CASTING himself in the Robin Hood character and also showing some Marxist views, Mian Shahbaz Sharif has called on the nation to recover the loans waived off between 1997 and 2009 from the corrupt. He also said that this money would be spent on public welfare. His warning that the persistence of social inequalities and the concentration of wealth and resources within a selected elite could result in a bloody revolution, amounts to presenting a doomsday scenario. Yet the warning cannot be pushed under the rug. When the inflationary pressures drive even the middle classes down the poverty line and the already poor find it increasingly impossible to cater for their basic needs, the situation becomes unpredictable. The general public would like the looted wealth, written off loans to the tune of 193 billions, to be recovered. But it is also a fact that a number of cases in this category would have been genuine, like, for instance, those cash-strapped entrepreneurs whose concerns had gone down in the normal course of business. This happens all over the world. Deserving people should, therefore, be exempted. In Pakistan it is very rare that the government would provide relief to the class that does not have the 'right' connections. Somehow if poor folks received loans and had managed to have them written off they should not be punished. Their case is quite unlike the NRO beneficiaries, who constitute the richest people of Pakistan. This is what fair play and justice is all about. Having said that, the state must not let the big fish off the hook. They are the ones who have not missed any opportunity to steal the nation's wealth and resources. A common practice had been to start preparation for getting loans written-off at the time when they were applied for, thanks to the cunning ways and practices that were prevalent. The gap between the haves and the have-nots was never as large as it is today, courtesy our 'leaders'. Therefore, Mian Shahbaz's commitment to erase such contradictions is welcome. The proclamations by the Sharif brothers in the past, referring to a certain segment of the leadership who had stored their wealth in the west, as traitors is also relevant. Storing the wealth in the banks abroad while posing themselves as innocent in front of the public here is nothing less than a criminal act. However, Mian Shahbaz ought to be brave and must answer certain questions. Recently a party spokesman stated that Hassan Nawaz owns a multi-million enterprise, the Flagship Investments Ltd, in London and has paid millions of pounds in tax to the government there. Apart from that, the family also runs a profitable business venture in the Saudi Kingdom. This would reflect poorly on the party's commitment to transparency.