‘Action Stations’, NAB

Why has ‘Action Stations’ not been sounded by NAB yet, for did it not notice the recent extravaganza in Lahore?

‘Action Stations’: the command that the British Navy and its offshoot the Pakistan Navy use when engagement with an enemy or any other emergency is imminent. And so this call to arms applies to our all-seeing, all-knowing, omnipotent National Accountability Bureau, the chief head honcho of which is none other than a retired full admiral of the navy, Fasih Bokhari.

Why has ‘Action Stations’ not been sounded by NAB yet, for did its eagle eye not notice the most recent many billion rupee extravaganza in Lahore mounted by none other than Sheikh-ul-Islam Dr Muhammad Tahirul Qadri, chief of the Minhaj-ul-Quran International (MQI)? Did NAB, which is so quick in making wild allegations of corruption against ‘bloody civilians’ with no facts to back up its claims, mark, not notice the thousands of expensive, art-printed posters and banners and buntings announcing the imminent arrival of the Messiah that overnight and suddenly appeared on every electric pole and building and rickshaw and taxi in Lahore?

Did NAB’s sleuths not see the hundreds of buses that brought many thousands of people from all over Pakistan, well Punjab really, to Lahore for the rally addressed by al Sheikh? Or document the expensive advertisements shown night after night on most TV channels announcing his impending arrival? Or note the langars set up to feed these people from two nights earlier and one night after the rally? Does finding out where the funds that paid for this extravaganza came from not form part of the NAB’s mandate? And whether those that claim to have funded the show, and its announcement, had declared such funds in their income tax returns?

Or is it the NAB’s mandate only to play to the security establishment/chattering class’s gallery by fingering the political governments as to their ‘corruption’ only? We have seen, haven’t we, that the chairman of NAB himself has defended actions against generals accused of corruption by the army itself when he should be arguing to the contrary, if only to send the message that he is impartial when it comes to investigating/prosecuting the corrupt whether they be civilians or from the military?

But back to al Sheikh. His acolytes tell people that Dr Qadri has the solution to all of Pakistan’s problems in his briefcase, that’s how easy it is to fix them. This immediately leads one to ask if he or his admirers will, before they attempt to fix the blessed country, explain the several damning incidents that give us an unsettling look into al Sheikh’s own personal life and doings, such as the alleged ‘assassination attempt’ on his life in 1990.

One recalls some of the details anyway, but one’s memory was further refreshed just the other day via TV appearances by senior and respected journalists who reminded us of the matter of al Sheikh’s purported blood found at the alleged site of the murder attempt. It was apparently red paint of some description which hadn’t even congealed several hours after it was said to have been shed!

Indeed, the allegations of al Sheikh were based on so many outlandish lies that the Lahore High Court commission which was looking into the ‘assassination attempt’ called him a mentally-deranged person who could cook up anything for his personal or political ends. There is also the matter of his saying contradictory things about the blasphemy laws, one for domestic consumption and one for the ears of the Western world.

There are film clips on the Internet clearly showing al Sheikh saying in Pakistan that he was responsible for inserting Article 295(c) into the Constitution during General Ziaul Haq’s dictatorship and that the law applied to all, including Christians and other minorities and that the punishment for blasphemy was death. This same person is shown speaking to a gathering in Denmark saying he had nothing to do with the introduction of the blasphemy laws and that in any case they were only applicable to Muslims and not to non-Muslims. I ask you.

So then, who in the world is al Sheikh to talk down to and threaten elected, constitutional governments and demand anything at all, let alone give ultimatums to introduce reforms within three weeks or else he will march on Islamabad? Who is he to demand that a caretaker government made up of the judiciary and the military be set up or else, when there are constitutional governments at the centre and in the provinces?

And is it not a fact that the best possible person has been selected by the government and the opposition to head our election commission in the person of the peerless Justice Fakhruddin G Ebrahim? (As an aside, may I say that I agree absolutely with Fakhrubhai when he says that delimitation in Karachi cannot be done without a census? Well done, sir).

So, is this not rebellion against the state, sirs? Any suo-motu notices here please, My Lords of the Supreme Court? With respect, what al Sheikh has done/is in the process of doing is far, far more cognisable than someone carrying two bottles of vodka.

And wait, all this from a Canadian national when dual nationals cannot even be elected members of our legislatures. How is it that an unelected foreigner is allowed to turn the country upside down in a matter of days with no one having a clue where all his clout and all the money that fuels his clout came from? Something smells pretty bad in the Land of the Pure I can tell you.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, terrorists of all nationalities, persuasions, hues and colours are having a field day blowing up Pakistani politicians and defence establishments; murdering and looting whoever they can to pay for their terrorism; and generally running riot wherever they please, secure in the knowledge that their apologists are always there to bail them out.

May one ask parliament to please get together and pass a resolution calling upon the security establishment to immediately launch cleansing raids on the hideouts of these hideous killers who make no distinctions among who they murder: women, children, old men, the innocent? Come one, come all.

In the end, addressing myself to the leaders of the main political parties of the country: was I not always right when I repeatedly said you must, all of you, together face down the machinations of the Deep State?

Published in The Express Tribune, December 28^th, 2012.