Men like Malik Riaz who exercise so much power and clout in corridors of power reflects on the lack of intellectual integrity and sense of propriety amongst members of ruling political elite, or powerful civil cum khaki bureaucracy and the media icons where he has influence. Why blame a man who is hardly literate and has never tried to hide the means adopted to rise from rags to riches. In fact he should be praised for being a better judge of the ruling elite, than most of our intellectuals and members of civil society who believe in principles, sense of honor, rule of law, and dignity for human life.
Chaudhry Shujaat would like to make us believe that this man is a philanthropist of some sorts. I fail to understand what sort of Robin Hood this man is, who takes land from the weak and poor, than gathers billions from lower middle class families with promises to deliver them plots or houses measuring 5 to 8 marlas, which he hardly ever keeps, yet has all the resources to gift villas to powerful elite and BMWs or Mercedes to those whom he thinks can serve his business interests and evade accountability or media exposure. Does it not remind us of the Co-operatives scam? This is a man who gives Rs13 Crore donation on request of a powerful Governor of a province to free a Pakistani held to ransom by Somali pirates, although in the same province more citizens are kidnapped for ransom by local pirates and over 750 human beings killed in target killings just in Jan to May period of 2012. We live in a country where state functionaries get involved in raising cash for ransom to Somali pirates, in spite of UN Charter 7 and Security Council resolutions which warn member states not to do so. It is not the amount of billions or trillions that the man has made in just over 15 years but the influence that he has been exercising in forming governments to run this country which sends jitters down my spine, but does make me understand why the culture of corruption and massive abuse of power has taken roots in my motherland, where men with split loyalties and no stakes decide the fate of its 180 million unfortunate citizens.
M. TARIQ ALI,
Lahore, June 16.