Opinion

Truth in the mirror of deceit

Mischief is afoot. Sadly the media’s attention is now focused on the Panama Papers

Anjum Niaz June 01, 2016

The writer is a journalist with over 30 years of experience

Four months after parliament’s unanimous approval of a bill to convert Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) into a public limited company, boom! Captain (retd) Shujaat Azeem quits as Nawaz Sharif’s special assistant on aviation. “His job was to kill two birds with one stone: undo PIA to sell and run the new Pakistan Airways, a subsidiary of PIA. So the timing of his resignation tells you all,” a close friend of Azeem tells me.

Pulling off this coup are the two senior most henchmen of the prime minister — Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and Minister for Law and Justice Zahid Hamid (remember him — he was the brains behind many of Musharraf’s devious plans). The excited PM has allocated Rs1,000 billion for his new ‘baby’ to be one of the best airlines in the world. But he’s thrown the baby out with the bathwater by empowering PIA’s dismantler as Pakistan Airways' enabler to run a one-man show.

Azeem is no Nur Khan. Air Marshal (late) Nur Khan raised PIA to phenomenal heights, including buying the luxurious Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan in the ‘70s. He created a subsidiary in the name of PIA Investments Limited in 1978. It was created to utilise PIA's surplus revenue. Later, a thriving PIA bought the Scribe Hotel in Paris and one each in Riyadh and Abu Dhabi. PIA’s new subsidiary Pakistan Airways will do exactly the opposite: suck into PIA’s resources to bleed it dry so it can eventually be auctioned off to interested parties in the Middle East. If media reports are to be believed, Azeem is allegedly the front man who will be doing this job.

Mischief is afoot. Sadly the media’s attention is now focused on the Panama Papers. Our memories are short. Lest we forget, the Supreme Court had ordered Azeem to step down as advisor on aviation due to having been court-martialled, holding a Canadian passport and there being a conflict of interest as he was the co-owner of the lucrative Royal Airport Services at Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi and Peshawar airports. While Azeem claimed he no longer owned the Royal Airport Services, media reports stated otherwise. Azeem is the brother of PML-N stalwart Tariq Azeem. Up until he resigned recently, Shujaat Azeem continued working as PIA’s supremo. In 2013, PIA received a multi-billion bailout package from the Sharif government on Shujaat Azeem's pledge that he would put the bankrupt PIA back into business. The facade for this continued when last year, he promised a makeover for our airline crew and spent taxpayers’ money to hold a catwalk show where models floated in exotic outfits designed for the cabin crew. Nothing came of this. We still see the cabin crew in the dowdy decades-old uniforms.

Obviously, Shujaat Azeem and his cohorts make tall promises but fail to deliver. Today, PIA is a basket case. I remember the glorious days of the airline when the crew welcomed female passengers with a bottle of Ma Griffe, the floral fragrance by Carven. As time went by, sordid corrupt practices of our past and present rulers gradually sapped the greatness of the airline. Ours is a society based on entitlement, where brothers, sisters, sons, daughters and their spouses along with their kids are cranked up for state benefits. Why call ourselves a democracy, when in fact, we operate under a ‘commonwealth’ government, with the state being run by a compact of VIPs for the common good of their own families. Judges, generals, air marshals, admirals, prime ministers, presidents, ministers, secretaries, parliamentarians, media celebrities — everyone wants a free plane ride and a hotel stay for themselves and their hangers-on.

During the PPP government, a retired Boeing 747 pilot spilled the beans on the top man in charge of the Roosevelt Hotel in New York. He enjoys “deep political connections with all previous and current government leaders attending ‘happy hour’ parties where high ranking officers and senior airline captains gather at his Lahore home". Remember Nur Khan bought this hotel for PIA way back in the ‘70s. Apart from earning money, he wanted to use the facility as a training ground in hospitality for the crew. Both the current government and its immediate predecessor have eyed the Roosevelt Hotel with greed and have wanted to sell it for the personal benefit of those in government. For what happens next, watch this space!

Published in The Express Tribune, June 2^nd, 2016.

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COMMENTS (6)

Brekhna | 7 years ago | Reply I have always enjoyed reading Anjum Niaz. She writes beautifully on a host of topics. But now, we are in such a state that all the writers have only one topic to write about - Corruption. So many other journalists have detailed the "heroics" of the likes of Mr. Shujaat Azim, but the rulers are so much thick-skinned that nothing can be expected of them.

Manzoor Ahmad | 7 years ago | Reply Highly biased article. Ms Anjum Niaz seems to be holding Shujaat Azeem responsible for what happened to PIA over the last 40 years. If Mr Azeem's performance is to be compared, then look at how PIA or even Islamabad airport was three years ago and how they look now. I think Pakistan is fortunate to have someone like Mr Azeem. In fact, it is not just Mr Azeem but all the PM's advisors (does not apply to Cabinet members) are clean and well-intentioned. We should encourage such people rather than associate motives. Ms Niaz please do some more research and then write your next op-ed.