Kazmi's arrest: The best part about the Hajj scandal

Kazmi’s arrest is a blessing - arrested on corruption charges without it being called political victimization.

Isn’t it just fantastic news that a federal minister is in jail? It’s almost as rare as seeing a double rainbow – a moment that makes you want to sit down and cry with happiness.

Pakistan's double rainbow moment came when Former Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Hamid Saeed Kazmi was taken into custody on charges of corruption during Hajj.

Now that he is on a physical remand with the FIA, it is important to look back at what happened:

• Former federal minister Azam Swati (a big funder of JUI-F) accuses Mr Kazmi of corruption during Hajj operations


• The Prime Minister sacks both of them from their posts


• Mr Swati gets angry


• Maulana Sahab Fazlur Rehman gets angry and pulls his party out of the coalition


• There is political turmoil of sorts and the PPP ends up trying to save its own government


• The running of this country is ignored as the government figures out how to defuse the situation

Mystery number 1: What about Gilani's son?

Somehow, during the course of the investigation by the FIA, Gilani’s son was taken out of the equation. My question is this: if the investigation was honest and thorough, why wasn’t everyone interviewed and made part of the investigation? Why was the PM’s son let off the hook?

Mystery number 2: Why was our ambassador silent?

Here's another questions: why did the former Pakistan ambassador to Saudi Arabia just realise that he was offered 4 million riyals? Why did it take him so long to come forward with this information?

Mystery number 3: Why is the religious right silent?

Now that Kazmi is in custody, why isn’t the religious right up in arms over this?  Normally it is next to impossible to keep them quiet over anything - they all attacked Veena Malik for appearing on Bigg Boss and found justifications for Taseer's murder. But Kazmi stole money and put thousands of pilgrims through absolute horror during the holiest of journeys; why aren’t they protesting? What can be worse than this? They should be criticizing this man for making a quick buck at the expense of thousands of innocent people.

Why are they silent? Are they scared to open their mouths in case they look bad?

Despite these questions, I am counting Kazmi’s arrest as a huge blessing - a politician has been arrested on corruption charges without it being called political victimization. Perhaps, the PM needs to offer an apology to Mr Swati - after all, it seems he was right.