Mian Nawaz Sharif is in the news for all the wrong reasons. And not just because of the journalistic scoop that had been engineered by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists that came to be known as the Panama Leaks.
The most recent reasons behind MNS dominating the front pages of newspapers are: (1) an order by the Punjab government to the Libraries to enrich themselves with the copies of the biography of the Prime Minister titled Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif—Dastan-i-Hayat, and (2) a foreign office memo seeking flight clearance for a special Pakistan Air Force aircraft to carry a HORSE to Doha for delivery to the Royal Qatar family, one of whose magnanimously generous sons has bravely come forward to help out the Sharifs in their bid to find the desperately-sought MONEY TRAIL in the Panamagate case.
Both these news items have been picked up from DAWN not known for cheap sensationalism. Their authenticity is unlikely to be convincingly questioned.
As for the Horse gifted to the Qatar Emir, MNS has merely fulfilled a moral obligation. Hasn’t the Prime Minister been gifted with two letters from an honourable member of the royal Qatari family that the PM’s lawyers regard as priceless— almost as important as life-saving drugs?
A gift for gift is a fair bargain.
Regarding the Prime Minister’s Dastan-i-Hayat, there is a lot of weight in the PML (N) government’s argument that being Prime Minister three times is no mean achievement, and it would be unfair to the future generations (as well as the generation in the making) to deprive them of the knowledge of the inspiring feats of Pakistan’s only living leader to be honoured with laurels reserved usually for the Souls Departed.
Mohammad Ali Jinnah was Quaid-i-Azam. Agreed. But was he three times Quaid-i-Azam? Or three times Head of the government? He had to wait (in heavens) for several years to have his biography written (that too by a foreigner called Hector Bolitho). By that time no one was as inspired and as interested as the sages of this government to ensure that the libraries had some space for JINNAH.
The PML (N) government is acting judiciously — in its bid to beat the clock (ticking in the court room 2 of the SC).
When I take into account the enthusiasm with which the MNS regime moves on the road to progress & immortality, I sometimes can’t help thinking of the possibility of MNS inaugurating the Construction of his mausoleum….