Imran Khan’s Bani Gala property raises some questions

Imran Khan’s Bani Gala property raises some questions.

PTI ASSETS DECLARATION

The questions are being raised about the assets declaration by PTI and particularly Imran Khan. Without going into the nitty-gritty of the wealth statement and the wealth reconciliation made public by Khan, this very effort by a political party of Pakistan is very laudable and commendable.  

Even going any further, I will again voice some serious concerns about the experts employed by media including the private channels. Many articles I have pointed out which were published in Dawn regarding the cases under process in the courts which were devoid of any legal expertise. One understand the costs issues entangling the small papers and media houses, but one fails to understand why likes of Dawn, The News, Geo etc cannot employ the experts in the concerning fields. Is it so, that they are not bothered about the quality, thinking nobody will read these or the readers are lackeys like the general public. Perhaps it is high time they should realize it and give us better information and education.

Let me clear it at the outset that the wealth statement and the reconciliation are required to be declared at cost under the income tax law prevalent in Pakistan. It is not the wealth tax return which used to be filed at the market price under the abolished wealth tax act. By the way, this wealth tax was the biggest source of tax revenue affecting the wealthy and power elites directly. Hence one of the very first steps taken by General Musharaf in 1999 was to trash this law (the assets of the generals started bulging beyond proportions since 1980). It must have been a decision with demand and consensus!    

The famous Khan palace at Bani Gala Islamabad was shown as gift and at nil value. Another property situated in the same vicinity was declared at more than five million rupees. A flat in Islamabad is also reflected besides few inherited properties. An agricultural land is indicated as inherited.

These statements seem to be good for tax purposes as the incumbent FBR is never going to touch this file. I had seen two files going under lock and lost keys, one was of Benazir in 1988 (Karachi) and the other one was the personal file of General Mush, in 1999 (Rawalpindi). It should meet the same fate and not different as Mr Khan can become the next PM of Pakistan.

The first real and serious question asked by the writer in his article (published in The News) as why the Khan palace was shown as gifted. Whereas it is known that Khan has publically declared this property first purchased by borrowed money belonging to his former wife which was later returned to her, out of the sale proceeds of a flat in London. It is, however, a serious flaw and need to be clarified. The terms gift and loan are not “and” and “or” and not interchangeable at all by any means.

 If the transaction was done as claimed by Khan publically then the full cost of acquisition should have been reflected in wealth statements. There is no doubt that a barren hillock was purchased by him at the time when there was no development in that particular area and the price was very marginal. If for any plausible explanation, it was purchased by his wife on her own name and transferred on his name after the money was paid to her. If it was shown as a gift to save some money legally in transfer, this fact should have been admitted.  

This also demeans his claims of having the experts in every field. This, otherwise, a splendid effort was dwarfed by the lack of professional advice. This tax return belongs to not an ordinary person but to a sole hope of Pakistani youth. This merited serious considerations as he is the one with sky high claims of transparency in assets declaration and tax matters.

These documents should been accompanied by the notes and explanation by the accountant or the tax advisor. The Bani Gala house was built over the years and showing it at nil value is farce. It must have been reconciled with actual cost of purchase and the cost of construction.

The property declared at Rs.50, 50,000 should have been properly linked up to the year of purchase and the breakup of the cost clearly shown. Is it an estimated amount with round figure? Is some spurious tax practitioner from FBR is running the show? If it is the case then what about the alleged qualification and virtues of other team members? The serious question of this sort cannot be left unanswered by terming them as “well left”.

Ducking on the other inherited properties, there is a huge chunk of inherited agricultural land. I did not know that Khan’s ancestors were so rich that they left squares of land for him in Southern Punjab!

Nobody including me would believe that he has got furniture worth only Rs 200,000 in his Roman Castle at Bani Gala (leaving well left the other inherited properties).

Thanks God Parado was declared but cash in hand at 5.3 million is quite astounding for me.

Income of Rs 21.5 millions does not corroborate with the personal expenditure of 6.6 million even if we ignore the agriculture income which is tax exempted.

There seem to be another pitfall. The amount of 24.3 million stacked in foreign currency account is not shown in the wealth statement although this is not includable in the total wealth.  There is an amount appearing in Pak rupee not shown as part of the assets. This may be the same amount shown inadvertently in rupees instead of dollars.

Being a supporter is one thing and being intolerant to non sense is another trait. The high standards set and claimed by Khan himself forced us to expect much more professionalism and translucency. It is perfectly legal to revise the returns and, bring rationale and more explanation to these from your experts Mr Khan otherwise; you will lose people faster than you steeped them.    

THE POLITICAL LACKEYS AND FLUNKIES

 

I was struck by the above quote which was posted on the facebook by one of most respected and learned brethren from Karachi. The author was a German who wrote these words of immense wisdom in eighteen century.

Perturbed and disturbed like any other Pakistani, I was clueless as what has gone wrong with us. Not everybody in Pakistan is corrupt, pervert, degenerate or debauched. Why then the people like Zardari, Sharifs, Walis, Gailanies etc are imposed on us? There is no light, no gas, no water, no security and no justice for a common man. Nothing is improving and rupee is inhuming. Our country was first sold out by Zia, then Musharaf and now by Zardari. Did we deserve these lackeys who made us flunkies? No and big no!

The answer to “as if thou wert distraught and mad with terror” was so simple that it astounded me. I looked back in shock, to the friends and acquaintances with whom I grew up. Far and near, nobody is in politics. I asked myself, why.

Just look at the above quote and ponder. Are we political illiterate? Yes. Wisdom flows out of every word written. The prices are set through political decision that is why we have unbearable and unprecedented prices. The cost of living is intolerable as the rents are determined by the politicians.

We take pride in hating politics and call the politicians clowns and smear them with dirty colours. They make the decisions about our lives, our children and our country. A lion’s share of our national budget is spent on their salaries, fringe benefits and protocols. We are forced to wait in scorching heat for hours as some damn VIP is passing on the ordinary road. We are insulted by the policemen who are on the VIP duties. The police who are responsible for the crime control and our security are slipped to wrangle the dented egos of politicians and their families.

The otherwise literates like doctors, engineers, lawyers, accountants etc are all slaves to the political literates and matriculates. Degree is a degree whether it is obtained by fraud is a famous quote from an elite, who is one of lot deciding our fates.

For all the crimes like prostitution, loot, robberies, corruption etc we have to blame ourselves as we are political naive nation.

We let the multinationals to rule and exploit us. We allowed the junkies like CM of Baluchistan to wobble the way he likes.

We witnessed Nawaz’s wealth to be rounded off in “millions”! We smoked in air with bulging chests, the entourage of Zardari from Adiala to the Presidency.

Can we still make some amends? My opinion is yes. We can take on these corrupt politicians and media head on. We will have to prove ourselves the political literates and snatch the leadership from those who think it is their inherited right to rule us. We will need political participation without fear and with resolute plight. We can lead our country and will prove that we are not the worst illiterates!

WHAT HAS GONE WRONG WITH US

Every year with advent of August, we are greened with flags, sky rocketed slogans and yet unprecedented vigorous fervor. The patriotic emotions which are our national emblem touch the highest on 14 of August and dash to abysmal low on the next day.

Our educated lot never seemed to analyze as what has gone wrong with us. Why we have Zardari and India has Mukherjee, the author of four books and statesman who started his political career from scratch. India’s PM is Dr Manmoohan Singh, the pioneer of economic growth for his country while he was finance minister from 1991 to 1996. On the other side of divide, our PM had plunged this country into darkness while he was minister of water and power during this regime.

What a disgusting comparison one would say. Why we have lagged behind thousand miles from India is a quest neither easy nor short. But at least we need to find some broad answers.

As the history unravels, from 1947 to 1958 a very shrewd and dexterous political game was played with this country. It was a lesson taught to the general public and in particular to the honest and educated people. A debauch picture was painted of the politics and the politicians. Mistrust was imbued about the political institutions through crooked and curvy moves. The Communist Party was banned in 1951 and with that almost all the budding intellectuals of infant Pakistan landed in Jail and subsequently out of politics. Many of them migrated to India. It was the most lethal jolt to the very foundation of poised and honest stratum of the Pakistan.  

In those first eleven years prime ministers, governor generals and presidents were changed like pajamas. The so called power brokers were rewarded the top slot one day and humiliated the very next day by stripping off their powers. The army generals kept on sniffing smell of political power through unhindered interaction with civilians. A very strong impression of scum politics was created on the minds of the every patriotic Pakistani who transferred this to their next generation. It was told that the politics is for the dirty people who could tolerate filth on them and were capable to throw it back.

The martial law of 1958 was the last thing which the visionaries of Pakistan could tolerate and majority of them, who were still in the field, said good bye to politics for good.

A creed of pseudo military politicians emerged since then. These were the politicians who drew blood from army and its establishment. In character as one could expect, they were treacherous, deceitful, dishonest and devoid of any emotions for doing any good to others except themselves. The left over intellectuals were either fooled by Bhtto or Walis. In the end they were smirched and thrown as used worthless tissues. Afzal Bangash and Major Ishaque were few of them. Culled brutally and when they realized what happened to them, most of their strength and power was already guzzled. They made few political parties but lost into oblivion because paucity of concerted vision.

Zia era gave emergence to a new family power loop called Sharifs. They were never sharifs and will never be sharifs by any means. They amassed the unbelievable wealth and wielded unprecedented political power and turned Punjab as their personal estate. When they were not entertained by GHQ in Musharaf era, they reverted to the real power brokers of Pakistan, the Americans. They were the befitting pieces hence they benefitted along with PPP by the NRO.  

MQM was gift from Zia which was well nourished by Musharaf. It was another facet of power whose ultimate stings are lost into West.

The student unions were banned and never revived really. Those who got dirty wealth by any means jumped into political arena to safeguard their filthy dimes. They were in plenty in both Zia and Musharaf eras. The military interference never allowed the people to judge the parliamentarians continuously for even two full fledged democratic tenures. The traditional power points were never challenged seriously as every time their misdeeds had been covered inadvertently by the Khaki interventions.  

The end result of the wicked game played from the very inception of Pakistan, was hundred percent as perceived by the perpetuators. We are entering into third generations of apolitical intelligentsia. The upright and worthy Pakistanis not only stayed away from politics themselves but they forced their next generation also not to join it. This was the only blunder our fathers or forefathers did.   

It was the honest mistake but how much we had to and would have to suffer from this is not a far-flung guess. The ultimate power to rule was left to those who were corrupt, scruple less, ruthless and ready to trade anything for the money and the power. They corrupted the honest by one way or the other, they collaborated to plunder with other corrupts. They corrode the education by employing incompetents. Their next generations were brought up by only mingling with their own class. It was ingrained on their minds that they are the rulers and rest of the nation is the stupid prosaic.         

The name of the game was set not as competence or honesty but opportunity, influence, craft and wealth; and above all the “finesse in corruption”.

I am afraid if we did not realize this bitter reality of being apolitical; our next generation would also be doomed. We have Zardari Mr. ten percent, Bilawal might be ninety percent! Mr Raza Gailani is only corrupt but Musa is drug baron and the other one is the Haj trader! Hamza Sharif and cousins seem to be more pervert than fathers and uncles! Sons of ANP are also lurking hither and thither for easy loads!! We have to decide for our next generation now, if they are to suffer the same fate or not.