From Godfather To Wall Street To Panama Papers

I don’t know what my subject today is for my echoes of the heart. Fudging? Crime syndicate? White-collar crime?
I don’t think any exclusively. These all and many more have merged into one single question. Will Godfather rule this country forever?
The word Godfather has surged up in my mind because of the analogy Justice Asif Saeed Khosa has drawn between the famous novel of the same name, and the man who is central to Panama Leaks case—the man who today on the one hand is a respondent to be investigated by a JIT, and on the other hand is Prime Minister of Pakistan.
Have you read Mario Puzo’s masterpiece ? Some of you may have. But most are likely to have seen the movie version of it— the blockbuster starring Marlon Brando as Don Vito Corleone.
The movie doesn’t give any idea about why Justice Asif Saeed Khosa mentioned Godfather in his judgment with reference to the quotation chosen by Mario Puzo (from Balzac) to capture the essence of the Panama case.
“Behind every great fortune there is a crime”.
In the movie Marlon Brando’s hero image has eclipsed the evil embodied in Vito Corelone. And the movie is focused more on Vito’s son Michael played by Al Pacino. In the novel Michael is relevant in only three chapters in which he virtually eliminates the rest of the Mafia families. In the film he is a dominant character.
Justice Khosa should have had Vito Corleone of the novel in mind when he drew the analogy—the man who embodies in himself the ‘qualities’ that go into the making of an empire-builder—the empire of crime of all kinds—from running drug trade and murder industry to buying out high police officials, and judges. There is Tom Hagen who brings to my mind Ishaq Dar.
The analogy ends there. Vito’s two sons, Sony the firebrand, and Michael the cool customer are brilliant. Whereas Hussain and Hassan may not be exactly goofs but pretty wooden headed.
There are blood-curdling statements in the book.
“If you can’t bribe him out of his principles, get rid of him.”
“Mercy in our code is folly of the highest order.”
I read Godfather fortyseven years ago. I remember it mostly as a war between Mafia families for supremacy. Justice Khosa has remembered it as Manual for crime—both white collar and blue.
I wish he also had mentioned Wall Street in his judgment. And its hero Gordon Gekko.
“One who has information, controls Stock Exchange. Information is my biggest asset. Through it I demolish my enemies. And honour my ultimate god. Greed!”
Vito Corleone and Gordon Gekko embody the coldblooded lust for money that creates stories like Panama Papers.