ANJUM IBRAHIM

Benefits of reading books

“Have you read the book ‘Why They Do It: Inside the Mind of the White Collar Criminal’ by Eugene Soltes, Professor Harvard Business School.”

“No, what does it say?”

“Soltes finds that the perpetrators (and by perpetrators he means white-collar criminals) struggle to understand their wrongdoing and this in spite of spending years in jail.”

“If you are saying what I think you are then…”

“Hang on, don’t get excited. Let me quote Soltes: ‘none of the former executives I spoke with saw himself as a fraud. Some of course clearly recognized that they had committed a crime, but the person they saw in the mirror was successful, entrepreneurial and ambitious.’”

“I know where you are going with this but let me remind you that there is a difference between a politician and an entrepreneur.”

“True, but what if you luck out and have both an entrepreneur and a politician in one personality.”

“I would have thought that Trump would compel you to revisit what can or cannot be allowed to an entrepreneurial head of government? The US institutions are check mating…”

“Correct, but I would have hoped that the Trump example would have compelled you to understand the importance of independent institutions and I ask you how can you have truly independent institutions when AID sits in on the Federal Board of Revenue’s promotion panel? And how can you…”

“He is allowed that by your own definition? And by that I refer to your use of AID for him as in Approver Ishaq Dar and so he approves all promotions of all departments and bodies that come under him and additionally…”

“The Supreme Court verdict…”

“He can circumvent that in spirit by allowing the chairman FBR to sit on the promotion panel and following his clear orders on who to promote.”

“Hey, did you hear about the reference filed by the only Sadiq in the parliament, the Speaker to the Election Commission?”

“Ah yes, but its limited to the name.”

“Indeed it is…why do you think they refer to The Khan as Niazi? And before you respond let me remind you that his party rules in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.”

“And why do they refer to the First Daughter as Maryam Nawaz and I ask this because previously she had no objections to being referred to as Maryam Safdar.”

“Times change, ambitions change….but some are more steadfast than others….remember Benazir Bhutto, was she ever, and I mean, ever, referred to as Mrs Zardari?”

“No and was Nawaz Sharif ever referred to as anything but Nawaz Sharif.”

“No, but I hear Maulana Fazlur Rehman was simply referred to as Fazlu when he was a young lad.”

“Don’t be facetious.”