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Foreign Office makes the mare go

Saeed Minhas

Islamabad: A new session of the parliament is in place with both the Prime Minister and the President rallying around those who carry the baton of proxy-keys of religious and economic survival of this country which has become the prime-suspect as well as most wanted nation of the world.

Yet our parliamentarians in both the Houses are oblivious to the ground realities just like that vendor in so-called sasta bazaar who never display any rate list to sell any substandard thing knowing well that there is neither any accountability nor any authority to fear from therefore befool and fleece the public at will as long as administrators or rulers of the land (mind you it’s not the politicians alone but both the civil and Khaki bureaucrats as well) are busy in siphoning off their monies to the off-shore banks.

Therefore, it should not come as shocker to anyone that even if Prime Minister Gilani goes on (what is dubbed by PM House) a private visit to UK even then the expenses have to come from taxpayers pockets because after all he is not there to sort out his family’s messy issues but also doing PR with those who are willing to finance his next financial as well as political moves. To have politically appointed ambassadors for such tours becomes even more handy as not only our ambassador in UK, Wajid Shamsul Hassan is ensuring that even gifts had to be paid from the welfare funds of the his official embassy accounts but even the relatives of the Premier serving in nearby European destinations (of course either as ambassadors or in embassies) have to be given official accommodation from the same accounts.

But then who cares, because after all its all being done in the greater ‘national interest’ and since custodian of that ‘interest’ these days is no one else but Mr. Gilani, therefore facilitating his private visit from national coffers is much more important than addressing the miserable (usually called pathetic by our ruling elite) masses. Equally so because after all our foreign office finances are something which need not be looked into because it is helping not only many retired generals but friends of the Big Bosses. No matter how much yelling and roadblocks are put in place by our imported finance minister Hafiz Sheikh, neither there is any end to government borrowing from the private banks nor any shackles on the spendthrift attitude of our ruling elite. (How Hafiz Sheikh’s trusted men are making deals with the private bankers for maddening borrowing is likely to come your way soon but for now let’s move on with the foreign office issue).

Lt. Gen. (Retd) Masood Aslam, who was rewarded by the President (of course not on his own will but on the recommendation of the Khaki’s) to enjoy Mexican shores as ambassador after his retirement from Corps Commander Peshawar post where he had served 33 months on a stretch to supervise Rah-e-Nijat and many other operations in the war on terror against militants. Gen. (Retd) Masood, no doubt had a wonderful career and his only son lost his life in a militant’s bombing in Parade Lane’s Mosque in 2009 but issue here is the finances of the foreign office, where he is being discussed these days for sending a request to the President of Pakistan for providing him a bullet proof vehicle in Mexico to carry out his official duties as ambassador.

In most such cases, President sends the request to the Prime Minister (not always in writing) and the Premier had to agree to this despite putting a ban on purchase of new vehicles in this year’s freshly inaugurated budget and asked (again verbally) Salman Bashir (our huffing and puffing foreign secretary) to generate a request from their end for approval. As our insiders tried to put too much info into this news-tale but eventually they revealed that foreign office has sent a request to the PM House asking for approval of almost US $ 59,000 to help the former tough-man (who of course was also well decorated for his services with scores of medals for his bravery and leadership) and get the expensive shield in Mexican lands, where the threat is probably not from militants but from mafias. Mind you all, this is just the advance payment of the Bullet proof Limousine, the rest of almost same amount (for installments) will be dished from the Mexican embassy’s annual budget account. But please don’t feel that this is the only one such case of playing with the national coffers, there are dozens of others in foreign office alone, what to talk about the finance ministry or the federal board of revenue and many other ministries.

So rest assure, not only our leadership is vigilant but our auditor general (though we have just had an ad-hoc one in place these days) is working day in and day out to ensure that every single penny is spent as per rules (read desires) of the “CHARTER OF RECONCILIATION” to avoid any threat (read blackmailing) from so-called opposition of Noon Leaguers or Bhai Logs of MQM. What else is being altered for this broader concept of “reconciliation” certainly needs another column because it will be an injustice to mention the ditching of Noon leaguers at the hands of MQM or maneuverings of Chaudhrys’ of Gujrat to save Moonis Elahi from iron-fist of fuming superior judiciary in just few lines here, so better leave it for next time.

After witnessing the way-ward opposition lurking in the hallways of the parliament house one can it’s no rocket science to assume that neither the Musharraf’s remnants (of course Que Leaguers or should we call them Chaudhry-lovers) sitting on treasury benches nor self-centered opposition have the guts to do anything more than lip servicing. The impulsive opposition, careless treasury and well entrenched bureaucracy can all be seen on display during the session yawning or lamenting the current state of affairs in the country without ever agreeing to any do-able actions.