— Gilani’s appointment triggers controversy
— PTI, PPP denounce move
— Opposition say after destroying state institutions, PM is corrupting INGOs now
The federal government has quietly given a green signal to Syed Adil Gilani, the senior advisor of Transparency International Pakistan (TI-P), to take over the charge as an ambassador to Serbia and soon Gilani would be assuming charge of the prize slot.
A source in the federal government told the Pakistan Today that Adil Gilani has been accommodated by the prime minister as a “political appointee”. According to statistics, 27 non-diplomats and inexperienced people have been appointed as ‘political appointees’ in various countries. Adil Gilani would be the 28th person to assume charge.
“The prime minister had appointed Adil in November last year under 20 per cent quota of political appointments as PM Nawaz’s own prerogative. However, there were reservations being expressed by some senior party officials as Gilani was not a politician so he could not be eligible to take charge. But now he has been given a green signal to assume charge. He is being rewarded for his services for the prime minister only known to the ruling family,” the source added.
An official in the ministry of foreign affairs confirmed the appointment of Gilani, stating that Gilani has yet to assume his charge.
Pakistan Today contacted Prime Minister House spokesman Muhayuddin Wani on January 28 to know what criterion had been adopted in the appointment of Adil Gilani as ambassador but had received no clear answer.
“No idea Sir. I don’t deal with it,” responded Wani, adding that by the way, the ministry of foreign affairs deals with it.
When Wani was told that ministry of foreign affairs says it is the PM’s decision, Wani said that the ministry of foreign affairs had initiated the summary for appointment of Gilani. Wani added that he was in Lahore and would respond by January 30th after returning to Islamabad.
However, after returning to Islamabad, Wani did not respond to repeated questions on the subject.
Over the past few decades, Adil Gilani has served as an advisor to Pakistani chapter of Transparency International – the international anticorruption watchdog.
GILANI’S CONNECTIONS WITH SHARIFS
Gilani is not a new comrade of Sharifs. Over the years, Gilani has won the confidence of Sharifs quietly. He was appointed on January 27, 2015, as a consultant to the PM Inspection Commission (PMIC). Adil Gilani used to sit in the PM Secretariat where he cultivated close relations with the prime minister.
According to media reports, Adil Gilani’s appointment was originated from personal liking. According to the reports, Adil Gilani had managed TI-P reports showing performance of Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governments “unsatisfactory and disappointing” while the performance of Punjab government was portrayed as excellent when Gilani headed Transparency International.
But during this appointment, Gilani did literally nothing to improve the PMIC’s inspection and monitoring of the state institutions. However, but he did what he was good at– getting TI-P reports favouring the PML-N government.
But it was not the only position where Gilani served the Sharifs. On February 28, 2013, the Punjab government and the Transparency International Pakistan (TIP) entered into a formal alliance when Gilani signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to “unearth corruption” in three mega projects in Punjab Province. No corruption came to the fore though for obvious reasons.
“The TIP will review rules and regulations and transparency of the laptop scheme, Ujala programme and the metro bus project. The report will be finalised before the end of the constitutional tenure of the present government and made public,” Chief Minister Punjab Shehbaz Sharif, flanked by Suhail Muzaffar of TIP, had told media after signing of the MoU.
OPPOSITION CRIES FOUL
However, opposition parties see the appointment of Mr Gilani as a return of favour by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to Adil Gilani, who, they claim, “had been serving the cause of PML-N’s federal and Punjab governments for the past several years”.
The opposition parties believe that Gilani had rendered ‘services’ to the PML-N government of managing ‘favourable’ reports by the TIP in favour of the ruling party governments in the centre and Punjab.
Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Punjab President Qamar Zaman Kaira alleged that PM Nawaz Sharif and his coterie were experts in buying the services of people like Adil Gilani and Ijaz Shafi Gilani.
“They purchase such people to help release paid survey for their forged popularity. Let me tell you that the top people in TIP and IRI have sold their souls to the ruling party. We will keep exposing them so as they could not fool the people at large,” said Kaira.
He alleged that the questions framed in the recent IRI survey reflected that it was a paid survey.
“The non-sense questions that who is most popular leader and who is most hated leader in Pakistan itself suggested that it was a paid survey. Nawaz Sharif has been doing such surveys since long. People have rejected such surveys,” he added.
He also out-rightly rejected the recent report of the TI suggesting less corruption in Pakistan, saying that Adil Gilani was hands in glove with the federal and Punjab governments to help get fake reports of TI.
“The PPP has expressed serious objections over such fabricated and fixed reports. Now since the TI report is out, Adil Gilani has been rewarded for his services,” he asserted.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) secretary-information Naeemul Haq told Pakistan Today that it was unfortunate and disturbing to note that professionals were selling their souls for petty personal gains.
“It is disturbing to note that Gilani has sold his soul to the PML-N leaders. I know him since long as Adil is also from Karachi. He was basically a civil engineer who had no expertise in anti-corruption monitoring,” he said.
Naeemul Haq said it was an irony that after destroying state institutions, now Sharif brothers had also started destroying international and local non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
“First the PML-N governments bought services of Ijaz Shafi Gilani to conduct fake and fabricated surveys in their favours. Later, they bought TI-P,” he added.
He said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is rewarding Gilani for making bogus reports in favour of the PML-N government during the past three and a half years and almost all the reports issued by the TI-P during showed that Nawaz Sharif not only controlled corruption but also introduced good governance in Pakistan.
PTI leader alleged that the PML-N has expertise in managing its image through its henchmen through fake reports and popularity surveys. “People of Pakistan have already rejected such reports and surveys which don’t reflect truth and ground realities,” Naeemul Haq concluded.
