Spin Doctors!

 EDITORIALS & FEATURES

 

970914

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Spin doctors - 

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Ardeshir Cowasjee

A SPIN doctor, in the language of the lexicon: "A senior political spokesperson employed to promote a favourable interpretation of events" to the press and to the people. He is a politician's flak. Not an easy job, as he has to be endowed with a highly retentive memory and the capacity to lie consistently and unashamedly whilst keeping a straight face.

In the foreground during the past decade have been our two spinners, Mushahid Hussain and Hussain Haqqani. In the beginning, Mushahid was ostensibly batting for the opponents as the editor of The Muslim whilst Hussain was spinning in the Zia-Nawaz team.

Hussain Haqqani was born in Karachi on October 1, 1956. He did his Masters in international relations from Karachi University, obtaining a first-class first in 1980. He was the elected president of the students' union and one of his contemporaries at KU was Altaf Bhai now of London town. From 1980 to 1984 he was based in Hong Kong as a correspondent for the Far Eastern Economic Review and Arabia - The Islamic World Review, and later returned to Pakistan doing the same job.

In 1988, he became Punjab Chief Minister Nawaz Sharif's spin doctor, with the rank of a provincial minister, a flag-flyer, spinning against Benazir and her government. In 1989 he was sent to Karachi to negotiate with Altaf Bhai on behalf of Nawaz Sharif who was getting ready to move to Islamabad.

When Jatoi became caretaker PM, Hussain Haqqani was appointed his press adviser and when Nawaz Sharif took over, he went to him in the same position. In 1992, when Nawaz Sharif decided to get rid of him (for whatever reasons) rather than sacking him, he prudently appointed him our high commissioner to Sri Lanka, from which post he resigned when Nawaz Sharif's government was dismissed.

Benazir Bhutto, on taking over in 1993, realized that Hussain's services might help her on her way and took him on as her press adviser. In July 1994 she made him information secretary, in which post he remained until June 1995, when Benazir Bhutto decided that it was time for him to go.

Prudence again was exercised, and he was 'expelled' to Karachi to head the HBFC. Again, when Benazir Bhutto was sacked for the second time, he resigned. Shrewd and clever as he is, Haqqani knows what the three young self-serving leaders (now monopolizing the political scene in this unfortunate country) do not know. He has taught himself much, continues to teach himself, has read more than the three have, continues to read, and is amusing company.

Is this genuine? I asked him the last time he came calling, handing him a photocopy of a page with a remark scrawled upon it by Benazir Bhutto. In February 1995, Haqqani managed to get CNN Delhi correspondent Ashish Ray to agree to interview his prime minister and show her on the screen prior to her US visit, and had accordingly addressed a note on the subject to her.

 

Benazir Bhutto's reaction: "The last time H.H. asked me to give Ashish Ray an interview it was a disaster. He was an Indian and kept asking / provoking and gave a v. nasty report. Ask for all questions on record and arrange to switch off the electricity plug if they ask any beyond the approved questions - or any other remedial method. I don't want to repeat past experience so the interview should be sorted out properly."

Hussain Haqqani looked at it, and put on his spin doctor smile which indicated the affirmative. With sadness, he said that neither Nawaz Sharif nor Benazir Bhutto are ever receptive to advice.

Was it worth doing what you did, all the bowing and scraping, I asked him, showing him a copy of another letter, this time from the PM's principal secretary, Ahmed Sadik, to federal secretary Haqqani: "It has been observed that you were not in office between 09.00 a.m. and 10.00 a.m. today when the Prime Minister had wanted to talk to you. The office hours being 09.00 a.m. to 05.00 p.m. you may like to explain the reasons for your absence from office for a whole hour and that too without having indicated your whereabouts. You are also advised to ensure your availability in office in future and avoid recurrence of such a situation."

There are times in one's life, he replied, when one has to suffer fools gladly, as you must have done on many an occasion. I then produced a copy of a note dated January 26, 1994, from the information ministry's file advising that a sum of Rs 5 million had been "paid to the Frontier Post as per instructions given by Mr Asif Ali Zardari in the presence of PIO and Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister." This amount came from the Special Service Expenses Account. From the same account, nine payments between February and December 1994 of varying amounts totaling Rs 4.9 million were made to Chaudhry Ghulam Hussain of the publications Facts and Siasi Log of Lahore.

How does one justify this disbursement of Rs 10 million of public funds to publications for their support for the party in power? I asked Haqqani. It is just a matter of following instructions, he told me. Such payments have been made since the days of Ayub Khan and Altaf Gauhar. Obviously, in Haqqani book many wrongs make a right. But he rightly countered, if people do not object to the way their money is squandered why should the callous all-powerful bother?

Benazir Bhutto's information minister Khalid Ahmad Kharal was paid from the same account a total of Rs 2.2 million in eleven payments between April 1994 and September 1995. Then from October 1995 to October 1996, he was paid a monthly sum of Rs 50,000. In between, in August 1996, he was given Rs 78,000 (USD 2,000) for "special external publicity purposes," making a grand total of some Rs 3 million. What did he do with it? He has not accounted for it. The same goes for Zia Khokhar of the PM's secretariat who was handed out sums totaling Rs 780,000.

As for the ministry's Special Service Expenses (SSE) and Special Publicity Fund (SPF), these are disbursed according to the secret service funds rules under which the interior ministry operates, in the supreme national interest, to pay off spies, spooks, informers, toadies, etc. The givers give and the receivers receive without having to render any explanation. In the case of this redundant ministry of information, a receipt of sorts is given.

For instance, Kharal was required, as "the undersigned", to put his signature to: "This is to certify that Rs. (amount) from S.S.E. Account drawn on (date) were spent in the public interest under directions of the undersigned."

Millions of rupees have been spent over the years by this redundant ministry from these special secret SSE and SPF accounts. Random examples:

August 10, 1992, cheque no. 280657 for Rs 500,000 issued to "PIO PID loan for Independence Day celebrations" (Nawaz); November 14, 1992, for "Special Publicity Programme of the Prime Minister," cheque no. 280659 for Rs 200,000 (Nawaz); May 31, 1993, Abdul Khaliq of NNI was paid Rs 200,000 by cheque no. 280665 (Nawaz); June 17, 1993, cheque no. 280666 for Rs 270,000 was "paid to PIO PID" (Nawaz); on September 23, 1993, cheque no. 280671 in the amount of Rs 768,750 was issued to Tayab Automobiles, Karachi (Moeen Qureshi); and on August 1, 1994, Honda Atlas, Lahore, received cheque no. 543102 for Rs 664,700 (Benazir). Between November 1994 and March 1995, Worldwide Media Communications was paid Rs 1.35 million in connection with Benazir Bhutto's visit to the US. On June 29, 1996, a cash payment of Rs 600,000 was made to an unnamed person for "entertainment to journalists."

(Benazir). What sort of entertainment? We ask. All that each secretary of the information ministry is required to do is to list all such payments and certify at the end of his term: "I declare that the interests of the public service required that the above payments should be made out of Special Grant and that they were properly made."

Apparently, the secretaries feel that the longevity of the party in power is synonymous with the interests of the state. Now, clever Mushahid Hussain is flying the flag and moves around with a posse of twelve. He, too, no doubt in "the interests of the public service", will spend our money to keep Nawaz Sharif and his Chaudhrys healthy, wealthy, and wise. Such ministries in the West went out with Hitler's Third Reich. It is time we eliminated ours.

Courtesy -Dawn