Pack of Lies

By Syed M. Aslam

Just how successive dictators have pillage and plundered the natural and man-made wealth and riches of a great nation is a sad fact ingrained in the collective psyche of Pakistan. The latest in the long line of despots Pervez Musharraf was the worst that Pakistanis ever experienced braved.

Ruthless to the bone, corrupt to the core, liar-to-the-teeth despot Musharraf and his poodle of a prime minister Shaukat Aziz ripped off the country right, left and centre. Their minions in the establishment and bureaucracy aided by anti-people turn coats including the so-called democrats Shaikh Rasheed, Sufis Chaudhary Shujaat and Mushahid Hussain (chairman and vice chairman of a proposed Sufi council that never saw the light of the day),  Pervez Ellahi, Sher Afghan, Wasi Zafar, Muhammad Ali Durrani and numerous others;  new aspirants including a number of men and women from ruling stinking elites like Omer Ayub (the grand-son of Pakistan's first dictator General Ayub Khan), Kashmala Tariq, Malik sisters, Firdous Ashiq Awan (who still serves pretty as federal minister), the bureaucracy and the administration fed on peoples blood and sweat. However, shameless as they are they keep on parroting the democracy mantra in a country known for forgetting the crimes of omission or commission, no matter how heinous they are, of the leaders (read looters and killers).

The Musharraf and every single official of his government was, and still is, "a natural-born liar". Read the excerpts of the statement read by Dr. Attiya Inayatullah Minister for Women Development, Social Welfare & Special Education and Personal Representative of the President of Pakistan (Musharraf) at the Special Session of the General Assembly on Children at New York on May 10, 2002. Read the lies to understand how officials representing the nation at the highest level at international levels intentionally misguide the world:

·         We in Pakistan acknowledge that the worst victims of the 21st century are children of families trapped in poverty. President Pervez Musharraf Government is working on good governance, restoration of democracy and economic revival which regulates foreign borrowing to shed dependency on external creditors. Concurrently, Pakistan is also putting into place a comprehensive reform program which protects and extends to the vulnerable, inclusive of the child who is a fundamental element in Pakistan's human security agenda.

·         We have embarked on a road to bring into place genuinely democratic system in the country which is sensitive to national priorities and the needs of the under privileged and the down trodden (Musharraf and his cronies, political or otherwise could not even spell down trodden let alone understand its meaning).

·         Measures are also afoot to ensure that the positive and sound policies initiated by the present government are continued into the future and regression back to the mistakes of the past governments is avoided. These developments augur well for the initiatives taken by us. These governance changes will have major impact for the welfare of children and the protection of their rights.

·         Presently only about 55% population has access to iodized salt. This is expected to increase to 75% by 2003-4 and to 100% by 2010-11. Presently 25 % newborns have low birth weight; this is projected to decrease to 12 % by 2010-11. Prevalence of malnutrition among pre-school children is to decrease from 37% to 20% and that in school going children [ages 5-14 years] from 35% to 15% by 2010-11.

·         Recognizing the inter-generational impact of malnutrition on girls, Pakistan has initiated an innovative program to improve the nutritional status of girl children in primary schools. The Tawana Pakistan Project seeks to provide meals, micronutrients and medicines to half a million girls in primary schools. This project will not only enhance nutritional status of girls but will also lead to increased enrollment of girls in primary schools.

·         Protection from economic exploitation and hazardous work is a basic right of the child under Article 32 of the CRC. We are pleased to report that government has continued to pursue the policy to eliminate child labor by 2005 for which a National Policy and Plan of Action has been approved.

·         In the national plan to combat child labor, the government has established a fund for the education of working children with an initial outlay of Rs. 100 million (around US$ 1.8 million).

·         These are only few of the initiatives to give you a flavor of what we have achieved and sustained over the last few years. A lot more has also been done. One area which needs special mention is the Poverty Reduction Strategic Policy that concentrates on improving the quality of life of the people of Pakistan.

Liars, criminals, murderers, robbers.

Musharraf has so thoroughly pillaged and plundered Pakistan that parents are selling, and in extreme cases are even killing, their children due to rampant abject poverty. People are committing suicide en masse. Over half of the 180 million population is living below the poverty line another 30 per cent or so are forced to subsist on less than 2 dollars a day. Profiteers reign supreme as children, women and old men and women are either crushed in stampede at free ration distribution or killed by police at special centres selling such basic essentials as wheat flour and sugar at comparative lower, but still high, prices.

The worst victim of the inhumane Musharraf era are the children. Shouldn't the civilized world hand over the criminals who have committed gross crimes to a nation of 180 million people instead of devising unethical ways to protect the despot and his cronies?     

Meanwhile despot Musharraf and minion of his prime minister Shaukat Aziz are allowed to roam the world freely to invest the multi-billion dollar loot soaked in the blood and sweat of 180 million Pakistanis. Those who abetted them in their crime still keep on bamboozling the people. Nothing has changed even after the elections 2008 except names with the continuation of despot Musharraf's policies in spirit if not in letter. The children of Pakistan are worse off than ever before they were in 2002 when liar Dr. Attiya Inayatullah misguided the world at the apex global forum knowing fully well that she was speaking nothing but lies. Does she have the decency to offer unconditional apology for misguiding the apex global forum on behalf of 180 million ruthlessly socially, economically, politically exploited Pakistanis? Shouldn't she?

Liars, criminals, murderers, robbers.

Syed M. Aslam is  an APNS (All Pakistan Newspapers Society) Award winning Pakistani English language print journalist, commentator, analyst, article writer. He can be contacted at smaslam1@yahoo.com

Other articles of the writer can be accessed at:

http://www.makepakistanbetter.com/why_how_what_user.asp?UserID=Ink%20Drops