Let s cheer verdict from high moral ground

By Syed M. Aslam

First the congratulations: Congratulations for letting a foreign court convict not one, not two but three Pakistani cricketers with a fourth Asian brownie thrown in as bonus, and rushing them off to jail. Well done indeed, Sir.

So let’s cheer and thank the British court help us get rid of, even if temporarily, not one, not two but THREE corrupts.

We should now look forward to a corruption-free Pakistan with the three greedy cricketers locked away in a jail cell for next few months or over a year as the case may be.

It’s a great beginning indeed: We should now look forward to foreign courts, British or otherwise, to trap, tape, book, convict and jail the profiteers of all hues and shades who have made life so unbearable for the people that they are committing suicide en masse in this land of pure.

We should look toward them to instill the fear of God in the hearts of those who slap arbitrary taxes and levies as they wish.

We should now plead the foreign courts to do our dirty job of trapping, taping, booking, convicting and jailing those who own palatial palaces, houses and flats bought from so tainted a money that it seeps the labor, sweat and blood of our people and reeks worse than a urine-soaked rag.

We must also look forward to blind justice ordering the confiscation of ill gotten wealth deposited in banks of the foreign countries that houses such just courts and that plays a significant role to grease their monetary and economic wheels.

Let’s ride on the wave of jubilation following the conviction of Salman Butt, Muhammad Asif and Muhammad Amir. Looks like if people could have their way they would lynch an already disgraced, and now also financially bankrupt, cricketers.

Let’s celebrate to get rid of the corrupt Salman, Asif and Amir because with them in jail Pakistan would be a much better place to live in.

Let’s not let the tears in the eyes of the wrinkle-faced Amir’s mother, Asif’s father and Salman’s mother stir any human emotions in us- for emotions and feelings in this country of the pure have long gone obsolete replaced by hedonism, materialism, lust for money, position and power- the barometers of success today.

Let us be on high moral ground to condemn Salman’s, Asif’s and Amir’s act of corruption, of selling the inspirations of their people, breaking the hearts of their fans, damaging the national interests and defaming the country.

Let us also conveniently forget that all the wealth and resources of this unfortunate country is shared in league by a group that make up a negligible percentage of our population- a negligible percentage that never shares a gram of its burdens- heavy and break-backing as they are.

It’s time to wear moral, religious and ethical indignation on our sleeves and demand the blood and guts of the three corrupt Pakistani cricketers sentenced by a foreign court.

Let’s cry foul and chant it aloud in a chorus. Let’s don the rain-coat of patriotism, let’s condemn, condemn, condemn.

Let’s be mellow watching morally-right people of shady past as well as present making the hay while the sun shines bright. Condemning someone, anyone, not only gives us a high that could only be savored but could not be explained but it also makes us good because after all we are not like Salman, Asif and Amir.

Let’s thank our good stars that we live in a society that has now become fully accustomed to accept corruption as routine not an exception. Let us conveniently forget that the flow of money here belies the universally and morally accepted norm of gushing from rich to poor because here money and all resources flow from bottom to top.

Has you ever been unfortunate to be in a situation that involved the police, a court of law, a hospital- public or private. If you retired government employees do you remember what it took to have your pension and other funds that were yours to start with paid. How many hands you had greased at all these places for the rights that were yours to start with? Remember?

But with Salman, Asif and Amir sent to slammer- even if overseas- you must cheer that the three-member, nay four-member including Mazhar Majeed, corruption team deserved what it got. Cry hoarse against the corrupt three for tarnishing the image of the country, selling the aspirations of their people.

Thank God that the foreign court has punished the three corrupt Pakistanis for corruption-free Pakistan.

Let us be merry playing out the angels that all of us are, minus of course the three convicted cricketers.

Let’s celebrate and forget about the blood tears that the families of Salman, Asif and Amir shed because we the angels are now on our way to a corruption-less society we all so love.