Desire to see Ishaq Dar (vaish) again

Fair & Square

One of the riddles put before a prince by a princess in Hatim Tai’s tales was: “I’ve seen it once; desire is to see it again and again”.

That desire rekindled in me the other day at Islamabad in the same genre when I met Ishaq Dar (vaish) for a brief exchange of views and pleasantries. I owe my gratitude to my pal, Senator Pervaiz Rashid, Federal Minister for Information, who formally introduced me to the Dar (vaish) in the entrance lobby of Marriot Hotel where the media persons had been invited to take stock of the public sector projects.

I don’t know what was so magical in his personality that I desire to see Dar again and again after having met him once. I think the humility in him that he exuded quite well from his body language and smiles, has left an imprint that is making me desire this way and which is making me call him a Dar(vaish).

What other epithet would one like to confer on a man in whose hand is held the fate (read finances) of the entire country but despite all that grandeur, he spends the exchequer money quite sparingly and with concern for the public funds, as he claims openly and repeatedly.

But does this suffice to give such a sublime title to our Finance Minister? Or was it his presenting himself before the incisive questions of media in the seminar on ‘Transparency in Public Sector Projects’ that is a source of inspiration?

In my opinion, this voluntary ‘standing in the dock’ before such a largely attended media gathering, is the actual inspiration.

Even Senator Pervaiz Rashid gave a similar explanation when he said to me, “Only those people stand in the dock and present themselves before thoroughbreds, who are honest and committed to the people and take governance as their bounden, prime duty (the term ‘thoroughbred’ has been used metaphorically by me for media persons, to replace the actually uttered word that was somewhat like this: ‘a creation with sharp teeth’)”.

If the mission statement of Pervaiz Rashid is to be believed, then I think, things can move far beyond transparency and presentation, I mean, to the practical field where some sort of activity is going on in the direction of prosperity, development and self-sustenance.

Based on the presentations in the seminar, newspapers have published and television channels have beamed facts and figures and statistical data about the progressin the ongoing government-run projects that include works in Railways, privatization of mega structures and systems, improvements in the Water and Power system and ongoing oil and gas exploration schemes in addition to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority’s public interest plans. Every concerned official and office-holder did his utmost to convince the skeptic and laden-with-good-questions media that whatever was being done was being done transparently. This is a good sign of public empowerment which has started showing off, at last, courtesy the change of heart in the ruling lot and courtesy the immense progress that the media has achieved in the areas of self-awareness and public awareness.

It lends credence to my own crude saying that ‘media is, for all practical purposes, an unelected parliament of the people’. This ‘fact’ has at least been acknowledged in the Transparency seminar by the three political heavyweights of Nawaz Sharif government and by other biggies too that include Ishaq Dar, Pervaiz Rashid, Zubair Umar and PTA Chairman Ismail Shah. Certainly, all these presentations didn’t come of their own. The Asheerbad or guidance of the captain of the team, PM Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, would have been the driving force behind this seminar.

In all, the presentations by Ishaq Dar and Minister of State for Privatization, Zubair Umar, were not only up to the mark but also considerably understandable to an ordinary citizen with ordinary prudence whom the media was representing. And as for Pervaiz Rashid, he is no less understandable, given his practice in the art of speaking every now and then (‘practice makes a minister perfect’).

As regards the hefty (Bhaari Bhurkum) presentations given by Secretaries of Ministries of Water and Power and Petroleum and Natural Resources, they were just ‘figureworks’ (taking cue from the word ‘fireworks’). An interesting remark I must jot down here that was passed by a witty journalist on this occasion during Secretary, Water and Power, Yunus Dhagga’s presentation and that was, “It seems that the Ministry that he heads is not Water and Power Ministry but Water and Power(less) Ministry” (no mockery intended but the idea is to tell the readers how do ‘powerless’ presentations affect human (media) psyche.

....mianrehman1@gmail.com