Daily Times

While reading an interesting book, An Iraqi Jew in the Mossad: Memoir of an Israeli Intelligence Officer, based on the recollections of a former Israeli spy, Joshua Horesh, I came across an interesting quote by the first Israeli president, Ben Gurion. “In order for Israel to be counted among the nations of the world, it has to have its own burglars and prostitutes.” Interesting quote, isn’t it? And thought provoking too.

Let us keep the topic of prostitution aside for Minto’s short stories, for prostitution is a subject of pre-partition days and it does not happen in Pakistan. God forbid, how could it exist in the land of the pure? Let us focus on the ‘burglars’ aspect of the quote. Who can deny that for a nation to survive honourably, it has to have its own thieves and burglars? A nation grooms its best daughters and sons into the art of thievery in order to steal enemy secrets and protect itself from outside aggression, not so that they break into their own house.

Another author, Mary Bancroft, who spied for the US government during World War II, in her memoirs, Autobiography of a Spy, recounts Allan Dulles’ time in Switzerland as the master spy for the US. Dulles rose to become the longest-serving director of the CIA. Mary, who also served as his love interest while in Switzerland, has explained how he did not feel any qualms about breaking any law while in Europe for the sake of his country. Dulles was an extremely law abiding citizen at home. She also mentions how careful Dulles was with government money.

But these rules don’t apply to us. We make our own rules. In Sindhi they say, if the world goes west, the blind march towards the east. Let them go west. For the last 65 years, we have been producing experts of the art who excel at breaking into our own house. And at the rate at which we breed and nurture them, should there be a World Cup for the occupation, we could very easily occupy the highest pedestal on the victory stand. If the place is not already taken by Israel, that is.

However, spying for one’s own country being a perfectly legal and honourable job, it is not the topic of our discussion today. Also, we assume that none of our faithful agencies have death squads, as reported in the Supreme Court, and all the Baloch who are missing are disappearing voluntarily and happily and when the court orders that they be produced, they kill themselves of their own free will, inspired by the Japanese kamikazes. They also do not forget to torture themselves before committing suicide to cleanse themselves of their sins before dying, following the noble tradition of the Catholic organisation Opus Dei’s corporal punishment. Let us not waste our time on something that does not exist and is purely a figment of the separatist Baloch imagination.

Let us discuss real thieves and the disappearance of billions of rupees sent to Sindh for development and job creation. Where has all the money sent in my name gone? This question comes especially from a rural Sindhi. Urban Sindhis know very well what mouth their hands feed. Properties in London and casino trips do not come for free. Neither is real estate in Houston and Dallas cheap. Therefore, the money sent for the urban Sindh is visible, transparent and well accounted for.

It is the rural Sindhi who is at a loss. Where did all the government money and the millions earned by selling jobs to the needy Sindhis go? I think the Supreme Court would do Sindhis a big favour if, while investigating the missing persons, it also looked into the forced disappearance of money allocated for Sindh. Purportedly, the minimum going price for a petty job of a primary school teacher is roughly 350,000 rupees in Sindh these days. The post of a police constable or a bank teller costs approximately the same. The prices are far higher for an officer level position. This amount must include the commission for the third party brokering the deal. My humble suggestion, whatever it is worth, would be that in the way the government is constructing farm to market roads to benefit the buyer by eliminating the third person cost, it should make a law for the ministers and the government functionaries to deal directly with the contender for a job. This will save the poor person around 50,000 rupees he has to pay otherwise as a commission to the middle man. But the way the court is slashing every law churned out by parliament, I am afraid that this great law will be quashed at the first hearing. Who does not need a cover, after all?

The floods inundated almost the whole of Sindh last year and billions poured into the province for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the flood affected areas. But if you go to the affected areas even today, you will find absolutely no development. Even in Nawabshah and Larkana, the constituencies of the power elite of Sindh, a vast area is still under water. Where has all my money gone? Funds were granted to fortify the Indus embankment at Sukkur. Nobody knows where the money went. The Bundar Wall, as the embankment is known in Sukkur, has still to see good days.

One of the reasons for the Lyari Operation, say the people in the know, being that a major chunk out of the amount allocated for the development of Lyari was demanded by a foster brother. When Aziz Jan and other Lyariites refused, the forces were unleashed on the poor area of the city of Karachi. The operation ended in a big fiasco, alienating the governing party from its most loyal support base. But my question again is,: where did the money in question go? Granted everyone knows into whose pockets the money coming from the government coffers as well as the sale of jobs is going, but why is it not visible? As a rural Sindhi, I need to know about my money. But who should I ask?

I thought about filing a petition in the Supreme Court about my missing millions. However, the court being too busy hearing such important cases of national interest as the case of Atiqa Odho’s two liquor bottles and definition of vulgarity, I think it is better not to bother my honourable lordships.

The writer is an independent political commentator based in the USA