Don’t play my-cat-is-a-cow game
The lethal fragments of the Panama bomb have penetrated very deep into delicate bodies of our lords and the narcissistic wounds will also take quite a good time to be healed up. The Sharif family is ill at ease finding ways to revive its tarnished Sharif-image and nullify opposition’s tirade against the embattled premier and his super-businessmen sons. The so-called perception managers of prime minister house’s media-cell want this scandal to be sheathed in a mist of fallacy.
Amid severe criticism on Prime Minister’s medical tourism, a novel idea landed someone’s mind at the PM House. The idea was to sell an ‘obedient-son persona’ to pacify uproar over offshore companies. “My father reverently kisses my grandma’s hand as she surrounds him with prayers for his health before seeing him off,” Maryam Nawaz tweeted with an affectionate mother-son photo pose. The picture brought the family mixed reaction on social media with the majority still saying, “We have come to know what you did with the national wealth,” adding insult to injury. The image was itself great but was released on an ill-chosen moment with a dubious intent.
It was, at the same time, an unprecedented step on behalf of the Sharif family. They had decided to play with the innocent emotions of masses as the party hawks had miserably failed to counter the legitimate public onslaught on hidden offshore assets. Do humble courtesies of a son mean an out-and-out honesty? Can a submissive son not be a corrupt or at least careless leader? Does a mother’s love give her son immunity from being accountable before the law? Doesn’t a man having veneration for his parents tell a lie or half-truth to other people? Does the picture answer queries raised on money-trail? What did it actually mean and whose fertile cerebrum was it who first conceived the trick?
The pseudo-spin-doctors of PML-N government might be thinking to induce a proof-by-example-fallacy in the public. They say some are born great, some achieve greatness and some hire public relation writers (include photographers/twitter handlers in this case). One who believes in mother’s prayers and pays obeisance will certainly be a firm believer in piousness therefore a pious man can never steal his nation’s wealth. Simple math behind the method employed. This kind of politician’s logic is well defined as follows: All cows have four legs. My cat has four legs. Therefore, my cat is a cow.
Everyone respects this reverential attitude towards parents and must appreciate mother-son love. But, the nation is demanding the proof of your deep-seated love for your motherland if there exists any. How much reverence lies in your heart for it and to what extent you can lay sacrifices for its happiness. Is it not a fact that this obedient son ditched his mother (land) when forced to languish few dark nights behind the bars? Actions speak louder than words.
A few weeks back, in a bid to get good press, a story was carried in an Urdu newspaper magnifying good nature and immense love of the premier for his mother. The puffery-piece told all and sundry that the Prime Minister had not availed a legal right of utilizing public exchequer and paid Rs 45,000 out of his own pocket for the treatment of his mother who was suffering with some auditory trouble. “Nawaz Sharif wrote the cheque and signed it with his own hands,” reported the journalist.
Everyone has a mother and every mother has a beating heart. The hearts of millions of mothers have bled profusely on seeing their sons dying of diseases, poverty and unemployment. Our prime minister’s medical condition cannot be treated in Pakistan but what about those millions of people and their mothers’ feelings whose sons and daughters are meeting untimely deaths due to various deadly diseases and obstetric complications.
Honourable Prime Minister, also feel the agony of mothers whose kids were turned into mere blood-clots at Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park. What about unending pain of mothers whose sons and daughters met a merciless death at Model Town? Where gone the commission and its report? The patients who have undergone major surgeries at the hands of a non-qualified neurosurgeon at Services Hospital Lahore were also not motherless. The mothers of cops who recently embraced martyrdom in a poorly planned and executed operation in Rajanpur are also asking about the real killers. Chotu gang, Punjab government or IG police?
When the jawans of Pak army are sacrificing their lives in the war on terror and police personnel dare to challenge death wearing broad smiles on their faces, our prime minister and his family simply fear sharing details of their riches with the nation and lack the sense of security to bring back their fortunes to their motherland for its prosperity. ‘Offshore companies are legal’ mantra and instantaneous social media reactions will never satisfy the skeptical media and opposition. A simple question is being fired by the whole world: appraise the nation about the money with which your scion built a magnificent offshore empire in no time.
Mughal king, Salim (Jahangir) too would kiss his mother, Mariam-uz-Zamani’s feet. It was his personal act of rectitude. Your personal virtues and vices have nothing to do with your right-to-rule this country. From Imran Khan to Chaudhrys of Gujrat, all are renowned for their love for their mothers. It is highly laudable. But everyone including the PML-N questions and must continue asking what the PTI is delivering in KPK and one great act of Khan in the form of establishing a charity cancer hospital out of his love and reverence for his mother can never give him and his party indemnity from not being grilled on bad-governance in the province they rule.
Tagore’s poem ‘Freedom’, starts, “Freedom from fear is the freedom; I claim for you my motherland!” Mr. Prime Minister, what are you claiming for your motherland is the question needed to be answered. Why not starting from bringing your assets back to the country you rule and you claim you love. Love your mother, trust your motherland.
The writer is a journalist based in Islamabad. Twitter: @irfanbokharee