The 10% Lark

JANUARY 2002 - The only remission I know makes sense is the one you might be lucky enough to get should you be in the clutches of the Big C, but the remission announced by my old friend, Raja Bash the other day – he is the dreaded Prosecutor General of the NAB, makes little sense. Bash announced that henceforth, President Musharraf has decided not to allow remission to convicts of corruption. Whatever that means, I can’t fathom but if it means the days of plea-bargaining are over, then hallelujah. If not, eat your heart out and watch how the swindlers continue swindling.

There has been quite a public outrage about the shameful manner in which the dirty deal with the dirty admiral has been conducted. It has led to widespread condemnation of the thinking that permeates the government mindset, where a token payment is all that you need to convert ill-gotten gains into pure lucre. There have been any amount of letters from shocked and dismayed citizens who have questioned this strange policy of proving a crime and then negotiating a release whereby a miniscule percentage of the loot is returned in easy, convenient and relaxed installments to the country. The balance that is left is enough to feed thousands for years but it belongs to the crook that makes good his escape and leads a life we all can only dream about in our wildest dreams. Not only him, but all those who will follow him, when having failed to bribe the Almighty or buy his way out of the Grim Reaper’s way, he will finally kick the bucket and proceed up above via down below. There will be a grand funeral and all those who enjoyed his patronage will show up dutifully and moan about what a fine man he was and how badly he will be missed. This will be followed by the rest of the soul-cleansing mumbo jumbo and the family having buried the dear departed will roll along merrily with money that was never theirs in the first place. We, in the meantime, will go on paying our taxes and driving on the left side.

NAB has maintained since the days of Senator Saif ur Rehman that white-collar crime is very hard to pinpoint or prove but what Admiral Mansur ul Haq, for example perpetrated, is hardly white-collar crime, though one does concede that it was white tunic crime. The point raised by many angry and visibly depressed people has been the entire rationale of the plea bargaining business. No one is able to understand that once the criminal has been arrested and brought to face the charges which have been more than convincingly established, why must he or she be let off with a token payment? Does this in effect mean, that the guiding principle here is, yes, we know you were doing hanky panky and were a bad boy and we also know you were a greedy little rascal who grabbed everything in sight and we also know that you have much more stashed away which we haven’t had the time to find and you are now an enormously wealthy so and so, but we are only going to take a teeny weeny bit from you. The rest? Keep it bud, enjoy it and have no fears. You are now clean. The admiral has agreed to pay the obscene amount of US$ 7.5 million in exchange for his freedom and closure of all corruption charges against his (fair) name. This, one letter writer, states is the equivalent of 1270 years of an admiral and two years salary of the entire Pakistan Navy!!! Holy Cow or Holy Whale since we are into nautical matters is all that one can say.

It has also been established that had NAB not fished in the Admiral’s murky waters, the case would never have surfaced like smelly flotsam, because in the big pond, the big fish protect each other and elsewhere, the other monsters protect their own kind. It is a very large and mutually-supportive mafia of the rich, the powerful and the corrupt, who have looted with impunity all these years, at every opportunity and who have assured safe exits for themselves and their extended tribe of family, friends and supporters. Having looted and plundered with both hands, they now relax in the twilight of their years, playing golf, going for long walks, travelling abroad for well-deserved holidays, rearing families and playing doting grand parents to little tykes who are going to have a whale of a time when their time comes because there is just so much lolly and so little time. In the case of Admiral Haq (who one learns reportedly stole spoons, knives and forks while at college), since this is the newest scam to hit us square in the face, there is a long line of plundered wealth and properties strewn all over the world that are all legally his to prance about in. No one can dare question him because by admitting his guilt, he has converted his loot and changed its colour from black to his favourite, white. Indeed he should pay back the US$ 7.5 million but why in installments and what about the rest? He has built a house – though seriously how can you call it a house – for which you and I have paid about Rs 50 million and it is all his to loll about in. He has even more properties in USA and these are the ones we know about – the rest, and given the Admiral’s talent for making money, there must be quite a few around, are not even part of the deal.

When NAB first started to rope in the high profile thugs, the people experienced a certain catharsis, a fleeting sense of satisfaction that at last, some little part of the looted money was trickling back in again, but the process has been slow and tedious and there have been more press statements than recoveries. However, NAB has carried on but it is increasingly finding it difficult to justify its rationale of taking a token payment and exonerating the guilty party. In the Admiral’s case, all his assets should have been confiscated, his name struck off the record and the many boards and ceremonial plaques that adorn naval outfits. He should have been punished in an exemplary manner. Instead, he has had a ball, rotted in no jail, bargained like an auctioneer and will soon go scot free wherever he wishes to. This is atrophied justice and it stinks. NAB does not have the mandate to really take the thieves to the cleaners and swathe their way through the tall grass in which they roll about in glee. It cannot go after all those – and we know too well that the list is long and contains many names of the rich and the famous, who have practiced the fine art of plundering, because were it to do so, the entire known establishment of judges, politicians, generals and businessmen would come tumbling down. No one wants to do that because the price will be too heavy and vested interests must remain vested. Crime, white collar, khaki, blue or starched gold shalwar-kurta, pays and pays handsomely. As for justice, aren’t we all a little too old for fairy tales?