Twirp: Terrorist Wahabi Islamic Rep Pakistan 4

[Naresh]

<b>Over the top : IMAX shi-MAX</b>

<i>Masood Hasan</i>

<b>What is it that afflicts reasonably good men who waste no time in abandoning all or any principles they might have had, the moment they assume positions of power? What primal deficiency is there, what childhood deprivation or horror upbringing that turns them into marauding, ruthless and psychopathic beasts?</b> What really happens to them that they abandon all the good things they might have learnt from parents, families and peers when they were young and instead, like Oscar Wilde's Dorian Grey, metamorphed into the stuff of nightmares? Again and again in Pakistan's 62 years of jerky independence scores of good men and women have risen to the top only to subside like scum, but since there never has been and never will be accountability, they have all survived and flourished, become intellectuals, written high-moral ground books, delved into religion and emerged whiter than Snow White and even pontificated on the importance of living a good and clean life. The sheer hypocrisy of it all is galling but there is nothing to worry about because no heads are rolling and no one is losing sleep over it.

In our blessed country, the amount of audacious scams that have been pulled off with about the same consummate skill and ease as a seasoned juggler would exhibit producing a rabbit out of a hat, are so many that it would require a few large editions of this newspaper just to accommodate the names. Everyone has gone scot-free which is not at all amazing and every one has moved on to make more kills – and man eating lions get a bad name! One of the many bizarre and utterly shameful squandering of public money was the IMAX Theatre in Lahore's Doongi Ground, the vision having come upon the province's inept chief minister who was, if his PR gurus were to be believed, forever dreaming. He dreamt of educating every child and that was the end of children's education in any meaningful manner. He dreamt of a disease free land and we know what allocations went to health, he dreamt of a progressive Punjab and the Qabza Groups gained wild ascendancy, the 'puls muqablas' more notoriety and the law and order more or less lawless and orderless.

On a visit to Europe – Mr Azmat and Mr Shoaib Bin Aziz accompanying, the chief minister saw an IMAX theatre – the storyline is not sure if it was London or Berlin – but what he saw – for a change and did not dream of it, an IMAX theatre and so smitten was he that he immediately ordered one for Lahore. It was love at first sight. 'Lahore will have an IMAX,' said the chief minister dreamily. The accompanying turncoats and fawning bureaucrats hanging on for dear life to all the pearls his majesty was spewing scraped the floor and said, 'Yes Majesty. Thy will shall be done." Plans were quickly set into motion. Thank God GOR was safe and flowers were in bloom. No one was interested in the feasibility of such an extravagance, its prohibitive cost and above all, its social relevance in a land where the poor were grinding further into the dust and suicides over lack of employment were getting reported regularly. Only a bunch of heartless thugs supported by officers who should have had some qualms of conscience, but had none, could have heaped this insult on the people, in this case of Lahore. The IMAX was the next best thing that happened to us after Mr Jinnah created the country and it came via Gujrat.

Thereafter, the IMAX story reads like a sad soap opera. It is a disaster from start to finish. The boys from Gujrat, shoes and all, are long gone, having sailed into the sunset, singing songs of merriment and good cheer, counting their loot and raising a joyful noise unto the Lord. The present Punjab government has been left with a massive headache that somehow Mian Shahbaz Sharif has to resolve. His hands are more than full as he battles another drone let off with the full blessing of Punjab's rotten bureaucracy, past and present included. They continue to sabotage his efforts. The facts are chilling indeed – let us not consider whether this country needs an IMAX or drinking water, electricity, drainage, public transport – the list is long and remains unaccomplished. To date, just that ugly structure raised over what was once a children's playground and that acted as a water reservoir in the monsoons (the British thought that one out), has cost a mind boggling Rs. 33 million. The IMAX equipment which lies in Canada has cost Rs. 151 million – nowhere is the IMAX sold out, it is leased as it is an evolving technology, but I guess there is more illicit money in lump sum payments than boring long leases, so we paid up front. The Canadians must have laughed all the way to the bank. The basement parking set us back by another whopping Rs. 72 million, so all in all, we are down by Rs. 255 million and counting. Let me not insult anyone by recounting what all this tax payer's money could have done for those not exactly IMAX fans.

Should we wish to proceed further with this deranged and lunatic idea, we need another Rs810 million to complete the parking lot, the theatre, the one time operational cost and ancillary equipment. That tots up to Rs1165 million. And since there always has to be icing on the cake – and their highnesses, the bureaucracy that has been hand in glove from day one with this loot sale, a running cost of Rs80 million annually to keep the IMAZ from melting down. The PEC – Punjab Entertainment Company that should be called, Punjab Extortionists Confederacy, has had some of the nation's brightest lights on it – the names reel off like those at an award ceremony. Mr Salman Siddique,

Mr Taimoor Azmat Usman, Mr Salman Ghani – proud sons of the soil you would say. They and seven others thought nothing of getting on to the Board of Directors of the PEC although they were all government servants. Another lamentable feature of this shameful scam is the role of Lahore's famous son, Mr S M Zafar, who in replying to a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court's finding under the Lahore master plan, that use of land cannot be changed, astonished everyone by first declaring that such a master plan couldn't be found for love or money and further confounded everyone that the Doongi Ground was never meant to provide amenities to the public. It was merely a piece of unutilized and non-functional vacant land used for storage of flood and runaway water, which was not required in any case, since rains were minimal and drainage was excellent. And Mr Zafar may not have played cricket in Doongi Ground but to think he is a Lahori and would know better. It hurts but it does not surprise. Mephistopheles is around boys cutting deals.

On Thursday, the CM assembled everyone at the scene of the crime. The bureaucrats – what my late brother called the Civil Serpents of Pakistan (CSP) till they became DMG (Damaged Mental Goods), dug in for another battle and my friend Shafqat Mahmood's committee had a preposterous idea to make an auditorium for Lahore schools that will add millions more to the costs. That money alone could provide safe drinking water to half of Lahore if not more. Where are our priorities? Mercifully the auditorium idea drew fire and hopefully will be scrapped. Strange that some of us are determined to throw more money into what was a grave mistake to start with. The CM has rightly moved for a judicial review which should once and for all settle this bizarre project. Maybe if we can succeed, we should also demolish that joke the Commando commissioned in Islamabad, the 4-leaf tomato that set us back an estimated Rs800 million.

The writer is a Lahore-based columnist. Email: masoodhasan66@gmail.com

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