Sir: When Imran Khan came to power, he did so on the promise to end corruption within the country, as well as to bring an end to the VIP vulture that has become common place, especially amongst the rich and the people in government. While, he has not had too much time to eliminate corruption, that has spread to every important aspect of governance in Pakistan and will take years to finally bring to an end, his work on ending VIP culture has not been very encouraging either.
Barring the previously famous incidents of PTI members and serving ministers either swearing at journalists or other politicians, or getting in to road-side fights with common citizens, another incident has just caught the eye of the public. It was recently revealed that Imran Khan has been going to work on a helicopter, from his home in Bani Gala. However, what made this news go viral, especially on social media, was Fawad Chaudry’s way of excusing this behaviour. The country’s Information and Broadcasting Minister claimed that a cursory search on google revealed that the helicopter journey could only cost about Rs 50 to Rs 55.
This figure is laughably incorrect and social media had a lot of fun at Fawad and Imran’s expense. Perhaps the minster of ‘information’ would have been better severed rechecking everything he reads on the internet. Hopefully this episode will go a long way in ensuring that he does so in the future.
UZAIR NADEEM
Lahore
Published in Daily Times, September 2nd 2018.