David Laws of England and Babar Awan of Pakistan

June 1, 2010

David Laws of England and Babar Awan of Pakistan

By Saeed Qureshi

David Laws, the British chief secretary in the newly formed liberal Democrats’ government of Prime Minister David Cameron has resigned his prestigious post for illegal payment of 40,000 pounds as rent to his boy friend James Lundie. In contrast Pakistan’s Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Babar Awan has refused to leave his post for allegedly taking a hefty bribe of a half a million dollars from a Pakistani business family in return for removal of their names from the NAB’s ( National Accountability Bureau) list of delinquents.
Instead, he had assumed the role of a superman in that he can dictate all and sundry, even the prime minister and the president what they have to do and how to conduct their state business. Although David Law is a homosexual, which Babar Awan is not, yet the former stands on a very high moral ground than the latter. This is the real difference between an answerable democracy and non-accountable dispensation.
Every minister in the sitting coalition government in Pakistan is saddled with plethora of corruption episodes, which might be true, or not because that is for the courts to decide. However, apparently and as a matter of principle, those under clouds of corruption charges should resign for the time being, until they are proven innocent or otherwise. Not one minister in the entire cabinet possesses the moral courage to put up his or her resignation. On the contrary, they come up with flimsy, unconvincing, and non-sense explanations for their dubious conduct. Not only do they adopt postures of defiance and obduracy, signaling the messages, “yes we are not only corrupt but would persist in our shady pursuits, irrespective of the public uproar and widespread condemnation.”
It is difficult to make a litany or list against all the cabinet members that have been basking under a glaring corruption galore. The money scams, the scandals, the swindles, the misuse of power, present one dimension of this murky scenario. . There is also a callous disregard of public woes and studied indifference to the critical importance of national assets such as telecommunication, the railways, the power units, the steel mills, the national airline, the cotton ginning mills and so on. The purchase of crops, the release of water from canals, the sale of essential commodities in the market, the CNG sale, the opening of petrol pumps, getting a favorable court decision, manipulation of cases before the accountability courts, appointments from a small time clerk to high profile bureaucrat: all carry a price, commissions, and kickbacks.
This is the kind of governance in Pakistan, where the majority of people live on day-to-day basis. The poverty, the starvation, the unbearable and spiraling prices, the scarce and dirty water, the crushing power shortfall, the massacres of minorities, the progressive breakdown of Pakistan Railways and other services, the Karachi mayhem between the ethnic communities, the disdainful disregard for the legal system, the bureaucratic complexities of rules: all make Pakistan a kind of hell.
In contrast, the ministers, the prime minister and the illustrious president have a retina of body guards, the bullet proof vehicles, the clear routes and safe roads to travel, high and luxurious meals being served, expensive foreign junkets, stay in five start hotels, enjoy at the cost of tax payers and then come back with reddish, joyful faces.
Have the people elected these masters, thugs, and revelers to enjoy and make merry on the miseries of the people, the laborers, the peasants, the tillers, the growers, the brick makers, the cart pushers, the venders, the rickshaw drivers, fathers of yet to be married daughters, and the poverty-stricken parents who cannot send their wards to school for education.
Have you seen the ministers with bushy mustache colored in black and with starched sartorial elegance, speaking with their wide mouths, splashed on an entire sofa, wringing their hands, making false promises, and emitting uproarious laughter,? They are the leaders, ranking number one in hypocrisy, duplicity, deceit, nepotism, and incompetence. Yet the people still elect them because there is no alternative available. Common person does not have resources or money to contest elections as the politics is the most prohibitive, and expensive game in countries likes Pakistan.
On top, the president issues presidential pardons to those convicted by the courts. In a show of counterpoise with and derision for the judiciary, those sentenced from courts have not only been pardoned but also given higher portfolios. Rehamn Malik retains the Interior Ministry with his unlawful deeds swept under the presidential amnesty carpet. Babar Awan is made part of the National Accountability Bureau that is dealing with the bribery and criminals cases of thousands felons including him. Jamshed Dasti without a proper degree and a notorious roughneck, who had to resign previously, now stands re-elected with the blessing and backing of the prime minister of Pakistan.
So whom would you vote for: David Laws or Babar Awan?

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