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VIEW: Sikha Shahi II —Kamran Shafi

These VVIP aircraft will be for the use of our own VVIPs because their travelling by PIA inconveniences the other passengers. They will also be used by foreign dignitaries - even though they come in their own planes! I ask you! While it is true that our leaders have collected more air miles than all the world's leaders put together, they could charter PIA aircraft, as heretofore, whenever the wanderlust gets them

The title ‘Sikha Shahi’ appears with the appendage II, for I have used it before and am sure to use it again. It is one of my favourite titles for pieces about the Fatherland, as are ‘Crossroads’ and ‘Unique’ in their varied forms. In the case of ‘Sikha Shahi’ you will soon see why; in the case of the ‘Crossroads’ because every three weeks we arrive at some crossroads or the other; and in the case of our uniqueness, why even this article will prove that we are nothing but totally, completely, and utterly unique. Read on.

‘Sikha Shahi’ because our rulers behave as if they were great big Maharajahs, doing what they please with nary a thought for the consequences, reversing themselves, even taking violent U-turns whenever it takes their fancy and without a care in the world and generally doing things which even potentates wouldn’t do.

Every single day brings out more and more of the very worst in the ‘leaders’ in this Land of the Pure. Every single day their tender ministrations make us run around looking for cover to somehow protect ourselves from the fallout. Consider: while thousands of our poor and unfortunate compatriots still lie buried under the rubble of the earthquake; while hundreds of thousands of devastated survivors are yet to be supplied with the wherewithal to survive the fast approaching winter; while thousands of the injured lie critically ill in hospitals and makeshift shelters across the country, our leaders, the pox on them, go about fiddling and having much fun, in the latest sorry episode making excuses for buying yet more luxury for the usurpers who lord it over Islamabad. This time two aircraft worth hundreds of millions of dollars! What the hell is wrong with you people?

Just two weeks ago, the papers were crying themselves hoarse begging the Big General (who is Lord and Master of all he surveys) to stop the chief minister of Sindh forthwith from adding yet another executive jet to his fleet. Many of us, I for about two years now, have been imploring the Big General to not only suspend but cancel the building of the new General Headquarters in Islamabad the Beautiful and divert the money to alleviating the miseries of the people of the country, those poor unfortunates across this poor land who do not have access to clean drinking water; farm-to-market roads; even half-way equipped hospitals; and their children to even half-way equipped schools. (The earthquake makes the cancellation of that massive project even more imperative).

I, for one, have also advocated the outright cancellation of the F-16 deal citing the defence effectiveness of our bum, and have asked that the $5 billion be diverted to development too, specially now after the earthquake, to rebuilding and relief.

This is not all: look at the law and order situation in Punjab and Sindh. In the mofussil of neither province can you travel at night for fear of highwaymen and dacoits; the crime graph in the Punjab is spectacularly worse than even last year. The sick cannot be taken to hospitals; people on leave have to take care to get home an hour before nightfall. Much money is required to improve the equipment of the police, particularly motor transport including armoured vehicles and weapons and wireless sets, so that they may be in better position to patrol at night. At this time the thieves and outlaws are better armed than the police.

And what happens? The government of the Citadel of Islam hits us between the eyes with justifications for the purchase of these two luxury aircraft. For God’s sake what is wrong with you people? It goes without saying that you are drunk silly with power, but do you not have hearts; do you not have any feelings at all?

Is there no one in the government of the Islamic Republic who can stand up and say the right thing: that this is not the time for this totally unnecessary expenditure? That anyone looking on from the outside, specially those who have just now thrown some loose change into our begging bowls will think that we really are a bunch of unthinking monkeys back to our destructive ways just as soon as their backs were turned?

I mean what will the donors think when the United Nations is even now crying itself hoarse for more money for relief, which work too is far from done and for which there are no funds, and our ‘leaders’ merrily go about throwing away hundreds of millions of dollars on useless luxuries?

And please look at the excuse: These VVIP aircraft will be for the use of our own VVIPs because their travelling by PIA inconveniences the other passengers. They will also be used by foreign dignitaries — even though they come in their own planes! I ask you! While it is true that our leaders have collected more air miles than all the world’s leaders put together, they could charter PIA aircraft, as heretofore, whenever the wanderlust gets them. I mean, the Indian prime minister does not have a special aircraft for his own use — he uses Air-India for his travels. Well, come to think of it, neither did Tony Blair till now, and Britain is a world power.

What is so special about our leaders? Some months ago, opposing the purchase of another expensive executive jet by the chief minister of Punjab (which he bought of course, after the hangar “fell” on the previous plane! And it wasn’t the earthquake either, it was if the Almighty wanted the Chaudhry to get a brand new jet!) I had said that for the quality of work they do (look at the state their fiefdoms are in, please), our chief ministers only deserved donkey-carts. Well likewise for the rulers of Islamabad the Beautiful.

Instead of wasting the country’s meagre resources on expensive toys which only net some people lots of yummy commissions and do little good (there being something like 10 daily flights to and from Karachi for example, and many from Lahore) to man or beast, why can’t the money be used to, as I said earlier, make the lay Pakistani’s life better, more bearable? Incidentally, shouldn’t the name of the agent who sells these toys to our ruling elites and the amount of commission she/he receives be made public every time a purchase above, say $20,000 is made? I think it is imperative... as a citizen I demand we be told the names of the dealers or commission agents or whatever you call them, even those who sell military toys, and the amount of commissions they skim off.

Staying with ‘Sikha Shahi’, just look at the complete abandon with which totally inadequate compensation for those who had lost their homes in the earthquake was first announced, making many of us laugh out loud at the government’s stupidity; and how, out of the blue, that compensation was increased six-fold! Just like that! No one apologised, no one said he was wrong: just an announcement that the compensation was now Rs 175,000 instead of Rs 25,000 which would have bought just 70 bags of cement at the current rates!

Bushism of the Week: “More Muslims have died at the hands of killers than — I say more Muslims — a lot of Muslims have died — I don’t know the exact count — at Istanbul. Look at these different places around the world where there’s been tremendous death and destruction because killers kill” — President George W Bush; Washington, DC, January 29, 2004.

Kamran Shafi is a freelance columnist. His writings can be accessed at http://www.kamranshafi.blogspot.com

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