This is with reference to news captioned, ‘People to reject anti-BJP parties in polls’: as reported by TheNation in its edition of March 6, 2013. I am not going to debate as to what President Asif Ali Zardari said while he visited the divisions of Bahawalpur and Multan, in connection with his election campaign, but what struck me as most bizarre was that former PM Yousuf Raza Gilani, hailing from Multan, flew to Bahawalpur by a special plane to meet the President.
To my knowledge, which is based on past record, public money has been spent on nothing but pandering to the rich, that the special plane used by former PM must have been provided by the government. Multan to Bahawalpur is very short distance easily reachable by road, and I am sure that Mr Gilani has a large fleet of luxury cars to travel in, so why this unwarranted expenditure? If it had been a trip from Multan to Quetta or Multan to Karachi, I could have understood the need for a special plane, but for someone to fly between two adjoining divisions?
Should I believe that our former PM, being an aristocrat, has never traveled from Multan to Bahawalpur and back by road but by special plane? Which is rather an astronomically expensive trip? Needless to mention this government wants to finish the few pennies left in the exchequer on such frivolous gerrymandering before they leave the government. I am sure that Gilani, who is a landlord, had enough money even before becoming PM, but with the added trillions his two sons minted in Hajj scandal and Ephedrine scandal must have added to his wealth. Will Public Accounts Committee, Minister of Finance and Auditor General of Pakistan take note of it and let all Pakistanis know as to where lies the truth? Surely, Pakistan is a poor country groaning under the weight of extraordinary debt with elected members living like kings and princes, and the national exchequer empty.
IQBAL HADI ZAIDI,
Kuwait, March 6.