A great escape

Amar Jaleel

Most of the people in Sindh directly or indirectly interested in politics and politicians have been left agape by the great escape this week. In the given circumstances when the noose around the neck of Nawaz Sharif was being tightened, the escape was unbelievable. It bewildered everyone. They fail to comprehend what led to the successful escape of the man who hijacked a plane carrying the Chief of the Army Staff of Pakistan along with 170 passengers without a gun in his hand! He surprised the world with his ingenuity. He did not put a weapon to the temple of the pilot for he was not physically present in the plane. He did not threaten to below up the plane with a time bomb. He thus became the first person in the history of aviation to have hijacked a plane through a remote control. An astonishing record among the freak records held by us! We have quite a few wonderful world records to our credit. The tallest man in the world, Alam Channa lived, and died in Pakistan. The tallest man caught the attention of the world. Being a freak he developed numerous ailments. He had no money to buy medicines. He died of protracted illness without receiving proper treatment. His death was mourned by the high and mighty in Islamabad. Soon after his death a very tall young man, Naseer Soomro trod the streets in Sindh. In no way he was related to the former Speaker of the National Assembly, Illahi Buksh Soomro, well-dressed old man of Pakistan. Naseer was fairly educated, and articulate in exploiting media to his advantage. From Sindh he travelled to Islamabad, and received a pat on his back from the people at the helm of the affairs. He was sponsored to look at the world, and let the world look at him. He handled the task immaculately. He cleverly marketed himself. No two tallest men have followed each other from the same province of a same country. It is a freak world record.
Hanif Mohammed was the youngest man in the world, a prodigy to play first class cricket, and then Test cricket. His younger brother Mushtaq Mohammed overtook his record a few years later. No two youngest men from the same city, from the same province, and from the same country have played at the highest level in the competitive cricket. A record! And, soon thereafter a teenager Intekhab Alam from the same city, Karachi created sensation in the world of cricket by taking a wicket with first ball he bowled in Test cricket. He clean bowled prolific batsman MacDonald of Australia. A record to our credit! Amir Illahi and Miran Buksh were the oldest men in the world to have played in the Test cricket for Pakistan. A record, no doubt. Then, a toddler Hassan Raza was baptized to become the youngest ever player in the world to play Test cricket. A world record! There is a considerable list of our incredible records.
Field Marshal Ayub Khan discovered an amazingly intelligent young man, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in distant lands. The Field Marshal liked him, and brought him to Pakistan, and groomed him, and finally made him the Foreign Minister of Pakistan. Thereby, Bhutto became the youngest ever Foreign Minister in the world. An unbelievable record! ZAB delivered the longest speech in the United Nations. A world record! He went on to become the youngest Prime Minister of Pakistan. A record! He was the first Prime Minister of Pakistan who was hanged to death. A record! A decade later his daughter, Benazir Bhutto created two records. She became the youngest ever Prime Minister of Pakistan, and the first woman Prime Minister of Pakistan. A seemingly unbeatable record! Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif succeeded each other twice, and ruled over Pakistan for ten years. A record, indeed! Both were accused of accumulating unaccounted for fabulous wealth and were dismissed, Benazir twice, and Nawaz once by the appointing authority, the President of Pakistan. During his second tenure Nawaz Sharif was dismissed not by the appointing authority. He was dismissed by a person appointed by him, but not before blasting an atom bomb devised in our labs with borrowed money. Thus, Nawaz Sharif succeeded in making Pakistan the first poorest country in the world that possessed nuclear weapons. A record! No two Prime Ministers of a country committed freak crimes and were sentenced to varying punishments. A record! Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was hanged to death although he had not killed a person with his own hands. Nawaz Sharif hijacked a plane without being present in the plane, and was sentenced to life imprisonment. A mind-boggling record! No one knows who dug amazing tunnel for the dramatic escape of Nawaz Sharif. By no comparison Nawaz Sharif was as highly educated and as intelligent as Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was. You would hardly come across a person who would dispute that Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was not a genius. Even his diehard adversaries cautiously admit that he was a genius. They say he was an evil genius. With his intelligence and charisma ZAB was not able to dig a tunnel for his escape. Almost all the leading heads of the states had pleaded with General Ziaul Haq for condoning the death sentence, but to no avail. He was hanged. Nawaz Sharif made his escape good. It deprived Pakistan from an incomparable record. What a pity!