A couple of days back, the top industrialists and businessmen of the country held discussions with the army chief to tell him why the country is on the brink of an economic disaster. In any other country, the man to meet would have been the finance or commerce minister, but unfortunately it's the army which calls the shots in this country. The country's ministers can't be bothered to solve the peoples' problems. As far as they're concerned, Imran Khan is at the helm, and he will steer the country out of the mess he has created.
Among those who met him is a distant relative, a man whose cousin is married to a near relative of mine. Another very distant relative (Miftah Ismail) is under arrest (just because he happened to serve in the outgoing government for a few months). This is what the business tycoons probably told the chief. The way people are being arrested and held without trial has caused panic in the business community. In every democratic country, in civil cases bail is allowed, but under the present government men are kept under confinement to coerce them into revealing information (which they don't have).
So, when the NAB chairman said his organization was completely independent, no one believed him. He has targeted only those who are opposed to Imran Khan. And it must have sent a chill down many in the government also when he said he wanted to be as powerful as the anti-corruption chief in Saudi Arabia. What? It's only the elite in that country who are corrupt, and they are the ones ruling it. A few months ago the heir apparent prince locked some of his fellows to extort billions from them, but that's the only instance any action has ever been taken to recover looted money, and I doubt if it succeeded. But if the present NAB chief is given such draconian powers, and if he decides to go after the corrupt ones in Imran Khan's government, imagine the mayhem it will cause.
Not too long ago, Imran Khan himself offered containers to his opponents to gather in Islamabad and make speeches, as he had done for 126 days when he was trying to dislodge the previous government. Now that the opposition parties have decided to take out processions and make a long march to the capital, Imran Khan's cronies have panicked and are threatening to block protestors from going to Islamabad. One minister (Faisal Vawda) said that he would make Fazlur Rahman reduce a lot of weight by forcing him to sit down for many days. I've always believed that Vawda should be permanently locked up (like Imran Khan and all his ministers).
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