Pakistan’s return gesture to quake-hit Turkey amidst a crisis of its own is generating allegations of corruption and its officers say they are being coerced into parting with their salaries to contribute to the relief effort.
Pakistan’s return gesture to quake-hit Turkey amidst a crisis of its own is generating allegations of corruption and its officers say they are being coerced into parting with their salaries to contribute to the relief effort.
While there are no formal orders by the federal government or the provincial governments, officers of the Balochistan government have found a fifty per cent salary cut this month on the ground that they are required to contribute to the relief – no questions asked.
The Grade 19 to 21 officers in Balochistan have protested the unilateral salary cut, saying that they were already facing problems feeding their families, faced by a 33 per cent rise in prices of essential commodities. These salaries were their only source of income. They could not be deprived of their legitimate earnings without any consultation.
A Daily Intekhab report has said the officers have asked if other grades of officers and officers in other provinces were also being asked to contribute, or if this was a Balochistan Government diktat. They plan to appeal to the federal government with the suggestion that they could pay one or two days’ salaries, and be spared from the steep 50 per cent salary cut.
Despite severe economic stress, the Shehbaz Sharif Government is trying hard to return the gesture Turkey had made last year when Pakistan experienced nationwide floods. Nine aircraft sorties have been undertaken and 16 containers carrying 162 tonnes of relief material have been rushed so far. This gesture is not without its political sting, which shows Pakistan in poor light.
Prime Minister Sharif had announced plans to fly to Ankara and express solidarity with President Recep Tayip Erdogan when Turkey is mourning thousands of deaths. However, the Turkish Government, media reports say, requested that he postpone his visit since Ankara was very busy dealing with the calamity and the relief operations.
Some media reports have termed this as a ‘snub’ to Sharif who, they say, should not be wasting time, money and effort to show goodwill gestures when his own government is fighting a crisis. In this regard, uncharitable comments have been made about his rushing to Britain when Queen Elizabeth II passed away last year.
While Sharif’s effort may be ill-timed or misplaced, there is no effort at all on the part of his principal critic, former Prime Minister Imran Khan. He had befriended Erdogan and mooted grandiose diplomatic moves at the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) that annoyed the closest ally and benefactor, Saudi Arabia.
Scholar-writer F S Aijazuddin, writing in Dawn (February 16, 2023) commends Pakistan’s return gesture to send relief to Turkey. “We must, if only because, during the floods, the Turkish people came to our rescue. That was when Mrs Erdogan donated a diamond necklace for our flood victims,” Aijazuddin recalls.
Imran Khan, it may be recalled, has admitted to keeping, or buying over at concessional rates, expensive gifts he received from foreign hosts and guests when he was Pakistan’s prime minister. These gifts included an expensive wristwatch gifted by Saudi Crown prince Mohammed bin Salman. A case is before the court arguing that as per government rules, he should have deposited those gifts to toshakhana, the government’s depository since he received them in his official position.
Khan’s wife Bushra Bibi has been caught on secretly recorded audio clips asking a close aide of Khan to dispose of those gifts, and the latter did so in Dubai. The diamond-studded watch was sold for USD two million.