Opinion Personal feuds

In the run up to the elections,PML-N and PTI had an open spat. Dawn reported on August 1: “Khawaja Asif,leader of the PML-N,accused PTI chief Imran Khan of gambling $12.5 million in real-estate abroad… Asif… handed out hard copies of ‘evidence’ against Khan… He further alleged that Imran sent the funds donated to his hospital,Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital & Research Centre,through money laundering. Asif said: ‘Despite the opposition from the board of directors of the hospital,Khan invested $4.5 million from the money gained from ‘sadqaat’,‘fitrana’ and ‘zakat’ in foreign capital markets. He lost 65 per cent of the invested capital’.”

Given his newfound clout,Khan fought back. His efforts to give Pakistan its first private cancer hospital and research centre have always been lauded. He instituted the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital (SKMCH) in his mother’s memory,who he lost to cancer. The Express Tribune quoted Khan on August 2: “Khan said the party should have at least considered doing a little more investigation into the matter before speaking to the public. ‘SKMCH is not Imran Khan’s personal hospital; the patients are not my relatives,they are Pakistanis,’ said Khan,adding that,by attacking the hospital,PML-N has caused harm to many Pakistanis who receive free healthcare… ‘It is the only free cancer hospital and PML-N should have thought before doing this’… Lamenting that the PML-N dragged a welfare institute into the mud of politics,Khan said the finger-pointers should have attacked him but not the hospital.”

Enemy’s enemy

THE PML-Q’s Pervaiz Elahi,Pakistan’s deputy PM,lost no time in criticising arch-rival PML-N. Daily Times reported on August 3: “Elahi… said that PML-N should not make a welfare institution like SKMCH a target of ‘political victimisation’… playing politics against the most modern hospital rendering great services to cancer patients was highly condemnable and (the) worst example of resorting to lowly tactics and a grave violation of moral and social values.”

Serving another army

UNREST in the restive Chitral valley in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has revealed that its young men were joining Afghanistan’s army to make both ends meet,Dawn reported on August 3. The report said: “A large number of youths… have joined the Afghan National Army and also offered services to NATO forces in Afghanistan,says a statement issued by the Home and Tribal Affairs Department… Chitral’s District Coordination Officer Rehmatullah Wazir… said seven people of the area who had recently joined Afghan government departments had relinquished their jobs and returned to their homes… He said the administration… had directed local people to call back their relatives who had joined the Afghan army or any other government organisation. The administration would take action if these people did not give up the jobs voluntarily,he added…”

PM contempt case

HEARING petitions against the new law seeking to protect bearers of high constitutional offices,the Supreme Court on August 3 declared the law “unconstitutional”,the Express Tribune website reported on August 3.