Brazenly corrupt, blatantly coercive

Our daily life is replete with examples of brazen political high-handedness that have been reported without any relief. But the one that is the subject of this column surpasses the rest because this not only reflects the dominant corrupt and dictatorial mindset that underlines all such actions by the political mafias, it also is an attempt to eclipse a life of enormous good work done by an individual who has been an exception to the utter mediocrity that symbolises the present-day bureaucracy.

This story is about Dr Zafar Altaf, the former secretary agriculture, government of Pakistan and the former chairman, Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC). If there were any exceptions to the buffoonery that manages the doings of the ‘elite’ service in the country today, Dr Altaf would sit at the very top of that list. The tragedy is that efforts are being made not only to silence him, but to have him punished for a crime that he never committed.

The story begins way back when Idara-e-Kissan (IK) was launched near Pattoki as a cooperative society comprising 25,000 to 26,000 women members. Milk was procured from about five-hundred villages around the area to produce the ‘Hala’ brand that was sold at an unbelievable 47 per cent less than all other brands of packaged milk available in the market. Another interesting factor is that 44 per cent of the women who supplied milk to the plant were landless. The plant is spread over an area of 114 kanals of land near the Defence Housing Society in Lahore.

The IK operation was running successfully and profitably when the government of Punjab approached it with a request that it should also take over the management of the Lahore Milk Plant which had been virtually reduced to junk at that point in time. A 20-year contract was signed with the government of Punjab in 1996. Idara-e-Kissan took over the control of the Lahore Milk Plant and, by 2004, had succeeded in turning it into a profit-generating unit.

At some stage after that, IK was asked to replicate their successful model at Sialkot and Layyah also. IK, after due internal consultation, offered that it could do so only at one place. The government of Punjab asked it to go ahead at Layyah where they committed to provide the requisite land. The plant was envisioned at Garh Maharaja, about forty kilometres from Layyah. The first contravention of the broad understanding came in the shape of the non-provision of the land that had been promised. IK still went ahead with the project and a dry powder plant costing over Rs120 million was installed. The project was completed in 2009 and was handed over to the Planning, Development and Livestock Department through a PC IV document. Both parties signed the document indicating that the project had been closed successfully.

Intervention in the working of the plant had started much earlier when the sitting livestock minister had insisted that the plant be set up near his village and jobs should be offered to people from his electorate. Intervention had come from the officials of the livestock ministry as well who also wanted similar favours done.

This is the time when another milk plant was set up in the private sector in Chiniot that is reportedly owned by a scion of the Sharif family. It marketed its milk under the brand name of ‘Anhaar’. Tolerating competition not being one of the virtues of the Sharif family, they started endeavours to muzzle the nascent project and, by 2011, it had been reduced to a junkyard. But more interesting things started happening when a barrage of criticism was directed at Dr Altaf blaming him, among other things, for having made illicit money out of the project – this in spite of the fact that the chairman, P&D, government of Punjab was also the chairman of the steering committee that was set up to manage the project at Garh Maharaja and Dr Altaf had absolutely nothing to do with it.

But the story does not end there. A heavyweight political figure of Lahore had his eyes set on the 114 kanals of land attached with the original IK project. He was intent on building a college there named after his deceased father and there is no way he was going to be denied. There was only one way to usurp that piece of land: close the milk plant – and that’s exactly what was done with the alleged help and cooperation of the provincial secretary industries. Orders were passed to cancel the contract with the Idara-e-Kissan and, in utter violation of the stay-order having been secured by the management, police was sent to take control of the premises and the work on the college building commenced. A report was also submitted against Dr Altaf alleging him to have pilfered funds from the project of which there is no proof at all. Declaring him a fugitive, warrants of his arrest were issued by an anti-corruption court in Lahore – the bastion of the Sharif power in the country. The over 70-year old Dr Altaf has since secured an interim bail.

This is the dictatorial and humiliating manner in which a nefarious effort has been made to sniff out an incomparably productive and service-oriented work spread over thirty years by Dr Altaf. Why? Because, number one, his work presented unacceptable competition to the milk brand allegedly owned by a son of Shahbaz Sharif – the former as well as the designated new chief minister of Punjab who, quite hilariously, calls himself the ‘Khadim-e-Aala’. (Even his so-called ‘literate’ advisors are at a loss for words in explaining the connotations of the term!) And, number two, a political arm-twister of Lahore – well, they all are one way or the other – wanted the large piece of land for building a college. So, Idara-e-Kissan had to be dismantled.

A life that is unmistakably laced with innumerable laudatory initiatives even the meaning of which would escape the depleted intelligence of a majority of the charlatans of the political mafias and the bureaucracy bandwagon under the charge of the chief minister is being silenced through the use of the corrupt and the coercive state machinery. Dr Altaf’s crime is that he refused to budge in the face of unremitting pressure to take decisions that he considered inimical to the honourable principles that he has cherished all his life. His other crime is that he was unwilling to become a partner in the lustful monetary pursuits of a notorious political heavyweight who did not hesitate from eliminating a highly viable and profitable project dedicated to the welfare of the poor and the downtrodden. Shall we raise a toast to another five years of the Sharif rule? A shame, unremitting shame!

The writer is a political analyst. He can be reached at [email protected]