When It Rains It Pours - Anjum Niaz

After Benazir Bhutto's assassination, we gravitated towards her widower. Pakistanis are a charitable nation and while many were averse to his being the kingmaker, he still became our sovereign. Top diplomats raced to Bilawal House in Islamabad to shake his hands and secure his favours. Fungus, the bogeyman along with many other mendacious Fungi came crawling for jobs and lucrative deals that would make them super wealthy. Zardari's first two top appointments within the first week in power were that of Hussain Haqqani and Rehman Malik. It was déjà vu all over again. The telltale records, neatly categorized and ready for revelation lying in the basement of the NAB (National Accountability Bureau) were the first casualty last February. The senior jiyalas reportedly went to the basement and personally destroyed them. More shocks were in store with the resurrection of superannuated civil servants Salman Faruqui and Javed Talat. Joint Secretary Siraj Shamsuddin was given a double promotion and overnight jumped to grade 22. The government was ordered to pay him and Salman Faruqui salary of the last ten years which the two gentlemen had "lost" out when they fled Pakistan after Benazir Bhutto's second government fell. To make up for the material, physical and emotional 'injury' inflicted upon these émigrés who had breached our trust and fled, Chief Bogeyman Gilani was instructed to provide them succour. Faruqui's niece, Sharmeela (who accused Nawaz Sharif's chief cop Saifur Rehman of sexual harassment) today is the adviser to Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah as is Dr Shahid Masood, the failed PTV head to the prime minister. Thrown in are some oddballs, including a Dubai-based TV anchor, who enjoy the status of ambassadors at large and sponge on poor Pakistan.