Tuesday 24 April 2012

ImmiPossible

Imran Khan promises to end corruption in 90 days. Is it possible? There are some who believe he can deliver on his promise, others are skeptical of both his ability and sincerity. When questioned about how he would go about doing it, Imran, eager to be seen as confident, reduced this period to nine days. Nine days to end corruption in a country of 170 million is a goal only the super smart or the utterly daft would be willing to set.

Imran uses his political failures to his advantage. Having no history of holding a public office is translated into having no history of corruption or broken promises. However, if you examine Imran's promises only since the rebirth of Pakistan Tehreek Insaf (PTI) in Lahore, many have already been broken. One such promise is discussed here.

Remember the time, not so long ago, when PTI was obsessed with declaration of assets? Non-declaration was termed the root of all evil and declaration of assets the panacea for rampant corruption. PTI adopted the strategy of targeting all politicians but reserved the most scathing attacks for the leaders of PML(N). Press conferences were held daily to urge the Sharifs to declare their assets. It was soon brought to the attention of Imran that the Sharifs had already declared their assets as part of their election nomination papers and continue to do so every year in the form of Wealth Statements, a mandatory part of Income Tax returns. Embarrassed with this oversight, Imran tagged the word "real" to the word "assets" and repeated his previous demands. It was declared that if you are rich you must be corrupt. Imran still failed to elicit a response from PML(N).  PTI then resorted to presenting self-compiled lists of the Sharif's assets printed on A4 sized sheets of paper, neatly stapled into a bunch. The thicker the bunch, more authentic the document was deemed to be. Waving these before the talk show cameras was considered to be irrefutable documentary proof of the oral accusation. Promises to investigate and unearth these assets were made. PTI also announced its intentions to take the case to the supreme court. This clip from Geo News program Lekin aired on Nov 5, 2011 shows PTI leader Mr. Mahmud-ur-Rasheed making these accusations and promising the above.

On Nov 13, 2011, the CEC of PTI issued a press release at the conclusion of its meeting in Islamabad. Some of the key points in this press release are as follows
  • Scrutiny Committee/s will be nominated by the Chairman to address complaints of substantial corruption against any member of PTI.
  • A committee will be formed to examine issues of assets obtained through corruption of all politicians including those of PTI.
On the same day, it was further announced that
PTI has established the Assets Scrutiny Committee that will be headed by Hamid Khan. It will first start by checking assets of PTI leadership. Chairman Imran Khan
On Dec 19 2011, another 10 member scrutiny  committee headed by Shah Mahmood Qureshi was announced. This time the purpose was to evaluate the new entrants into the party.

It has been 163 days since the announcement of the first scrutiny committee probing into the assets of politicians and we have not heard anything from it. Ironically, the only related news item that has adorned the newspaper columns since then has been about a senior member of the scrutiny committee in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Malik Naveed Khan coming under investigation of National Accountability Bureau for accumulation of assets beyond known sources of income.

So can Imran end corruption in 9 (or even 90) days? We don't have to elect him to find out. We already have our answer. It is ImmiPossible!

3 comments:

  1. well said. If PTI Committee is delaying this what will it do if got elected.Its a big ? mark

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  2. First of all I'd say that I'm pretty much impressed with the title "ImmiPossible!", it beautifully summarized everything which Imran himself stands for as it's a known fact that he never sticks to his original stand.

    As for his stance on asset declaration, I'm still wondering as to when would Imran Khan launch his Civil Disobedience Movement he promised. Does his stance on assets declaration also applies to the new entrants in the party?

    Imran Khan has time and again claimed that those who do not declare their assets & have them abroad are the enemies of Pakistan. So may I ask Imran Khan as to whether did Azam Swati wind up his business in USA and brought all his assets back to Pakistan? Whether Shah Mehmood Qureshi and other high-level wickets have declared their assets as well? This question remains to be answered by Imran Khan & his party members with conviction; though we know the answers but would be really interested in hearing them out.

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  3. IK just wanna catch public's attentions by saying all this. he hasn't fulfil any of his promise till now, so how someone can believe that he will deliver if he gets a chance to govern the country?

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