Daily Times

In foreign lands. Away from the local din. Sitting in a restaurant sipping juice. Comfortable that the Pakistani madness is a far cry. Till you see the face. A scared, hurried departure. Leaving your juice behind. That is the state of a man who is a three times Prime minister and whose party is ruling Pakistan. It is Nawaz Sharif Vs Shayan Ali. Shayan is not an expert undercover agent for the ISI. Shayan is not the FIA officer on the prowl to locate absconders. Shayan is not a Scotland-yard investigator. Shayan is a sixteen-year-old kid who is an anti-corruption activist living in London. He has become the most irritating factor for the Sharif family. Not only has this kid taken them on but also two biggest names in the Pakistani media industry and won the case against them.

This is a world that is all about open information, open source, crowdfunding and seamless community. This is a world where what you say and what you do can travel faster than the speed of light. This is a world where machines learn faster than humans. This is a world where money lying on the shores is scanned and exposed in a matter of clicks. We live in a world where intelligence is no longer the privilege of the CIA and RAW but is just a matter of a smart hacker. In this world, those who feel they can do and cover up are just fooling themselves. The dark side of this is the fake news and videos, the blackmail, and the extortion. The bright side of this is that those whose questionable deeds are being documented and those who are questionably documenting them are equally subject to this exposé scrutiny by any Tom, Dick, Harry IT nerd. This new world not only has peeping Toms but has Peepers who are also peeping over these peeping Toms. That is why the game needs to be played differently. The playbook of politics needs to rewrite the rules in view of the following:

Audio/Videos as a personal attack-The game of dirty secrets of the lives of the rich and the famous is old and well established. This game was sometimes known as a honey trap and sometimes a money trap. The idea was to identify the person’s weak link, lure it through a stage-managed offering, videograph it and keep it for the right moment. The dirty secrets were then used to scare, threaten and influence people into submission to the secret holder’s command. This was how the power mafias, be it in the government, be it the industrial giants, be it the intelligence agencies worked. And it worked. Moral and financial dirt is very hard to bear. These videos may be dated, but they are frightening for people. Judge Arshad’s case was an example. A video taken years ago was displayed in a public press conference to shame him and his judgement. His career and reputation suffered and according to his colleagues, he passed away a very miserable and depressed man. Similarly, the audios of Maryam Nawaz and Shahbaz Sharif planning an illegal import of machinery from India for her son-in-law were blatant. Audios of PTI Chairman Imran Khan were also let loose.

Once upon a time, you could make a lot of money, keep it hidden and then transport it into mysterious accounts in countries that asked no questions.

The difference is that previously, these secrets were either kept with limited exposure or even if people knew who was behind them, they would be too scared to reveal. Not so any longer. PTI Chairman has come out in the open and told how General Bajwa warned him about videos and called him a playboy. He accepted that in the past he had been, but, then had the guts to question him that are the agencies paid by the taxpayer to make private videos of people. This question has led to an open debate on most social media forums. For the first time, the honey and money trappers feel trapped because the Invisibles are becoming visible.

Money hidden and discovered- Once upon a time, you could make a lot of money, keep it hidden and then transport it into mysterious accounts in countries where there were no questions asked. Switzerland, the UK and Panama would welcome it as an investment and give it privacy cover to make these elite money launderers safe. That was once. Now the hackers have a sharp hacking knife. They cut through the various layers of confidentiality and security firewalls and bring the hidden money out. The Panama Leaks, Paradise Leaks and Swiss leaks were an example of this unlayering and uncovering. The crude method of putting money in your servants’ accounts and then sending it abroad through dubious means was the done thing in Pakistan. Commission payoffs in billions are hard to justify. Fake companies and fake transactions are created to show a made-up money trail that can now be proven fraudulent in no time. The problem is that even when the proof is there, but the proof assessors are under blackmail threats, the proof becomes redundant. Nearly 60% of today’s cabinet is under mega corruption scandals originating decades ago. However, after coming into power, they have “managed” to make laws that conveniently make these proofs irrelevant. However, they will not be buried as the masses are now making a million videos to highlight these issues.

Narratives implants or creations- In the earlier era of mainstream media, heroes were made and destroyed on crafted scripts. The scripts were written behind closed doors and fed into the mainstream media to lip service to the same dialogues. The dialogues were based on the heroics of the dictators and the terribleness of the civil leaders. They worked well. Even after the East Pakistan 1971 war disaster, the efficient suppression of the Hamood Ur Rehman report was enough to keep the truth under water. The civil governments had enough scams document proofed by the institutions to substantiate the narrative of corrupt governments Vs clean and effective governance of the dictators. The public believed that the civil governments compromised due to greed to regain compromised governments. Then, the PTI government happened.

The narrative of incompetence was scripted and it was booted out. But the narrative was taken head-on by Imran Khan and facts proved otherwise. General Bajwa used the tradition of scripting and planting a narrative through selective columnists/anchors. The theme was that Imran Khan was removed as he was dangerous to Pakistan. That dialogue has become so embarrassing that the General had to call his other mouthpieces to deny it. The attempt to diffuse this storm of an indecent confession is adding even more fuel to this fire. Everybody who has a story on him is now venting it out publicly.

The Big Boss moment of truth is here to stay. This reality show is about people living in a specially constructed house that is isolated from the outside world. People live while trying to be on their best behaviour to win the best votes to win the contest. But true human behaviour comes out even when they know it is being watched out for. The scripts have been ripped apart. The dialogue is blurted out. The stories are being rewritten and retold by a 16-year-old like Shayan Ali and by an 83-year-old like Anwar Maqsood.

The writer is a columnist, consultant, coach, and an analyst and can be reached at andleeb.abbas1@gmail,com. She tweets at @AndleebAbbas