Daily Times

A billion bucks scandal, the big and powerful suppressing the poor and powerless, Spiderman intervenes and hounds them, dons and mafiosi escape leaving room for the next sequel. This is not a Hollywood fantasy but Pakistani reality. This has been the live and running serial going on in Pakistan for over six decades. Every government comes in the guise of a saviour claiming freedom from loot and plunder, and every government becomes part of a larger share in the pie for the same loot and plunder. As the heat turns up, it packs its bags for cooler havens abroad only to be back when its successors become even bigger looters. This is why the present clean up operation in the country is being looked at with the disbelief of this just being another sequel of so many episodes that end up making room for another sequel. However, as in movies where the sequel reaches its fourth or fifth version, it stops attracting audiences. Similarly, in Pakistan, these operation clean ups’ inability to provide a happily ever after ending has cast doubts on the latest one being the beginning of the end.
The theme of “they came, they looted, they escaped, they returned” sequence started after the demise of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Ziaul Haq. Bhutto started with the cleanup operation slogan of roti, kapra aur makaan (food, clothing and shelter) and became the symbol of a saviour of the poor. Unfortunately, despite his charisma and his cult following, his own insecurities got the better of him. The 1977 elections’ rigging and opposition unrest gave space to General Ziaul Haq to come as a saviour and protect the country from corrupt politicians. General Zia became President Zia and his 90-day promise elongated into 11 years of serving US interests before finally he died in a plane crash.
Then came the illustrious, democratic musical chairs where every two years Messrs Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto ousted each other in the name of cleaning up the mess and establishing democracy. Each time the country’s assets went down while the assets of our leaders multiplied exponentially. Enter the saviour once again in the form of Musharraf who looked the most promising at the clean up job as he convicted and jailed the big guns. Nawaz Sharif was arrested and given life sentence on multiple charges of corruption and hijacking, and for a while that looked like the end of the story. Not so. Barely 14 months later Nawaz and 18 members of his family were whisked off to Jeddah due to a 10-year deal between Musharraf and the Saudi government. The Sharifs escaped to the holy land to relish the billions they had looted and stowed in Saudi Arabia and the UK. Meanwhile, Benazir Bhutto managed to escape to Dubai and London. Meanwhile, Asif Zardari, who was in jail for more than eight years, was also allowed to leave the country and preferred to bask in the glory of US soil to recoup for a future return to Pakistan.
Musharraf brought in a cabinet of professional technocrats who were perceived to be doing what the politicians had failed to do. To head this cabinet he imported Shaukat Aziz and stage-managed his political eligibility by making him get a miraculous 100,000 votes from Thar. Since Shaukat Aziz was a well-known international banker, there was the comfort that he would be able to do what politicians could not, i.e. improve governance and stay away from graft and greed. But once you bend the rules, you actually bend yourself to every compromise. That is what happened to Musharraf who, in order to legitimise his political illegitimacy, went back to the same old rotten politicians he had vowed to expunge. As the cry for his autocratic rule to end became louder, he signed the infamous National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) to set all the scoundrels free and enabled them to make a comeback to the political scene with a vengeance.
Shaukat Aziz’s claim to fame was not his governance management but his gift management. It was an amazing gift list of over 1,000 items, of which one-third were not even reported by Shaukat Aziz. The cost of these state gifts runs into millions. The gifts included diamond necklaces, gold ornaments, pearls, Persian carpets, jewelled wristwatches, vases, chandeliers, etc. He neatly packed containers of these gifts for his family in London and the US, and left the country. Not to be outdone by his junior, President Musharraf had a list of super expensive state gifts given by many heads of states that he took with himself after exonerating all murderers and criminals through the NRO to seek cooler pastures abroad. As the 2013 elections came nearer, and as he saw democratic governments fail yet again, he made a comeback only to become a part of the old vendetta of Nawaz versus Musharraf. These political Godfathers escape to foreign lands when the heat is on knowing that it will only be a matter of time before they get the space to return.
Altaf Hussain’s case is unique as he left the country in 1992 but has never really left it. With a stake in every government due to a major hold over Karachi, there have always been allegations of the MQM being a money and murder mafia. Despite that no government has had the guts to really pursue the MQM as they need this party to remain in power. Thus goes the story so far of how most of our leaders have plundered the country, have been convicted of murders, corruption and extortion, and have finally escaped abroad to live off their looted riches, ready to make a comeback through some national or international deal. Therefore, when the present operation took place against the MQM and PPP, most analysts felt it was like déjà vu. Twice before the government and army have promised this clean up and have compromised for power but, admittedly, things have never really gone this far before where foreign countries — UK and India included — are now being approached to close the circle.
However, there are questions that need to be answered. As the noose tightened around the neck of the Zardari family where billions have been discovered in the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) and fisheries scandal, why has the family been let go? The other question is, is this noose also going to be around those parties that have been shielding and promoting terrorist organisations in Punjab and other provinces? Thirdly, is this noose going to cover corrupt army officers, judges and bureaucrats? The answer to these questions will lead us to determine whether this horror/thriller will end up with another sequel of the Return of the Godfather or whether it will finally be that Spiderman kills and buries all these mafias to free the country from the forces of evil.

The writer is secretary information PTI Punjab, an analyst, a columnist and can be reached at andleeb.abbas1@gmail.com