190 million pound crime & Imran Khan's ministers

The enabler

Published in The News on January 21, 2025

Throughout the whole ‘190 million pound’ saga, one important point has been missed. Imran Khan’s cabinet ministers affixed their signatures on a sealed envelope without knowing what it was that they were agreeing to. Would they have signed a blank piece of paper on which anything could have been typed later?

Shouldn’t this worry every Pakistani? These men were in charge of running the country for four years and they did something that no normal person would ever have done. In my view, these ministers should also be tried for the offence.

Shakir Lakhani

Karachi 

https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/1274319-the-enablers

Sharif government unable to resist blackmail by Iman Khan

Embed from Getty Images

If Pakistan had been like China or Saudi Arabia, Imran Khan would have been sentenced to death and buried last year. Unfortunately, this government is too weak to resist blackmail by Imran Khan, who has been doing everything he can to destabilize the country. When sixty seven activists of Imran Khan's party (PTI) were sentenced to prison terms up to ten years, I hoped that the PTI leader would see some sense and apologize for the mayhem and destruction he caused on May 9, 2023. But he only hardened his stance, principally due to the chaos in his home province, where Shias and Sunnis are fighting in Parachinar. In fact, he is responsible for that trouble, having settled the Taliban rebels in that area (which until then was inhabited by Shias). 

But the real shock came when nineteen of his party activists were pardoned and set free by the military. This made Imran Khan think he was right in being tough. Pardoning those who attacked the state will make the activists think they can do it again.

In the meantime, Imran Khan's supporters are firmly convinced that Trump is going to get him freed. Yesterday, after a long time, we were able to access Twitter (X) without using a VPN, and today the internet speed is the fastest I have ever seen. This will undoubtedly make Pakistan's enemies believe that the government is weakening and their agent (Imran Khan) will again take over the government. Let's hope it doesn't happen.

PTI or Pakistan?

Party over country

Published in The News on November 30, 2024

This letter refers to the editorial ‘PTI’s chaos curve’ (November 25, 2024). The problem is that, in the aftermath of these violent marches, the state seems reluctant to take action against the party’s senior leadership. The major question is: why did they march on the capital when foreign dignitaries were visiting Pakistan?

Is it necessary to invade Islamabad to invite attention to their demands? This party has lost support in the country (except in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where it is slowly becoming unpopular). Why not spend the same time, money and energy to solve the problems faced by the people of that province?

Shakir Lakhani

Karachi

https://e.thenews.com.pk/detail?id=363773

Three and a half years of PTI rule

It's really three and a half years of misrule, because there has been no governance since PTI came to power. From the very beginning, Imran Khan has acted like a dictator, with the result that he's managed to alienate almost everyone who matters. His coalition partners (those who still support him) are on the verge of deserting him. The no-confidence motion is giving him sleepless nights. Federal ministers in his cabinet have started fighting among themselves, with that loudmouth Shaikh Rashid in the lead. Another one (aviation minister Ghulam Sarwar) says he wishes he could become a suicide bomber and blow the opposition up. IK's desperate decision to gather a million people in Islamabad to prove his popularity is bound to make him even more unpopular than he is.

What I can't understand is why even after he's proved himself a nincompoop many times, there are people who still like him. For some reason, he's still popular among some retired army officers, despite his arrogant attitude towards senior serving officers. By saying that he would decide whether to give an extension to the present army chief later (as November is still a few months away), he was telling his supporters that he's the real boss. Anyone can see that Imran Khan suffers from a massive inferiority complex and is now a security risk (before the elections, I had tweeted this when Imran Khan was not the prime minister and it had been retweeted and read by at least fifty thousand people on the first day). 

More evidence of Imran Khan's low intelligence is his unwavering support for Chief Minister Buzdar of Punjab. It is widely rumored that Buzdar was appointed because her Holiness wanted it. There are also allegations of Buzdar being very corrupt, but of course that shouldn't raise eyebrows in this country.

The only explanation for why some people still like Imran Khan is that they have low IQs (probably due to them being products of cousin marriages). I would like to mention here that my parents were not cousins, in fact they were not even distantly related. My wife and I are not cousins, although our parents were from the same town (Bhavnagar). Cousin marriages were not common among Memons until thirty years ago. Nowadays, however, Memons are marrying their first cousins. Already I don't know what to talk about with most  Memons, in future an intelligent Memon will be hard to find.

SC decision favoring Justice Qazi Faez Isa: PTI lovers are furious

Imran Khan has polarized the country so much that his followers believe that anyone saying anything against him is a traitor. Being the establishment's favorite, he naturally didn't like Justice Isa, as the latter had condemned the army for aiding the TLP in its efforts to destabilize the previous government. After that decision, the establishment has gone after Justice Isa and found that his wife had property abroad. Naturally, the establishment assumed that the judge's wife had bought the property with money provided by her husband, so they concluded that the judge must be corrupt as he couldn't have had so much money on his meager salary.

The apex court ruled that a man can't be held responsible for his wife's actions, if the wife has illegally acquired assets, she's the one who should be charged and convicted. This came as a shock to the corrupt ministers in the PTI government (who are suddenly obsessed with replacing the present parliamentary system with the presidential one). Of all people, lawyer Fawad Choudhri has asked the judiciary to improve its image, which according to him has been damaged by its recent judgement. 

I do not know if Justice Isa is dishonest or not, what I do know is that recently he was one of the few judges who didn't apply for a plot in a society meant for low-paid employees of the law department. The present CJ Gulzar (who retires today) as well as Bandial (who will replace him) applied for plots and were rewarded with plots in a prime location through a computerized draw. This of course is not enough to prove the honesty of Justice Isa (who may be the next CJ, unless the establishment finds something else to charge him with). At least it is apparent that the establishment dreads the day he becomes chief justice, because they know he will not be as pliant as the others.

Rats leaving a sinking ship (IK's advisor resigns)

Finally, Imran Khan's cronies have seen the writing on the wall, after he lost his head yesterday and warned that he would be very dangerous to those who are against him if they removed him from power.

Just see what he said: "I wish to warn you: If I am ousted from the government, I will be more dangerous for you. Right now I sit silently in my office and watch all the drama taking place. If I take to the streets, you will have no place to hide, because the people have seen your true colours."

So it's finally happening. He's telling those who helped him attain power that he can fight back if they have him removed from prime minister's house. Everyone now is convinced that the establishment is disillusioned with him and wants him to go home before he can inflict more damage to the country.

Whenever a ship starts sinking, the rats jump overboard. In Imran Khan's case it's his accountability czar, the repulsive Shehzad Mirza Akbar who turned out to be the first to resign. Soon, the others who were made advisors or ministers under pressure from those at the top will go, leaving him alone with his core party members (though I suspect most of those will also leave him soon).

I expect a palace coup, led by Parvez Khattak or Shah Mahmood Qureishi. If I were in Imran Khan's place, I would fly to London tonight.

PTI's disintegration has begun

What happened on January 13, 2022 could well change the country's history. The Dear Leader has been living under the delusion that he's the most popular person in Pakistan, that there is no inflation or law and order problem and that his ministers would continue worshiping him. He must have been shocked when his Defence Minister Parvez Khattak suddenly told him in the presence of his ministers and party workers that unless KP's demands for gas are met, he would not vote for Imran Khan. The Great Khan reacted in typical fashion. Saying that he did now own any mall or factory (like Khattak), he would not submit to blackmail. Another surprise, he said if those present were not satisfied with his performance, they could select someone else as their leader. With that, he rose to leave the meeting, but was persuaded to remain by his alarmed sycophants. The Defence Minister left the room, but returned after some time, claiming that he had gone out only for a smoke. But the damage has been done. IK will no longer command the respect he once did and it's only a matter of time before he faces open rebellion in his party.

As if this wasn't enough, another ruling party lawmaker from KP (Noor Alam Khan)  "assailed the government on the floor of the National Assembly for “ignoring” Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and demanded that top cabinet members’ — including the PM himself — be placed on the Exit Control List (ECL)" (DAWN). Now this is unprecedented. Accusing the leader himself of incompetence is bad enough, but demanding that Imran Khan and his cabinet ministers should not be allowed to travel outside the country is the limit. It should be interesting to see IK's reaction. If he remains silent, his goose is cooked. If he retaliates and expels this rebel from the party, he faces the danger of others resigning and he will no longer be the prime minister. Whatever happens, he and his ministers can no longer claim that all is well in the country, there is no inflation, Pakistan is the cheapest country in the world, blah blah blah.

Duffer IK refuses to accept that PTI lost due to high prices

Ever since the duffer's party won the 2018 elections, people have known that the elections were heavily rigged. Recent allegations by a high court judge that the former chief justice coerced those under his control to refuse bail to Nawaz and his daughter practically proved it. An audio tape of the former chief justice telling another to do the same thing clinched it. Moreover, Imran Khan's party has lost practically all bye-elections over the past couple of years, particularly in Punjab. 

So it didn't surprise anyone when the PTI was soundly defeated in the recent Local Bodies elections in KP (despite blatant attempts to rig the polls). Now we know why IK and his ministers want to spend billions on acquiring Electronic Voting Machines (which can easily be manipulated), knowing that it would then be easy to rig the next elections (which they're sure to lose if conducted manually).

Most ministers of the ruling party blamed the high prices of edible items for the disaster, but our duffer refuses to accept this. He claims that the wrong candidates were selected to contest the elections. He also does not realize that repeatedly blaming former rulers for  the country's present situation no longer impresses voters. Actually, the people know that it's his government's poor performance that has caused high rate of inflation and shortage of gas in the country. But the duffer refuses to accept this as well. Now that the infighting in his party has increased, he should think about resigning and fleeing to his beloved England.

PTI politicians act as if they are above the law

Imran Khan and his cronies have always acted as if they're above the law, perhaps because they think they will always have the support of the establishment. Right now they act as if the audio tape exposing the former chief justice is fabricated and will have no effect on their government. In fact they respond by talking about the four London flats of Nawaz Sharif, conveniently ignoring the eighteen bungalows owned by their senator Faisal Vawda of Karachi. I wonder why the opposition doesn't mention this in their speeches, together with the unexplained wealth of Imran Khan's sister and his other ministers.

The intriguing question is: who taped the conversation in which the ex-judge is heard saying that he has been told to convict Nawaz Sharif and his daughter so Imran Khan can get elected. I won't be surprised if it turns out that the establishment is behind it and they undoubtedly have many more such tapes and videos.

The government of course has double standards. They've decided to conduct an inquiry into an audio tape in which Maryam Nawaz is heard saying that advertisements should not be given to those TV channels which are opposed to her party. But they don't want an investigation into the ex-Chief Justice's audio tape. If they think they will not be held accountable for rigging the elections, they're mistaken. 

Today the first female prime minister of Sweden resigned only a few hours after being elected as she couldn't get the budget passed. This is what Imran Khan should have done long ago, after his lies were exposed and he ruined the country. But then, like most of our politicians, he doesn't have any principles.

Extreme gas shortage: indicator or PTI's inefficiency

Indicators

Published in The News on November 02, 2021

Perhaps nothing proves the current government's inefficiency more than the extreme shortage of gas these days. There was a long-term LNG contract signed by the previous government, but the PTI had claimed there was no need for such a contract.

Now the PTI-led government has signed a long-term contract with the same country. At least under the previous government we were assured of an uninterrupted supply of gas most of the times. Perhaps things would improve if gas companies were privatised.

Shakir Lakhani 

Karachi

https://e.thenews.com.pk/detail?id=20079                

PTI helpless against TLP and others

In retrospect

Published in The News on  October 28, 2021

This refers to the editorial ‘Replay -- again' (October 26), Religious extremists are not the only ones against whom the state is powerless. The government is helpless against smugglers, electricity and gas thieves, the sugar mafia and several other mafias, as well as black marketeers.

It sometimes appears that Pakistan was created just to let violators of the law get rich at the expense of the people.

Shakir Lakhani

Karachi

https://e.thenews.com.pk/detail?id=18255

PTI's vitriolic campaign against journalists

Embed from Getty Images

Imran Khan is a narcissist. He obviously has a very high opinion of himself. He thinks he alone can do what others can't. Such a man obviously can't tolerate any criticism and he makes sure that his ministers continue praising him to the skies. Every decision (like increasing petrol prices or similar stuff ) is attributed to the great Imran Khan. I wouldn't be surprised if there is a secret government department reminding errant ministers that they haven't said anything good about the Dear Leader in the past few days. 

TV anchor Asma Shirazi is being targeted by the sycophants nowadays. Her fault is that while criticizing the government's failures, she also said that black magic, taking support from djinns and sticking needles in dolls will not save this government. Mind you, she didn't mention Imran Khan's wife by name. She only said what everyone knows. But the few people who still support Imran Khan raised a huge ruckus. Shahbaz Gill who looks like he licks the Great Khan's boots before breakfast, blasted poor Asma Shirazi for maligning Her Holiness, the third wife of Imran Khan, who recently took her and her ex-husband along with him to the Holy Land, to solemnize the marriage of her daughter. I suppose Imran Khan conveniently forgot his previous tirades against the previous government for spending state money for personal use. 

The irony is that there was no need for government functionaries to react so violently. If they'd said nothing at all, no one would have read what the female TV anchor had written in the BBC Urdu article. I don't suppose more than a handful of Pakistanis read BBC Urdu pieces and it would never have become so popular. But then, Imran Khan's ministers are well known for their incompetence.

Another gas price increase!

Gas woes

Published in The News on September 22, 2021

According to some news reports, the government has proposed to increase gas prices by up to 37 percent for some consumers. Instead of burdening consumers, it is suggested that the government takes measures to catch the people stealing gas.

Presently, more than 10 percent of Pakistan’s gas production is unaccounted for, and of that, up to 50 percent is stolen. A check on theft of gas will eliminate the need to raise gas prices. Initially it may prove difficult as quite a large part of the theft takes place in KP, where the PTI has been in power.

Shakir Lakhani

Karachi

https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/894268-gas-woes

PTI's disastrous performance in Cantonment elections: Imran Khan knows the end is near

So far, Imran Khan has strongly resisted holding elections to the local bodies, as he knows the people will not vote for his party. If further confirmation was needed, in the recent Cantonment elections, his party was able to get only thirty percent of the seats. In fact, in four major cities (Lahore, Peshawer, Multan and Rawalpindi), his party appears to have been almost wiped out. Naturally, he will blame the social media and other external factors (like election rigging) for this debacle. But his party did very well in the Azad Kashmir elections a couple of months back. At that time, he had no problem with the present Chief election commissioner. Now his ministers have started accusing the Chief Election Commissioner of being biased in favor of the major opposition party, the PML-N, which did very well in the Cantonment elections, getting almost as many seats as the ruling party did.

But what must be worrying Imran Khan more than ever is that he can no longer expect any support from the establishment to rig the elections in his favor (as happened in the general elections of 2018). That is one reason why he wants to clamp down on social media, which is the only outlet people have to know the truth about his corruption and ineptitude. His insistence on getting the Pakistan Media Development Authority ordinance passed is due to the social media conveying to the public the real state of affairs in the country. By clamping down heavily on the print and electronic media, he can easily coerce them to toe the line. But social media is another thing entirely. Let's hope the opposition parties remain united on this issue at least.

We know why Imran Khan wants Electronic Voting Machines

Embed from Getty Images

The other day, a PTI minister (Azam Swati) accused the Election Commission of rigging past elections and taking bribes to do so. So he confirmed what we already knew: that the 2018 elections were heavily rigged to make Imran Khan the prime minister. Another minister (Fawad Choudhry) claimed that the Election Commission is biased in favor of the major opposition party (the PML-N). This is strange, because so far the ECP has always sided with PTI, as in the case of Faisal Vawda.

Lest anyone forget, Vawda won the seat in the 2018 elections gainst Shahbaz Sharif by a very narrow margin (700 seats), yet the ECP didn't allow a recount. When Vawda vacated this seat, his party (PTI) got very few votes, getting even less than three other parties. This election was won by the PPP, even though my distant relative Miftah Ismail of the PML-N was a close second. Which proves that in the general election of 2018, Vawda won by massive rigging.

But if more proof is required, Vawda was found to have commited perjury by not declaring his US nationality at the time he contested. This should have been enough to disqualify him for life, yet the ECP has not done anything about it. There are many others of the ruling party whom the ECP has unduly favored. It was obvious from the start that the dice was heavily loaded against Nawaz Sharif who had grown very powerful and was defying the real rulers of the country.

I wonder if the ECP will take any action against the two PTI ministers for insulting the institution. I doubt it. The ministers will use their favorite excuse, "We were quoted out of context", or they will apologize and the matter will be forgotten. But the people have a right to wonder why there are such nincompoops in Imran Khan's government. But then Imran Khan himself is known for the many gaffes he's committed. So why should we be surprised?

To divert attention from its failures, PTI forces school girls to don hijab

It's happened many times before: whenever a government wants to divert attention from its failures, some geniuses in Islamabad think of making hijab compulsory, initially for school girls and then for female government employees. Ultimately it has to happen: voters soon realize that women cannot be blamed for inflation, rapes and corruption. But our politicians think they can get away with everything, until they are forced to flee when the tipping point is reached.

Most of the men in Pakistan actually believe that women are responsible for all our problems, including earthquakes and floods. They advise their sons not to get too close to women, as if women's bodies emanate some radiation that will make men impotent. A man I know, a staunch Jamate Islami member, refused to have physiotherapy done by a woman. When he was in hospital a few months back, he didn't want female nurses near him. It's a miracle that such men marry at all and have sex with their wives. 

So the government of Imran Khan thinks that if women stop wearing jeans, prices of essentials will return to what they were three years ago, men will stop stripping women naked and raping them and street crimes will disappear. But who will they blame if the situation in the country becomes even worse?

Only under Imran Khan!

Just when you thought Imran Khan and his minions wouldn't make us laugh again, particularly after Fawad Choudhry's Hard Talk interview, the PTI government in Punjab did it again. They put up huge banners and posters all over Punjab showing actor Qazi Wajid of Karachi pleading with people to get vaccinated. Apparently the morons didn't know that Qazi Wajid has long been dead (since 2018 when Covid was still more than a year away). So we should expect more and more stupid acts from them, like Imran Khan saying that he spoke to NAB chairman (before his speech was cut off and we didn't get to hear that he probably told the NAB chap to speed up the cases against the opposition and give them a hard time).

Then there is this gem: a PTI member of KP barged into a grid station in Peshawer and manipulated the feeders to restore power to his house during load-shedding. The Peshawer Electric Supply Corp has requested the police to file an FIR against the MPA (Fazal Elahi), but because he belongs to the ruling party, the cops are scared and have refused to file a case against him. I suppose Imran Khan probably smiled when he heard about the incident and said, "Boys will be boys".

But something happened in Karachi today that will cause a lot of consternation to those who rule the country. Thousands of people attacked the illegally built Bahria Town, attacked buildings, torched vehicles and left many people bankrupt, among them a Memon who owns Danish Motors. This township was built after the original inhabitants were forcefully evicted, about four hundred of them were killed, and the killer is still free. It will be a long time before people will invest or buy property in Bahria Town. 

The disgraceful sacking of Hafeez Shaikh

Superstitious people in Pakistan are always told to change the names of any of their children who are autistic or hyperactive or suffering from any other serious disease. Even though it never works, yet this is what they do. Imran Khan, like most of his countrymen, apparently acts on the advice of soothsayers and palmists. How else can you explain the sacking of the very able Dr. Hafeez Shaikh, the finance minister who was roundly praised just twenty days back by the imbecile Imran Khan himself?

Then there are the frequent changes in bureaucracy. In the two and a half years of this inept government, many police chiefs and many bureaucrats have been transferred without reason. In fact, Hafeez Shaikh was the third finance minister in this government. This government has removed five FBR chiefs and it is only halfway through its tenure assuming it lasts that long, which seems extremely doubtful).

So why was the finance minister summarily sacked? He is no ordinary man, having worked in the IMF as well as serving previous governments. It's being said that Imran asked him to control inflation and try to reduce the prices of essential items. When the minister said it isn't possible, Im the Dim is reported to have lost his temper and told him to resign. By the way, Imran was supposedly under quarantine until yesterday, but it's doubtful if he did test positive, as he was shown in a closed room with his closest advisors discussing how to make our lives even more miserable. Yesterday his doctor told him to resume working, even though he hasn't yet tested negative. One of his minions (Faisal Jawed) even said that it wasn't necessary for a negative report for him to return to work. 

I believe that someone is advising Imran to do what he does, even if there is no reason to do so. Perhaps it's his spiritual mentor, his wife, who reportedly converses with djinns and fairies. Maybe she has dreams in which she is told to advise her husband whom to sack and whom to appoint. Perhaps that's why the very inefficient Punjab Chief Minister Buzdar has not yet been removed.

Establishment strikes back: Senate chairman elections

The minute I read that Muzaffar Hussain Shah would be the presiding officer in the senate chairman elections, I knew the PTI would win. The winner (Sanjrani) actually got less votes than the loser (Gilani), but the presiding officer rejected seven votes of Gilani because the voters had affixed the stamp on his name and not in the blank space next to it. The PPP has opted to go to the courts to get the decision reversed, but I doubt if they'll succeed. After Imran's favorite (Hafiz Shaikh) failed to get elected to the Senate, I knew he would do everything to get his candidate elected as Senate Chairman (who, incidentally, is the better candidate in my opinion). But now it appears that the Establishment is back in the game, contrary to what Zardari and Bilawal said earlier. It now looks like the opposition will be disunited and Imran might get to complete his five year term (which of course will be disastrous for the country).

The real question, of course, is why senators are elected indirectly and not by the general public. Maybe the makers of the constitution wanted provincial assembly members to get rich by taking money from the candidates. Whatever the reason, the senate charade has made it clear that Pakistan doesn't have a bright future. There is so much corruption in the country that it can't be managed. Perhaps the constitution should be amended and the Chinese model adopted. 

Election Tribunal is also biased against PML-N!

When the ECP with-held the results of the rigged bye-election in Daska, I heaved a sigh of relief. Now, I said to myself, the ECP is neutral, and hopefully it will remain so. I was wrong. The ECP is either biased against PML-N or it is being forced to favor Imran Khan.

Faisal Vawda's case has been pending for more than a year. Yet he defiantly refuses to attend hearings, so much so that the ECP fined him Rs. 50,000 (a pittance), and fixed the next hearing after two weeks. So, when he applied for Senate elections, his application should have been automatically rejected, yet the ECP accepted it without hesitation. when this decision was challenged in the Tribunal, it was again accepted. Yet Parvez Rasheed of the PML-N has been rejected by the ECP on flimsy grounds. If Shakespeare had been alive, he would've said, "What meat does this Vawda eat, that everyone is so scared of him?". 

I won't be surprised if the establishment goes all out to support Imran in the senate elections next month. Maybe they'll allow the PPP to win a few extra seats, but as far as the PMLN is concerned, they know they'll be in trouble if it wins.