No threats please, Mr Memon !

I have done my job for years in the same way. Will go on doing, whether Mr Memon or his Boss likes it or not.

Mr Sharjeel Memon’s reply titled “In response to a soothsayer” (August 27) to my Urdu article published in a rival group’s newspaper looks odd. There must have been some behind-the-scene activity, as newspapers normally do not publish rejoinders to something which never appeared in the first place.

Mr Memon begins with a lecture on journalism. Coming from a just-born politician, basically an unknown commodity, his pontificating on ethics and sacrifices made by senior journalists comes across as nonsensical. What does he know about journalism? But I don’t blame him, as he is a non-entity, a pawn who has to carry out the orders and follow His Master’s Voice and get slaughtered when needed. He has, in the process, gathered some stray hearsay points and someone has put together for him a confused and disjointed piece. His article is a reflection of what his Boss thinks, not what the facts are.

For readers of this newspaper, let me first very briefly restate the points that I mentioned in my original article so that readers can understand the context of his rantings. I had stated that cronies, non-political friends, agents, providers, doctors, masseurs, of President Asif Ali Zardari had all been involved in numerous scams in the last over four years of the PPP regime and before they escape, should be placed on the exit control list and debriefed and asked some tough questions. Many would sing songs no one has ever have heard before.

Mr Memon says there is an independent judiciary and many of the people I named have already faced the courts. Mentioning the independence of judiciary from Mr Memon, who is, of course, relaying what his Boss wants, is a joke, as we all know what the PPP has done to judgments of this “independent judiciary”.

He speaks of the Charter of Democracy and on that he should ask Mr Rehman Malik who acknowledged on TV that I had suggested the idea to Benazir Bhutto and I have proof of that.

Mr Memon also quoted a couple of my articles to claim that I am not a credible analyst. If he believes that to be the case, then why react in this way and spread my word even more? Some points that he has been fed are total lies. For instance, he quotes from an alleged December 8, 2011 article by me about President Zardari’s heart ailment and that he (the president) may not return to Pakistan from Dubai. There is no such article but a story in The News quoting the Foreign Policy magazine’s blog which quoted an unnamed former US official who said “Mr Zardari might resign because of ill health after being pushed out of power by the Pakistani military”. Mr Memon, of course, would not know the difference.

One line in his response is absolutely correct: “There is, indeed, financial corruption in Pakistan”. But he says no one outside Pakistan should talk about it and in a way threatens me to return to Pakistan and then carry out the crusade. He says I have ulterior motives. Nonsense. I do my job and have done it for years in the same way whether a dictator, Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif or anyone else was in power. This is what I will go on doing, whether Mr Memon or his Boss likes it or not.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 29^th, 2012.