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The VIP vice Wednesday, March 03, 2010 Anjum Niaz The writer is a freelance journalist with over twenty years of experience in national and international reporting Last Sunday on a PIA flight from Karachi to Islamabad, we had a VIP travel in the first-class cabin. When the flight landed in Islamabad, we were made to wait until the VIP was safely seated in his waiting Mercedes flying two flags - the Pakistan and perhaps the PPP flags. The wait for us was not long, but what was shocking was to see the car drive up to the apron, as close as it could get to the aircraft. Was the VIP a foreign guest warranting maximum security? No. He was in fact Raza Rabbani! To make sure I was not hallucinating, I double-checked with a member of the crew as we alighted. The airhostess confirmed it was the senator. Rabbani is currently chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security and also heads the Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reform. Do his handlers think that ordinary passengers like us are a threat to his life and therefore he must be whisked away the minute he sets foot on the ground? "Raza Rabbani is one of the very few politicians who have been able to attain and sustain a high level of credibility in the eyes of public as well as among all the political parties," says a Google search I did on him today. "He is one politician who does not have any scandals associated with him; financial, moral, or political. He does not come from a feudal background, but earned his credibility as a competent lawyer and then as a principled political leader." Why then does Rabbani fall for the VIP trappings? Surely, his life is not threatened the way Rehman Malik contends that his is? Malik has excused himself from appearing in person at courts because our security czar claims that there are people out to kill him. I wrote on the chief secretary Punjab last week. He's on leave these days because the car that he was sitting in killed a man. The chief secretary's chauffeur is perhaps behind bars. But here is what he said against his boss according to a Lahore-based English newspaper report appearing on January 28. Permit me to reproduce it verbatim: "Ghulam Murtaza, the Punjab chief secretary's (CS) driver who was arrested on Tuesday for running over a retired colonel, has alleged that the CS had slapped him for not driving fast, shortly before the car hit and caused the death of Col (r) Muhammad Ikram, sources privy to the investigation told the daily. 'Most of the drivers left due to Javed Mahmood's unruly behaviour... the CS is known to use rough language and has sometimes even slapped drivers, telling them to drive faster,' sources in the Punjab Civil Secretariat said. They also claimed that in the past week, the CS had manhandled and humiliated Murtaza in front of the camp office staff over a minor oversight. On the day of the accident, the driver himself was under great psychological pressure, sources said. A number of drivers, who had worked for the CS, told the daily that Javed Mahmood had a habit of humiliating his drivers during out-of-station trips. Interestingly, Javed Mahmood has replaced around 15 staff drivers since his posting as the head of the province's civil administration in March 2008. According to the sources, Ghulam Murtaza has claimed that soon after the incident the CS got out of the car and walked away, directing him later on the phone not to disclose to anyone that he (Javed Mahmood) was in the car at the time of the accident." If the damning testimony by the driver as reproduced above is baloney, the ex-chief secretary must set the record straight. It's most damaging. But more often than not, it's a reflection of how our bureaucrats treat their inferiors, especially servants, who dare not protest. The issue here is the cold hauteur of civil servants, trained to be rude, rough, boorish and harsh towards their servants and lower staff. Their wives and children too treat those who serve them with arrogance. It becomes a part of their DNA. Pakistan is cursed with a VIP culture that will just not go away. There is no cure. From Zardari down to the thanedar or the patwari, we the ordinary citizens must accept these holy cows and be meek, submissive and servile before them. God forbid, should one come in their path, one is pushed aside like a speck of dust and told to remove himself/herself, even reprimanded and warned for polluting the stratified air the VIP breathes. 'Get lost' is the message! Some even get killed! Like the colonel and the unlucky motorcyclist who happened to be on the same road as the senior adviser to the Punjab chief minister, Sardar Zulfiqar Khosa, driving from Derawar Fort after the conclusion of the Cholistan Jeep Rally. He was squished like a fly by the fleeting police escort 'guarding' Khosa. Two other riders survived the swat but are probably maimed for life. Nothing short of a revolution will scorch this bumper crop of VIPs from our land. The VIPs, past and present, are bijli chors. We all know who these men and women are. But the latest culprit who stole electricity is Nawaz Sharif. I blame him because he was the central character at a meeting in Lahore recently where the press caught PML-N organisers blatantly using the 'kunda' to illuminate the jalsagah. Even more hilarious was the hurriedly organised press conference where the PML-N dudes, Saad Rafique and Rana Sanaullah, separately tried to cover up the crime by giving contradictory statements. Instead of a damage control exercise, the two pugilists ended up looking like jokers. When Nawaz Sharif was 'king,' don't we all remember how he conducted himself? Every weekend he'd take off for Lahore, carting a planeload of elite officials and miscellaneous to confer with at his Model Town residence and later Raiwind estate. We, the taxpayers, paid for the weekly VVIP junkets. Pakistan is without a finance minister! Zardari is holidaying (probably attending to his millions) in London at state expense. Notice his luxurious residence there. In a photo showing him talking to British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, one sees an easel, the kind artists use to put their canvas on, standing behind the sitting Zardari. It holds a propped up Jinnah's portrait. A Pakistani flag on the president's right completes the picture. Does our VVIP think that by sporting a makeshift portrait of Jinnah and a flag, he can impress the hardboiled British and convince them of his patriotism and sincerity to serve the poor and starving of Pakistan? Wearing one's religious or patriotic beliefs on one's sleeves smacks of hypocrisy and guile. At home, his prime minister rings hollow on accountability vowing he'll catch the corrupt. Gilani puts up an act of 'Mr Clean' telling the media that he has no taxable income except his salary! Give us a break. One's told that his family is busy taking loans from banks for setting up industry. Being VVIPs, these bounty-hunters will, naturally, not be required to repay the loans. That's the name of the game! An economist who is shocked that Pakistan is being run without a finance minister says, "It surprises me that after 64 years of poor economic management, failed policies of bankers, bureaucrats and politicians, we continue to expect wonders. Well the VIPs are going to do what they do best -- beg some more and follow the master's (donor) advice. They even beg from the tiny UAE and Qatar!" Email: [email protected] & www.anjumniaz.com -- Dear Friends Check your inbox daily + delete your junk emails & keep your inbox empty! 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