Deja vu

Had rule of law kicked in 18 years ago without pressure from govt, perhaps younger Kanju may not have tread same path

It was the first day in office for Moeen Khan, the CBR (Central Board of Revenue) chairman, when he got a frantic phone call from his wife in Lahore saying their teenage son was shot and wounded on the Mall in front of Aitchison College, Lahore. The family had just arrived from London where Khan had worked as a successful banker. But when Nawaz Sharif became prime minister for the second time in February 1997, he invited the UK-based banker to head the then CBR. Khan could not refuse.

So who shot your son? I asked Khan when I went to his office in Islamabad to interview him. Here is what he told me: it was allegedly the son of Siddique Kanju, the minister of state for foreign affairs. He did not give me many details as to what occurred other than hint that the row was supposedly over a girl both fancied, which led Kanju junior to open fire at his so-called rival. The devastated parents flew their injured son to London where he underwent a lengthy and expensive treatment but fortunately survived. Not surprisingly, the incident was hushed up in the media. Still, Khan’s family never recovered from the shock of their son being almost killed. The wife demanded that her husband resign and return to London immediately where their son was still undergoing treatment. When I met the CBR chairman that spring day in Islamabad, 18 years ago, he looked sad, forlorn and depressed. His family had returned to London. Imran Khan offered his home at Clara Apartments in the Diplomatic Enclave for Khan to move in.

The Nawaz Sharif government ignored the incident, letting the Kanju family off the hook.

History has repeated itself. Now, another scion of the former minister is in the lock-up for allegedly committing murder. According to press reports, Mustafa Kanju, who was driving his car, allegedly opened fire on a vehicle near the Cavalry Ground area which led to the killing of 15-year-old Zain as well as injuring a pedestrian. However, since Siddique Kanju is no longer with the PML-N, having passed away in 2001, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif ordered the Lahore police to arrest the culprits.

We don’t know what course the law will take in Mustafa Kanju’s alleged murder case. Or what fate awaits this gun-toting young man. Had the rule of law kicked in 18 years ago without any pressure from the government, perhaps the younger Kanju may not have to tread the same trajectory as his elder sibling’s. But in Pakistan, the law for VIPs and their families is different from the law for ordinary Pakistanis. Unless things change, we will continue to hear such gruesome stories of murders by the sons of the privileged because they know they can get away with it.

“The killers of my son should be executed,” the mother of the teenaged Zain said. She also appealed to the prime minister for protection since her family was reportedly receiving death threats for shining light on the alleged murderers. Feudalism is rife in Pakistan and feudals like the Kanju family have the resources to hire guards to protect themselves as they roam at random with their deadly weapons, killing, injuring or threatening anyone who dares to cross their path.

The above story of murder and threats by the rich and powerful convinces one to think that in Pakistan we have the law of the jungle.

Before I end this grisly tale, let me take you back to Moeen Khan. He was imported by Nawaz Sharif in his second term in a bid to reform the then CBR, now called the Federal Board of Revenue. Khan was an honest, upright banker from the UK, mandated to run the embattled institution. His first act was to clamp sales tax on shopkeepers resulting in the notorious traders’ strike at Liberty Market in Lahore. “I was ordered to rescind the tax immediately by the prime minister,” Khan, now deceased, told me. His activities were tracked. A car was seen parked before his apartment in the Diplomatic Enclave to spy on him. Hounded, humiliated and ditched, Khan returned to the UK. He died soon after.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 7^th, 2015.

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