Even if you play devil’s advocate and try to defend it with all the ifs and buts and legal jargons, you know that was corruption. A massive one. With clear benefits for the people in the government of that time i.e. PTI.
Otherwise, you don’t present an ex-agenda item in a closed envelope to be approved by the Federal Cabinet without even knowing about it. Shireen Mazari objected rightly.
And that is not just one case. Asim Bajwa’s pizza worth billions were cleaned and okayed by the same Prime Minister. “I’m satisfied”, he said then. And you don’t approve pizza without taking a pie. Your pie. Or maybe you don’t like pizza at all.
Then there were so many other cases. Clear for some. Unclear for others. It depends on the stand of bias where you sit.
The mantra from getting billions of offshore money back to Pakistan was turned into another mantra of putting it back into the account of the corrupt offshore holder. How convenient!
A journalist gets a plot of 1 kanal from Malik Riaz and everyone is of the clear opinion that this journalist and his entire TV channel is corrupt. But Khan gets 458 kanal, yet he stays incorruptible.
By the way, Raheel Shareef got 868 kanal in Lahore. After retirement. For serving the country. I’m sorry. It’s a landmark deviation.
Anyway, just when homes and apartments – Remember Nasla Tower? – were being bulldozed by the government and the Supreme Court, Imran Khan got clearance of his Bani Gala residence for pennies. Literally pennies. Rs.6 per sq. ft.
Meanwhile, exactly around the same time, poor people in Islamabad and Karachi were thrown out of their homes by Development Authorities in the name of legalities.
And exactly – another meanwhile – the same time came Malik Riaz who grabbed 30,000 acres of land in Karachi, threw people out of their homes, apartheid small villages, and made billions. That was PPP supporting him in Sindh and PTI helping him out in the Center. You listened to that song “I hate you, like I love you…”. Makes sense?
Now, did Zardari took cash? Any evidence? Leak call? Something? No. But we do know he’s absolutely corrupted in this matter or any other. Just like he did what he did for Rao Anwar (444 encounters including Naqeebullah).
Allow His Highness another deviation.
Rao Anwar was not just a usual DSP. He made 74 trips of Dubai in 6 years at a mere salary of Rs.95,000. He has multiple properties (apartments, offices, suites, etc.) in Dubai which generates rents in thousands of dollars. But he was not corrupt. Never raised his hand on anyone. Just a bullet 444 times. And the court cleared him. Getting that?
But in dark nights, his conscientiousness doesn’t let him sleep. Dostoevsky novels hurt him – which he hasn’t even read. Crime and punishment kinda. He wakes up and walks around in his villas all night and thinks to commit suicide.
Not really. He takes his branded wine. And he sleeps well. Don’t be an idiot like you always are in defending your godfather.
In a very, very nutshell. NCA investigated. Froze £180 million. Malik Riaz got in trouble. Comes Shehzad Akbar (why, why?), who tells NCA that Riaz will drain you out in a legal battle with money. Comes settlement. Fine. NCA to transfer the stolen wealth back to the country from where it was stolen. Comes Pakistan. Comes Federal Cabinet’s meeting where, on directions of Imran Khan, Shehzad Akbar asks the cabinet to approve the agenda without knowing about it.
The whole Federal machinery helped him. The same Malik Riaz who himself never has defended his corruption. But now, as we are coming closer to the stink of everyone, he sounds pious. Just in this episode. Please allow this benefit of doubt for the sake of the greatest of all times. Just this one time. Nah!
Because in return, Khan got 458 kanal. Yes, right. For university. In the name of religion. In the name of holy texts. They corrupt you like no one else.
Now, are you an idiot?
Or are you that hunter who goes to hunt a bear in the woods? And every time bear hunts him – yeah, the other way round. By the third time, bear squints. “You’re not really out here for the hunting, are you?”
Stop hunting. This one case is as clear as the sun in a summer sky. But since you don’t want to believe it, it’s ok. After all, it’s not the pawns. It’s the system. And this one case of Malik Riaz unites all. PPP, PMLN, PTI, military, and the whole bureaucratic machinery.
Just like the military unites them in times of extensions. And extraordinary budget.
