Over one and a half years ago, Pakistanis woke up to a revelation via Panama through the loud messengers that appeared on live TV every day to expose everything, things that existed, or those they wanted to exist. We, the Pakistanis learned that more than 400 among our pious nation are corrupt to the core and that they have invested undeclared money in offshore companies; money which they have earned through corruption in Pakistan. Immediately after this revelation, so many promotors rushed to rally around these messengers to enlighten the nation about this evil of corruption and about the list of those corrupt, who were exposed in the Panama revelation.

The revelation was so overwhelmingly spiced up that some political parties willingly, some unwillingly and those left with no choice joined the messengers and the promotors in this jihad against supposedly the biggest case of corruption in the history of Pakistan.

The Panama issue took over all issues of Pakistanis including an alarmingly low literacy rate, poor public medical services, life-threatening unavailability of clean water, declining exports and most of all, terrorism and unrest around the country.

We, the Pakistanis, witnessed that none of the institutions, including the Parliament were able to take any action against this big revelation. NAB, FBR, SECP, FIA and all other relevant departments, taking their salaries and enjoying benefits through the taxpayer’s money, didn’t bother to look into the matter. Instead, we witnessed rallies, agitations, road blocks and the blame game in the most uncultured language which was never heard before in the history of a country which has always cherished a respectable culture.

These rallies and agitations caused this nation of millions, billions of loss in the economy, image loss to the country and the loss of several young human lives during the unrest that erupted from these agitations.

We have seen that every Pakistani politician and political party in Pakistan wanted to have ruthless accountability, but not the accountability of their own or for politicians of their own party.

Due to this reason alone, they were never able to find the path or legislation leading to fair accountability.

Then finally, the matter reached the highest court of Pakistan. The trial of the century started and Pakistanis were made to believe that now, not only would this list of over 400 money launderers and corrupt owners of offshore companies meet their fate, but the Supreme Court would also, while using its wide range of powers, pass the orders to start accountability across board and in all institutions including the parliament, judiciary and bureaucracy.

The entire nation started to pray for the wellbeing and long life of the judges who seemed determined to cleanse the country from this evil of corruption.

With the prayers of the oppressed nation, six judges were appointed to dig into the details and find out how this theft of wealth took place and how this wealth left the country. Now the judges were also included in the prayers of the innocent Pakistanis.

The six judges recovered so much evidence from around the world, which was not possible for all the institutions with millions in human resources and billions of rupees spent on them from the taxpayer’s money.

We, the Pakistanis, have seen some undeniable evidence in the reports prepared by the judges which also made us close our eyes to the obvious discrepancies in the reports.

The reports exposed the contradictions in the statements of the king’s family, it exposed forged documents, mountains of wealth and the letters of fairytale.

This lead the nation to start dreaming about a corruption-free Pakistan. We started to hear the whistles of the ships bringing back the looted billions which were taken out of the country through illegal means.

We started to feel that we will have hospitals with available beds and required medicines, we will have clean water to drink, we will have clean air to breath, our graduates will have jobs and our economy will flourish.

Finally, the day of judgement arrived. Many of us stayed up all night waiting for the decision. After an endless wait, the decision against the biggest corruption case of the corrupt mafia of this country arrived. The big decision was announced inside the court room and reached our ears through the messengers so loudly that we could hear and understand only that the chief executive – the prime minister of Pakistan had been disqualified on charges of corruption. The nation was filled with joy thinking that at last, their prayers had been answered and the dream of a corruption-free Pakistan had been achieved. The saviours of the nation started to take credit for the biggest decision against corruption. By the evening, the complete decision started to surface. Those who couldn’t read or didn’t want to read continued dancing and continued believing that a corruption-free Pakistan had taken the birth. The messengers with an agenda and the saviours of the nation are continuously beating the drums and trying to make everyone believe that the nation has won because they know very well that they can rule ignorance; they can manipulate the illiterate and they can do whatever they want to a nation ready to believe whatever they hear it loudly.

But those who can read and understand – are trying to find the guilty verdict on the corruption charges, they are trying to find out the orders for seizing the money of the corrupt, they are trying to find the orders for bringing back the looted money of the nation, they are trying to find out the orders against all those with their names in the Panama Papers and they are trying to find out the orders for across the board accountability as promised. But none of this is written in the decision of the superior court. This means, once again, the nation has celebrated and danced over nothing, once again the nation was deceived and once again the hopes and dreams of this nation have been shattered. After the dancing and chanting, we must get ready to face the corrupt and corruption at every step of life. The real party is to be enjoyed by the owners of 432 Panama companies along with all other friends who are in line to join the club. Yesterday, a friend who’s still confused about the decision asked me to explain the decision in the simplest of words. I had to tell him that in a nutshell, the verdict is; corruption won – the nation lost.