The Emperor and His Clothes
The Mehran Bank scandal continues to devour reputations in its oily, inky embrace. On May 31, 1994, the previously unassailable credibility of the President of Pakistan, Farooq Ahmad Leghari, become its latest casualty, accused by the Leader of the Opposition of being involved in a less-than-meets-the-eye land sale transaction supposedly structured by the now most infamous Habib, Yunus of Mehran (and Habib) Bank fame. The President was said to have received Rs. 15 million in two instalments of Rs. 7.5 million in September and November 1993, just prior to the General and Presidential Elections respectively, at Rs. 32,000.00 per acre a fair price for 531 acres of his ancestral land in D.G. Khan. As Kamran Khan has suggested there is a balance of Rs. 19,92,000.00 (almost Rs. 2 million) which seems to have been delivered in cash. For good measure, the PML (N) leader also castigated the President for spending Rs. 150 million (Rs. 180 million according to an aroused FPCCI) of the tax-payers money attending his son’s graduation in the States in what should have been a private visit and what in fact seems to have inadvertently become a semi-official junket with a lot of unnecessary frills thrown in.
The immediate reaction of the Government on both counts was predictable, bordering on hysteria. Not before 2-3 days had elapsed did present GoP’s spin-masters get their act together and a sustained “damage control” operation was initiated. Clearly on the defensive and stung by the accusations of his critics, the President produced documentary evidence to prove that the land sale was a genuine transaction. GoP machinery went into overdrive to show that the President’s official rounds in USA were in the greater interests of Pakistan and, therefore, reason enough to spend the tax payer’s money. There is no doubt that the dialogue with the US, at a crucial crossroads, had to be continued and the simultaneous visit of the Indian PM had to be countered. The President’s meeting with potential US entrepreneurs, particularly in the energy sector, was another plus point.
