highly lucrative licenses for manufacturing plants, imports, trades and industries and along with his father in law who was an army general founded the Gandhara industries and metamorphosed into an industrial magnate almost overnight. Ayub’s father was a non commissioned officer in the British Army (Subedar). The family did not have any land holdings. Now they are among the richest families in Pakistan. Gohar lived the life of a veritable mafia don. In 1965 elections Karachi and Dacca voted against his father. He perpetrated a reign of terror in poorer districts of Karachi.
Ayub also violated the sanctity of the contractual obligation of the government by conducting a vendetta against the fiscally honest civil servants of immigrant origin , dismissing them wholesale without due process of law.
The dam that had kept men in authority honest had been breached. The cracks widened under pressure of erosion of values. From policemen on the beat to highest ranks, from legal clerks to judges, from minor revenue officials to senior administrators, from storekeepers to high-ranking engineers, all government and private agencies were immersed in the morass of the moral decadence. Customs, police and revenue/income tax departments were in the forefront among the looters. Army officers would have to be super human, and they were not, to resist the temptation. But they were novices; only a few had access to the ruling Junta. Ayub, perhaps constrained by his British training, had not inducted them into the ranks of civil service. They were by and large left out and resented it.
Pitted against Miss Jinnah in any election based on adult franchise Ayub would have lost his shirt. But he did lose credibility. To recover from that loss of prestige he launched into the misadventure of 1965 with India and was further weakened by the charge that he had given away on the negotiation table what the Jawans had won on the battlefield, and that he had left East Pakistan at the mercy of India. Incidentally both charges are of doubtful authenticity . In any event, he could no longer control the civil unrest and the movement against suppression of freedom of speech spearheaded by students, ironically provoked by his tactless celebration of the decade of development. The downhill slide was precipitous and he had to give in to the pressure of Army officers. Violating his own tailor made constitution; he handed in the reins of power to the Army chief, Yahya Khan, an alcoholic and a debauch.
Yahya made sanctimonious noises about his duty as an officer; he had sworn to safe guard the integrity of the country with his life if necessary and would honor his pledge, come what may. He wanted to go down in history as the person who restored rule of law and representative government in the country.
In the firm belief that under any given set of circumstances an election would produce a divided house, he dissolved one unit (Musharraf is banking on the same calculation) and declared that elections would be held under a joint electoral system under adult franchise.
But the optimism of the cabal was shattered. They had underestimated the gravity of alienation of East Pakistanis and were also let down by circumstances beyond their control. As the election date drew near a cyclone hit East Pakistan. Bhashani, the main rival to Awami League the dominant party in the East, withdrew from elections when his demand for a postponement of polls was turned down. Awami League won 159 out of 161 seats assigned to the East and over all majority in the whole house. The party had contested elections on the six points agenda, which left only defense and foreign affairs in the hands of the federal government. But the crux of the problem was that the federal government would not have the authority to raise funds for armed services or the diplomatic corp.
Bhutto had been making pious noises about an egalitarian society and had won 83 out of 139 seats assigned to West Pakistan. Non-feudal parties in West Pakistan also supported Awami League. They could muster two third majority in the parliament to frame a constitution of their choice.
The establishment were apprehensive that they would not only lose the cash cow that East Pakistan was, but also the people in the western wing emulating their compatriots in the east might demand adequate funds for social services, job creation and infra-structure, but God forbid they might force an imposition of tax on agricultural income and reduction of the obscene out lay on the army. Not prepared to take the risk of waiting and attempting to subvert the new government, and at the behest of feudal lords represented by Bhutto, the Army launched a reign of terror in East Pakistan, plunging it into a veritable blood bath resulting in secession of East Pakistan and emergence of the independent state of Bangladesh.
Bhutto in NY for the Security Council meeting, called on Nixon and Kissinger after Pakistan army had surrendered to India and obtained their blessings to take over in the country. Arriving in Islamabad, he drove straight from the airport to President house and emerged a few hours later flying the Presidential and Chief Martial Law flags on his car. He was a closet fascist and conducted his own personal vendetta against all manners of people, civil servants, politicians and businessmen. Taking advantage of their demoralization, he managed to humiliate and exile several senior Army officers and after a suitable interval appointed Tikka Khan, notoriously known as the butcher of Bengal, to the post of the Army chief. Tikka kept tabs on Army headquarters. On his retirement, Bhutto gave the job to the master hypocrite and bigot Zia Ul Haq, who had been abjectly servile and kept up the pretense for quite some time after seizing power calling Bhutto Sir even after overthrowing and imprisoning him.
Corruption rose to higher levels in Bhutto’s time. The hither to un-blemished ranks of education and postal workers also joined in. Once Foreign Service was highly coveted and the brightest entrants into civil service chose it as a career. Now number one choice was police, followed by administrative services, customs, Income Tax.
Bhutto took on all comers and fought on many fronts successfully subjugating the Army, civil services, industrialists and businessmen. Resentment against his arbitrary ways grew steadily. The mixture became too rich, when in his megalomania-he had been lionized by Muslim heads of state- he took on Henry Kissinger ; brazenly denying that Pakistan was developing an atomic bomb. The inevitable happened. Army, supported by all opposition political parties and foreign interests overthrew him. He was imprisoned and hanged after palpably irregular court proceedings.
Zia Ul Haq introduced army officers from generals to mid-level ranks into civilian jobs. His loud protestations and proclamation of Islamic law/justice/government not withstanding, he let the military Governors of provinces rake in the armament and drug money on unprecedented scale. The take was so colossal, that a big feudal lord Nawab of Hoti offered to exchange his enormous land-holdings for a month’s income of Governor Lt General Fazle Haq of the NWFP. They controlled the traffic/territory as Mafia did in the U.S.A, except that the dons had to cover their tracks and indulge in money laundering. These Governors owned the territory and were law unto themselves. Gang warfare in Pakistan owes its birth to them.
Zia had plunged Pakistan into the proxy war against Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Ostensible excuse was his passionate hatred of the infidel communists. In actual fact the country had been bankrupted by sanctions imposed following over throw of “duly’ elected Bhutto regime. He had to mortgage a years rice crop to BCCI to pay government servants. Now money and materiel poured in. Army was the conduit and did not hesitate to sell, even as advanced equipment as Stinger missiles, to the highest bidder. Americans, unnerved by the enormity of diversion of arms and apprehensive that secret technologies would get into wrong hands, decided to send an audit team. Before they could arrive, an ammunition dump (Ojhri Camp) was set to fire. That killed hundreds but covered illicit sales.
Soviets gave Afghans the chemical technology of refining raw opium into heroin. Pakistan became the leading international drug trafficking highway. Soviets also gave assault rifles (Klashnikov) to all and sundry in Afghanistan. Afghan, astute businessmen as they are, did not see any sense in using the rifles to fight with each other and sold most of them to arm dealers. Soon Chinese and Pakistan version of the guns came on the market. Prior to Zia Ul Haq, the word heroin was taken for heroine- an eminent cinema actress like Noor Jehan or Rekha. At the end of his rule there were over a million heroin addicts, now estimated at five millions and at the mention of the word no one thought of Bollywood heart throbs. Klashnikov could be rented for a few dollars an hour .
In pre-independence days, money did matter, but lineage, intellectual attainment and heredity counted for more . New, easy and enormous amount of loot put paid to all social order.
Now teachers would not let students pass their examinations unless tutored privately and postmen won’t deliver mail unless tipped. An education department beurocrat was incensed at not being told by his physician, that the latter’s daughter was appearing in an examination, he supervised. The daughter could have done him the favor of asking for any score she desired. Customs official proclaimed that they earned tens of millions for the Government and had the right to keep a million or two in their pockets. Bribery had become respectable. Prospective mothers in law preferred a peon in Income Tax department to a physician to wed their daughters. I built a hospital in Pakistan and we were on the panel of several nationalized industries. We had to pay 20% of the bill as kick back. One enterprising accounts executive offered to approve bills with out the hassle of treating patients, if we split the take fifty, fifty!!
Finally Zia committed the same mistake all dictators do, took on powers too big for him and went down in a blaze, not of glory, but that of an airplane crash.
The civilian interregnum between Zia and the current helmsman could not stem the tide of corruption, even if they wanted to. They, of course did not, and let the civil servants, army and feudal lords to do their worst, as long as they wanted to do the same. They reminded one of an advertisement on British TV in the sixties, “I am here for the beer.” We are all familiar with English palaces of Benazir, London West end apartments of Nawaz Shareef (equivalent of upper east side in Manhattan) and Swiss bank accounts of both. A California based Pakistani news magazine, Pakistan link, published a list of Pakistani U.S $ billionaires. Besides Benazir and Nawaz, four Generals and two civil servants graced the list. Even allowing for journalistic hyper bole, though credence is lent to the figures by the real estate owned by Government ministers , Generals and Civil Servants in Europe and North America; these were worth stupendous amounts of money for people of a country whose citizens make, on the average, less than $500.00 a month. Further, the civilian Government continued the infiltration of Army officers into civilian jobs. Nawaz handed over WAPDA to the army.
Nawaz Shareef finally grew too big for his britches. He had “over whelming” mandate, was deemed harmless by international power brokers, had managed to oust an Admiral, literally hound a Supreme court Chief justice out of office, and force an Army chief to resign. He had appointed an “Immigrant” to the top job in the Army, expecting that the man with no base of ethnic support in the ranks would be easy to control. They all, brilliant or stupid, make the same mistake .
Musharraf must be a better political strategist (or as a loyal US citizen should I say stragerist ) than a military one. He provoked a clash on ice bound kargil heights. Indian Army, caught napping, lost several thousand soldiers. Thoroughly incensed the Indian government massed their troops on the border and threatened to attack Pakistan. Nawaz was told of the “victory” after the fact and had initially attempted to bask in Army’s presumed glory. The Indian threat of all out war frightened him out of the little wits he had. With tail between his legs, he flew to Washington DC to plead with Clinton to get him out of the mess. Clinton put the prestige of the US president’s office on line and persuaded the Indian Prime Minister to agree to a cease-fire.
Army cried foul. Their holy warriors had shed their blood in vain. Islam’s good name had been besmirched. Defeat had been snatched out of the jaws of victory. The hapless Nawaz, trying desperately to retrieve lost ground, tried to find a replacement for Musharraf. Musharraf, master tactician too, confronted Nawaz, who denied all and appointed him to the office of Chairman of Chiefs of Joint staff committee in addition to army chief’s office. The generals closed their ranks; Nawaz could only persuade the Army’s intelligence chief, a clansman, very powerful but no divisions under his command, to agree to step in. Musharraf scheduled to visit Sri Lanka on a good will trip, knew all the machinations, and before leaving retired or transferred a few generals of less than certain loyalty into non-strategic jobs.
Nawaz, blissfully unaware of the steps taken by Musharraf, appointed the intelligence chief to the top job. Then the drama, worthy of a top notch Bollywood director and his, was played out. Events went along the following lines. The new chief was politely turned away from Army headquarters, on the plea that only the outgoing chief could handover the charge. The appointment was announced on national TV, but the army soon seized the TV station, and religious music was played instead of scheduled programs. Musharraf’s plane was not allowed to land in Karachi. Trucks had been placed on the runway. The local army commander, on hand to receive Musharraf, had to drive half a mile to get soldiers to take over control tower and remove the trucks. The poor man did not have a cell phone or access to a regular phone to call his soldiers. The plane had been ordered to go to India. Musharraf reportedly exclaimed “ over my dead “body”. No one, but absolutely no one on the plane, thought of two other Airports in Karachi, under control of armed forces, and quite capable of handling Musharraf’s flight.
Musharraf landed and after conferring with armed forces officers made the usual patriotic and pious noises, consolidated his rule, promised elections, easily co-opted erstwhile followers of BB and Nawaz into the government, all in short order. His generals had already arrested the PM and the Chief of the Army staff designate. Astute man that he is, he got the government a large amount of money in exchange for Nawaz’s life. He initially sang secular songs but soon saw the light.
It was only befitting that Musharraf outdo previous military dictators. He inducted lower rank army officers into civilian jobs as well. At one time, an army captain presided over a police station along with the usual police inspector and a major sat besides a district officer etc. The cancer had spread all over the body.
With its usual hypocrisy, the community of world leaders shunned Musharraf. Clinton won’t even give him the time of the day. The poor man had to go to the latter’s table at a party, introduce himself and get himself photographed with the great man. Pakistan was thrown out of the British common wealth, which, to give the devil his due, Bhutto had openly spurned, and walked out of.
Come 9/11 and after an initial mating ritual, Musharraf declared Pakistan open territory for “coalition forces” became darling of the west, was lionized in London and Washington DC and granted the much coveted sojourn at Camp David *. He offered the services of his soldiers, but Pakistan army, since at least 1971 have not been a danger to any one except the civilians of the country. (And not able to deal with tribal civilians for that matter) Coalition forces derisively turned the offer down. They had no stomach for additional headaches. Musharraf even managed to retrieve his secular colors and tried to leash religious fanatics
By contrast, a recent story we heard was tepid and insipid. Musharraf, visiting New York, to attend General Assembly session was feted at a $1000.00 per person enactment of a play, whose producers had obtained an injunction against the show from a Pakistan High Court. A redoubtable member of the Association of Pakistan Physician of North America organized the event. He, in typical oriental potentate style, sent limos to his friends to attend the show. It was a working day and one shouldn’t expect the friends of high and mighty drive to Manhattan, find a parking place and go back home in time to sleep and work the next day. They must envy the Pakistani work ethic, where one would not let duty intrude into the realm of pleasure.
It was inevitable that Musharraf should commit a blunder. Incensed by the CJ’s decision to block the sale of the steel mill at fie sale price and depriving him of a sizable commission (and credibility) Shaukat persuaded him to dysfunctionalize Iftikhar Chaudhry. (Pakistan once again suspended from commonwealth membership, but the British PM still received him with proper protocol). But lacking the messianic frenzy of a Zia or inordinate arrogance of a Bhutto, he did not take on the USA and is likely to get away with it, to await perhaps a more horrible end.
Contempt of court is an antiquated and quaint term in Pakistani context. Remember Zia packed the Supreme Court to get guilty verdict against Bhutto. All the dictators proclaimed an ordinance, legal framework order, which the high judiciary have to sign on to, or lose their job. Majority held on to their jobs. A legal Machiavelli Sharifuddin Pirzada , has been advising military rulers since Ayub’s time, legitimizing abrogation of constitution under the law of necessity. He is not the only one to blame. The Supreme Court blessed the first dismissal of lawfully constituted Government as far back as 1954. Benazir Bhutto used to treat the chief justice of supreme court- her own appointee so shabbily that the poor man had to remonstrate with her when told by Benazir that she had given him the job. “Madam” you appointed me chief justice and not a domestic servant. Nawaz sent a goon team to assault a CJ while he was hearing a case against the government. As noted earlier, aided and abetted by a SC judge whom he later elevated to the office of the President he hounded the CJ out.
One cannot, in good conscience, blame Musharraf and all Pakistanis in the audience, for ignoring as inconsequential a document, as a high court order.
Now Pakistani social workers, reformers and do-gooders have caught on to the NGO game. All kinds of issues are catered to, from victims of sexual crimes, honor killings, barter of women, gender discrimination, wife abuse, prisoner abuse, flesh trade, violation of civil rights, to desertification and illiteracy. The parliament in Pakistan has also been Ngoised. They were given 14 million dollars to improve their function. Nearly all NGO funding comes from the good old USA corporations. The NGOs are naturally beholden to donors and take care to eulogize America . Thus not only a comprador class has been created, but the class camouflages itself in reformist garb. It is, to date, the most insidious and effective invention to subvert the struggle for human, civil and economic rights of the common man.
That nearly all-poor third countries have the same problem, though not a ground for complacence, yet does help in understanding and to some extent in finding a solution of the problem. That the richest country in the world, the USA is awash in scandals- Enron, Abramoff, Tom Delay, assorted members of the congress to name but a few of the recent ones- does not immunize us from the depths of despondency, and is no excuse for giving up the struggle.
The task of revamping Pakistani society` is stupendous. It is difficult even to decide where to start. Pakistan started with a nearly insuperable handicap. It was a disorganized and disrupted society. On paper it was supposed to get one fourth of the total assets of undivided India. In practice, it got much less. Its territory was much less developed. Most of industries, most of skilled and educated person, and most of the administrative personnel in the region had been non-Muslims. KE Medical in Lahore had only two Muslim professors. NED Engineering College in Karachi had no Muslim professors. Non-Muslim staff left for India. Teachers, administrators and technical persons migrated from India, but could not do much in a country bereft of infrastructure. Immovable assets were also largely located in India. The government took on, was enticed into, or had the moral obligation to, depending on your point of view, wage a war in Kashmir at a time it could ill afford to. The government of India used the conflict to with hold funds from the government of Pakistan. If the Nizam of Hyderabad had done helped out with a donation of a billion rupees, Patel and other right wing congress politicians would had seen their dream of the collapse of Pakistan come true. The real and perceived threats and conflict in Kashmir transformed the country into a security state and empowered the armed forces.
The insecurity engendered by total chaos attendant upon partition, break down of administration and bleak economic prospects, compounded by evils of the feudal system, the underpinning of religion, and the knee jerk reaction of doing opposite of what India did, drove Pakistan into the arms of the neo-imperialist Anglo-American block.
Signing the “mutual” defense treaties, Baghdad pact, Seato, and later Cento etc, which did little to strengthen Pakistan, and embroiled the country into anti-soviet policies, were stark failures of foreign policy. Khruchev threatened to pulverize Peshawar as the U2 spy planes were supposed to take off from the city. In post 1965 war Kosygin badgered Ayub Khan to accept terms he was not inclined to. In 1971 the Soviet Union openly sided with India. Our treaty partners remained impartial and neutral.
On the domestic front, the government did little to promote industry, create jobs, fund education or provide social services. Major part of budget was wasted on defense and loan servicing, latter a euphemism for interest proscribed by Islam. Political institutions were not developed either, resulting in alienation of East Pakistan, Sindh, NWFP and Baluchistan, roughly in that order. The role played by the feudal lords, Mullahs, bureaucrats and the armed forces stunting the stunted growth of the country are beyond the scope of this paper, but the end result has been persistent poverty, population explosion, lack of industrial development, illiteracy, poor health care, in efficient services, deteriorating infra structure, flight of capital, virtual breakdown of law and order, ethnic and linguistic conflict, and loss of confidence in future of the state. Cosmetic measures of passing laws, appointing commissions, holding seminars and conferences and launching five and ten-year plans will not do. The social structure has to be overhauled. The whole basis of foreign and domestic policies has to be changed.
Pakistan would under no conceivable circumstances be able to wrest control of Kashmir from with force of arms. The campaign should be restricted to peaceful diplomatic negotiations in which the real victims the people of the state should be fully involved. An all out war between atomic powers, small though they be, is not a practical proposition.
We should down size our armed forces to perhaps a quarter of what they are. That should be sufficient for any contingency. The country should restrict its war on “terror” activities to stabilization measures in side its borders. Retrenchment of armed forces will more than compensate for loss of aid accruing from the so-called anti-terrorist stance. Abolition of the feudal system, provincial autonomy, induction of representative government sanitization of administrative and security services, family planning, promotion of industry, reclamation of agricultural land, living wage to workers and uninhibited trade union organization, development of basic health care, raising standard of educational standards should be taken in hand. This will inculcate love of the country. People will work hard and honestly as they develop confidence in the future of the country in whose fortune they will have a stake. Expatriate capital will flow back as it once did, before Nawaz Sharif, acting in bad faith if not illegally, changed US dollars into Rupees.
How this radical change can come about, what agency will mediate it, and what political dispensation will be able to even take first steps is another study.

Indian candidates to the coveted Indian civil service (ICS) usually came from the wealthy land owning class. Very few other Indians could defray the expense of a passage to England, cost of stay and wining and dining entailed in the process. A few impecunious but outstanding students were sponsored by prospective fathers in law, and sent to England to compete in the examinations
Liaquat’s title was Nawabzada and he owned huge states in India. He could have become on of the larger landowners in Pakistan. That he did not do it, perhaps made him suspect in the eyes of the feudal lords in Pakistan.
Many lesser landowners reported claims far in excess of what their holdings were worth. Some people made fraudulent claims. One story found wide currency. One claimant was queried on the produce of his orchards and responded that he had ”podeene ke bagh” mint farms.
Suhrawardy commanded a fee of Rs 50,000 per appearance, equivalent to $10,000.00 at the then exchange rate.
Gandhara was huge enterprise and had all kinds of mining and manufacturing concessions.
I was a resident Medical officer in a surgical department in civil hospital Karachi and personally treated tens of scores of injured working class people.
Of the three hundred three dismissed officers only three were non-immigrant. The only senior immigrant officer to escape the axe was married to the sister of a non-immigrant bureaucrat. Yahya and Bhutto followed suit, the latter reached the bottom of the barrel and sacked officers to junior levels.
Pakistan had captured land in Rajhastan desert but India had over run rich farmland in the Punjab. East Pakistan was never threatened possibly for fear of the Chinese who had accused India of stealing some cows. Shastri had hastily offered to return “gau matas” back.
On being told with a straight face by Bhutto that Pakistan was not building an atomic bomb Kissinger exploded, you are insulting our intelligence and we will make a horrible example out of you.
In the hospital I had built we had a dispute with a contractor who brought a few hoods. A nephew of a friend who worked with had foreseen the scenario and brandished a Klashnikov he had rented for Rs 400.00 an hour at the gangsters. They slinked away.
One bankrupt ruler of a minor estate disdainfully rejected the offer of marriage for his daughter from an ICS officer, as beneath his station in life. Academics, poets, writers, Sufis, preachers and teachers, impecunious all, were put on a pedestal. The Nizam of Hyderabad, had inadvertently insulted a poet Jigar Muradabadi. HEH came off the dais and begged the poet to come back. The poet did not relent). Money men would not dare take a seat in front of pauperized heads of old families when presenting themselves to ask for payment of at least interest on the loan the latter owed. In the new habitat no one knew who their neighbors were. Money was the only criterion of status and respect. Worse few worried about how you got it. Expatriate remissions further wrecked the precarious social norms.
Bhutto had introduced a sort of heath care system in privatized industries. Doctors and hospitals vied for placement on the approved list.
One of my friends owns a real estate business in Canada. According to him a mid level army officer stunned him by asking for a moderately priced home, not more than two million dollars.
I am paraphrasing lord Acton. Power befuddles and absolute power befuddles absolutely. Bhutto had banked on the apparent “simplicity” and low caliber of Zia. Nawaz was deceived by Musharraf’s status as an outsider. Both overlooked the strong and traditional cohesion of Pakistan’s army hierarchy and the ambience of Army culture. A highly cultured Army physician, once ruefully told me that when a junior physician, a personal friend, demurred at reporting to the Emergency room immediately, calling him yaar (a common sub continental term for a close friend), he lost his temper, shouted that he was not a bloody yaar, and ordered the thoroughly cowed junior to come at once.
George W Bush, in addition to his near illiterate status, has a curious inability to pronounce words. He said strategy for strategy.
Aping the system in the USA Bhutto took away the title of Commander in Chief from the chiefs of services and formed a Chief’s of staff committee with its own chairman. He thought that through the chief of chiefs he would be able to control army establishment. Little did he know.
These Airports were, incidentally, used by civilian flights decades ago, when the Civil Airport runway was not large enough to cope with large airplanes. Security personnel wanted to stop one of my classmates in the university of Karachi, Sibghat U Kadri now a QC in the UK from leaving the country. He changed his flight from Pakistan Airlines to BOAC (now BA) whose planes used the air force airport, as the civilian facility could not handle BA jets.
To my utter surprise and consternation Indians, Government and public, legatees of the self-respect of Gandhi and Nehru, denizens of the largest democracy, with unfettered freedom of expression, protested vehemently. Why was Musharraf accorded the rank of a favorite poodle and their man was not! They have, however, been adequately compensated. Bush signed a nuclear agreement with India and openly relegated Pakistan to a subsidiary status.
I first heard of this gentleman in early fifties when his first wife was murdered. The accused was a young college student. I came across the convicted murderer during a field trip to the jail. His second wife Safia was a highly trained physical therapist and we worked as volunteers together in a charitable Handicapped children’s support organization.
Pirzada had briefly served as Jinnah’s secretary. He reemerged into public view when he invented the law of necessity to legitimize Ayub’s martial law. He served as a foreign minister of Pakistan and secretary general of Organization of Islamic conference. After Justice Munir, he is the prime architect of the denigration of legal process in Pakistan. The redoubtable Cowasjee calls him the Jadoogar of Jeddah.
Asian American Network Against Abuse a US based HR group has not yet been lured by corporate funding.
For convenience and brevity I group them together as the evil Quad. I must hasten to add that inspiration for the term came from Mao
The charade of elections under the supervision of the current dispensation followed by installation of Tweedledum or Tweedledee under control of an incumbent army chief will not usher in bourgeoisie democracy.
George W Bush, in addition to his near illiterate status, has a curious inability to pronounce words. He said strategy for strategy.
Aping the system in the USA Bhutto took away the title of Commander in Chief from the chiefs of services and formed a Chief’s of staff committee with its own chairman. He thought that through the chief of chiefs he would be able to control army establishment. Little did he know.
These Airports were, incidentally, used by civilian flights decades ago, when the Civil Airport runway was not large enough to cope with large airplanes. Security personnel wanted to stop one of my classmates in the university of Karachi, Sibghat U Kadri now a QC in the UK from leaving the country. He changed his flight from Pakistan Airlines to BOAC (now BA) whose planes used the air force airport, as the civilian facility could not handle BA jets.
To my utter surprise and consternation Indians, Government and public, legatees of the self-respect of Gandhi and Nehru, denizens of the largest democracy, with unfettered freedom of expression, protested vehemently. Why was Musharraf accorded the rank of a favorite poodle and their man was not! They have, however, been adequately compensated. Bush signed a nuclear agreement with India and openly relegated Pakistan to a subsidiary status.
I first heard of this gentleman in early fifties when his first wife was murdered. The accused was a young college student. I came across the convicted murderer during a field trip to the jail. His second wife Safia was a highly trained physical therapist and we worked as volunteers together in a charitable Handicapped children’s support organization.
Pirzada had briefly served as Jinnah’s secretary. He reemerged into public view when he invented the law of necessity to legitimize Ayub’s martial law. He served as a foreign minister of Pakistan and secretary general of Organization of Islamic conference. After Justice Munir, he is the prime architect of the denigration of legal process in Pakistan. The redoubtable Cowasjee calls him the Jadoogar of Jeddah.
Asian American Network Against Abuse a US based HR group has not yet been lured by corporate funding.
For convenience and brevity I group them together as the evil Quad. I must hasten to add that inspiration for the term came from Mao
The charade of elections under the supervision of the current dispensation followed by installation of Tweedledum or Tweedledee under control of an incumbent army chief will not usher in bourgeoisie democracy