Thursday, March 04, 2010
S Khalid Husain

Great! Nawaz Sharif boomed long and hard on the first day of March, about himself and his brother, and about his party’s high merits, and plugged powerfully, on illegally “borrowed” power, as it turned out, for the PML-N victory in Constituency 123 of Lahore.

His thunderous words extolling ethics, integrity and righteousness were inspiring, except that they were delivered in a sea of shimmering lights, and through a dozen loudspeakers, all illegally powered with stolen voltage. Somebody in the party must have goofed mightily to cause such thunderous and inspiring words to become so revolting, diluted with the illegality of the lighting and sound arrangements.

Some time earlier, a PPP minister, at the height of summer power crisis in Karachi, lit up his house and the entire street in the Defence Housing Authority for days like a Christmas tree, for his son’s wedding. His “reason” was that his constituents expect such grandiosity from him and he would lose face with them if he did not indulge in it.

The worthy member of the PPP government’s federal cabinet was being honest about the reasons for his delinquency. He is a duly elected MNA and he is sensitive to his constituents’ expectations, and if they expect him to light up his house and neighbourhood to celebrate his son’s wedding, who is he not to do so? Never mind if his constituents also expect him to arrange piped water, good roads, healthcare, schools, because all these can wait, a son’s wedding cannot.

Strange, there was not a moment of load shedding at the site of the glittering and resounding PML-N meeting, even as the rest of Lahore suffered through its share of powerlessness. The liberal use of Punjab government resources and facilities for the PML-N public meeting has been drowned in the electricity pilferage, or kunda, scandal. It was not a reassuring thing to have happened, the party Quaid thundering as if righteousness begins and ends with his family party, and the party unashamedly using resources paid for by taxpayers’ money for party purposes.

http://thenews.jang.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=227125

Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif is the richest member of the Punjab Assembly, with multi-million pounds of foreign assets mentioned in his declared assets to the Election Commission of Pakistan.

The question arises, why are foreign assets mentioned in this declaration, not part of the previous declarations made by the CM? If we go through his declaration before going into exile, we cannot find these foreign assets.

No authority, including the Federal Board of Revenue, has raised any questions as to how these assets were acquired. Which source of income has helped him add these assets to his kitty? If any ordinary person had made such a declaration, the agencies concerned would have pounced on him and his family. But no one has questioned our politicians about the sources of these overnight rises in their assets. These are ours institutions’ double standards, which grill the common man and facilitate the rich ones.

In the recent past, Nawaz Sharif, with his signatures, had declared his assets in NA-123 by-elections. Nawaz was shown having not paid any income tax, still no authority or media quarter raised the issue as to how one of the country’s key political leaders was shown living such a miserable life.

Ahsan Iqbal later defended his boss with the argument that the assets declared by Nawaz were indeed accurate. A statement that was later made all the more suspicious when Siddiqul Farooq said Nawaz’s daily expense was Rs 3.2 million. You can multiply the figures by 365 days, but be assured, no action will be taken against the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief.

Even if we were to buy into Ahsan’s theory, Nawaz’s living style would completely negate that claim. Comparing Nawaz’s asset with living style indicates that he is living beyond his means, which is a crime.

But alas, rules were made for lesser men.

If any rules are actually applicable on politicians, then the only example that comes to mind is the non-Punjabi Pakistan People’s Party. In the eyes of our laws, Punjabi leaders are more revered than sacred cows.

An application was filed with the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) two years back, pleading to probe the Sharif brothers’ assets, including a steel mill in Saudi Arabia and property in London. But, predictably, NAB did not act.

In January a news agency reported that the Sharifs’ owned properties in London worth millions of pounds, but PML-N hawks were quick to deny the claim and declared it a “character assassination campaign” against the PML-N leadership.

Appearing on a TV show, Ahsan Iqbal declared the news item the “brain child of the cronies of Musharraf”. However, we now see that Shahbaz Sharif has declared his foreign assets. I am sure Ahsan Iqbal will avoid speaking on the issue now. The FBR, or any other government agency, will probably not bother to hold any inquiry into the source of these declared assets, because such an act would of course be tantamount to “political victimisation”, an allegation that the PPP avoids at all costs.

The recent power theft at a PML-N election rally and another case of power theft involving Prisons Minister Chaudhry Gafoor was brushed under the carpet. WAPDA authorities have given the PML-N a clean sheet. Although, we all know that if an ordinary person had committed such a crime, he would have been served a severe punishment.

The PML-N leadership has admitted that the district administration had been assisting in the arrangements of the rally. PML-N MNA Khawaja Saad Rafique, during a TV show, threatened the correspondent and asked him to tender an apology for claiming that the rally had stolen electricity. The power theft was shown live on almost every TV channel, but Mr Khawaja still claims electricity was not stolen.

The real question is why DCO Lahore Sajjad Bhutta and town municipal officers had come to the PML-N’s rescue. Rafique’s sole objective was to declare that the PML-N was the party of innocents. It would be interesting to see how he defends the electricity stolen by the prisons minister.

Just recently, an SHO stripped some suspects and publicly tortured. Is the incident – which speaks of a mindset — one of the tenants of good governance?

The “model” Punjab government did not take any action against the police officers involved in this torture until the media pointed it out and raised the issue.

If rulers ignore thefts and keep each other free from accountability, then such incidents will become routine. If the rulers will not abide by the law, how can they expect the rest not to follow suite? Good governance should start from one’s own home. The same goes for accountability.

A PML-N stalwart was right when he said, “If the party starts unmasking the so-called virtuous and ‘valet de chamber’ class, what will it be left with?”
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=201034\story_4-3-2010_pg7_10

LESCO could not count more than 4 bulbs in the picture (shown in the post above) which was published in Dawn and other newspapers.

ایک سوال پر انہوں نے بتایا کہ مسلم لیگ نون کے جلسے کے لیے ٹاؤن آفیسر نے جو بجلی استعمال کی اس بجلی کے ذریعے پانچ سو واٹ کے چار بلب جلائے گئے۔
http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/pakistan/2010/03/100302_pml_power_theft.shtml

Shame on Nawaz Sharif and PML-N. Instead of accepting their mistake and apologizing to the nation, they have (ab)used their influence to force LESCO to lay the blame of the electricity theft on a poor line superintendent.

TMO, LESCO officials responsible for electricity theft in Lahore
Upadated on: 02 Mar 10 04:28 PM

LAHORE: The Lahore Electric Supply Corporation (LESCO) considers TMO and LESCO officials responsible for the electricity theft at the public gathering of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). LESCO sources told SAMAA that investigative committee formed to investigate the matter of the electricity theft at the public gathering of PML-N has completed its investigation. Tehsil Municipal Officer Shalimar town appeared before the committee to record his statement. He admitted his mistake that it was his fault that he didn’t get permission for the usage of the electricity for the public gathering of PML-N.

LESCO official put the fine of Rs 3000 on TMO. LESCO officials also suspended the Line Superintendent Shalimar town.

The investigative report states that there is no involvement of PML-N leadership in the issue of electricity theft but LESCO officials are responsible for the issue. SAMAA

http://www.samaa.tv/News17562-TMO_LESCO_officials_responsible_for_electricity_theft_in_Lahore.aspx

http://www.samaa.tv/Contents/News/2010/03/02/17562/NewsImage_17562.jpg

From loha chore to bijli chore, there is a long history of “integrity” and “honesty” of Sharif brothers.

“Television footage showed that metal hooks had been illegally connected to live wires to secure the electricity supply for the rally.
The BBC’s M Ilyas Khan in Islamabad says that the rally was covered by all TV channels and almost all of them ran the video footage of the illegal connections, locally called “kunda”.”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/8545264.stm

They still call him Tiger!

In the same speech delivered under stolen electricity, NS also criticized politicians for stolen money stashed in their Swiss accounts. How easily has he forgotten that his own accounts in US, UK, Dubai, etc. fall in the same category. Stolen money is stolen money whether in Swiss banks or any other.

And they still call him clean and Sharif!