Definition Of Corruption By A Pakistani Politician Told To Me In Person. #AhsanIftikhar
I think it was 2008 and I was sitting with a senior politician friend of mine in London at a restaurant. He was complaining to me about the corruption in the previous government. He was fairly frank with me yet he was much older than me but he had given me the right to speak to him openly over the years. I had met him in 1999 at a common friend's house.That night he was complaining about Pakistani politics. He kept going on that nobody is ever punished in pakistan for corruption and I almost burst out into a laughter. Why ? Because I knew that he was rich and had been a Federal Minister a few times and had wealth way beyond his farming income from his land in rural Sindh.
I said to him, but you have money beyond your means Saeen. How do you explain that ? And he said. I can make Allah my witness that I have never done corruption. I wanted to faint in my seat but I softly asked, please explain. And he said, my ministry's budget was in billions of rupees. Not a penny from it was ever embezzled or misused. I never sold employment vacancies. I never used that money for personal benefits. Every penny was accounted for. Whatever money I made I made from "Helping" people get contracts. I generated business for them through my ministry and I took a small percentage for that help. Like you do for your investment banking advisory. Referring to me.May Allah rest his soul in peace. That day I learned that in political circles, COMMISSION is not CORRUPTION. The rest you figure out on your own about the many politicians who say that they have never done corruption. Lol