SPOTLIGHT: 'Fake Degrees' to go the way of NRO (stalled), Swiss cases (frozen), BB murder (all but forgotten)...?: National scenario or horror combo!

One would have thought it was a straightforward black and white issue: those who had lied under oath on their way to the highest elected positions in the country deserved to be weeded out and punished withou much ado! But no! All hell broke loose when it was found that HEC Chairman Javaid Laghari entrusted with the task of verifying degrees of all thousand odd MNAs, MPA and Senators, was going about his task with honesty, vigor and dedication.
Strange are the ways of Allah! Who would have thought that a soft-spoken highly qualified academic, a PPP man to boot, one who quit his Senate seat on party's orders and moved to head ZABIST and again to his present position as HEC Chairman all without a murmur or complaint, who would have thought we repeat that such a man would be one day entrusted with a task whose execution would cause restless days and sleepless nights for his party bosses and again who would have thought that the quiet academic would have the spine to stand up to all kinds of pressures brought to bear upon him and his family to do less than an honest job of the task entrusted to him? A brother (a DCO) was arrested on several charges dating back to several years ago.
The Education Ministry was interjected in the process only to cause confusion and delay. Sardar Aseff Ahmed Ali was inducted post-haste as Education Minister with the prime assignment apparently to thwart the efforts of Higher Education Committee towards taking the degrees' evaluation to a firm, fair and quick solution. No wonder Sardar Sahib came on the scene both barrels firing against both the HEC Chairman and the Parliament's Standing Committee on Education, headed by Abid Sher Ali, who are relentlessly campaigning for proper evaluation of degrees. Other hurdles including foot-dragging by the ECP and public demonstration by the Jiyalas against the HEC Chairman and in defence of Faryal Talpur's degree (just what was the need?), led by the emergent star on the PPP firmament Sharmila Farooqi, complete the sordid picture.
NRO, Swiss cases, BB assassination
Remember NRO the deal worked out between Benazir on the one hand and then President Mushrraf on the other with patron America and benefactors and brothers from the Arab world overseeing everything? It now seems to be ages since the Supreme Court passed certain very specific orders about the case. Some orders concerned the notorious Swiss cases, which were to be immediately reopened and pursued so that the nations's wealth, amounting to some $65 million, could be brought back home to alleviate at least some of the misery of its suffering millions. Six months down the line has anything happened? What about the Pakistan Steels' alleged scam running into billions?
Where is the Bank of Punjab case headed? What about BB assassination? A half-way sort of report was sought from the UN with poor terms of reference. When the report was at last ready to be delivered, it was deliberately delayed by the government by asking the UN to include this or that input as well. When it was finally received, it was claimed at first by PPP that it redeemed the party stand (what exactly is the party stand, by the way?) on the issue. But within weeks, the report was criticised as full of holes. There were several awkward questions raised in the report, which the PPP government under Zardari found it difficult to digest as some of them pointed a puzzled finger at those very close to him.
And then a local inquiry was launched in which the objective appeared to have been reduced from "who killed BB"? to "who washed the street"? And there the matters appear to linger, perhaps, to be destined to the dust bin of history. Who would have thought this would be the end of investigations into BB's assassination while her own party was in power. Now the floods have come at a very convenient time for President Zardari (as he might see it) to enable him to while away the remaining half of his term without doing anything meaningful in all these vital matters. Whether or how long the judiciary will allow him to get away with it remains to be seen.
The deluge
The most widely reported item of the horror combo was naturally the great flood. Much has been said about availability of early (a week or so) warnings about the deluge without any corresponding action by the civilian governments while the military got the credit for having quietly started preparation for action on its own without waiting for the civilian authority's call for help which came later. The flood as we said above is henceforth likely to be the constant, handy excuse and defence of the PPP government for its failure to even make a beginning towards solving or at least ameliorating any of the numerous problems confronting the country - desperate poverty with mothers killing or abandoning children rather than see them dying from hunger, with unemployment rising to unprecedented levels, with power shutdowns hurting people and industry alike, day light targeted killings without any one caught or punished, with investigations ordered by the Judiciary against the corrupt halted or blocked at every stage, with honest officers being made unfunctional and corrupt instruments put in positions of responsibility everywhere.
And one can go on and on! The President's junket across France and England could not have come at a worse time for the President himself and his government. People at large are feeling ashamed and disgusted with the whole matter, which has become associated in the public mind with the "shoe", allegedly aimed at the President at Birmingham. The PPP's clumsy handling of the matter ensured that.
Defending the indefensible
Pity the party spokesmen, who must defend their party leader at all costs and beyond all reason or lose their position of power and the privileges that go with it! This applies to the Nawaz League to some extent, but much more to PPP whose spokespersons (now increasingly spokeswomen), who must defend Asif Zardari under all circumstances and against all accusations or criticism, however reasonable and muted, or suffer fall from grace.
The other day we saw examples of this yet again, in a TV panel discussion centring on the untimeliness and futility of the President's leisurely outing through France and England. One of the points brought up was the incongruity of ISI, cancelling its projected trip to the UK on the occasion of the President's junket while the President's plans remained unchanged.
An incensed spokesperson then claimed that ISI has acted on its own, ie without an okay from the civilian authority. This brought forth the quip from the anchor man: how can you say that the civilian authority had control over extension of the army chief's tenure when it cannot even get ISI to follow its policy, or words to that effect.
Criticism of the judiciary, at first muted, but later increasingly strident and now criticism of the military, also getting more audible is indicative of a house divided, a house in deep trouble even otherwise. Just see the blow struck by the President by revoking the order of the Prime Minister, sacking Khosa as his Advisor on Information Technology. On the top of that soon after "restoration" to his previous position, Khosa has made detailed allegations of mega corruption against high bureaucrats of the ministry working under the Prime Minister. Is the PM being publicly reprimanded and humiliated for crossing the President on some other issue?
Alice in wonderland
The midnight announcement by PM Gilani extending the tenure of the army chief by 3 years has been the subject of much ridicule-laced comment, in view, among other reasons, of incongruous circumstances like the odd time chosen, the excited delivery and the need itself. Even otherwise there was conjecture whether the President and the PM were on the same wavelength in the matter. The PM continues to make a fool of himself. With a straight face, he claims education to be at the top of his government's priority! After the horrible blood-bath in Karachi, he thinks his job is done with the signing of the code of conduct among political parties already in coalition in Sindh! He at this point in time "suspects" foreign hand in the killings.
About the floods, he has said that they have set the country back by half a century! Should he not have rather exhorted the people to rise to the occasion with a resovle to rebuild within five years what has been lost, by all pulling together and doing their best with he himself setting an example? A body should already have been set to work on a credible recovery plan. Instead what most readily comes to his lips is call for external assessment in which he appears to follow the President's example who cannot open his mouth without "asking for more". Does not all this make for a Horror Combo? ([email protected])