NRO: To Be or Not to Be?
By Karamatullah K. Ghori
Toronto, Canada

Speculating with relish has been an old favorite sport of our Pakistanis. In fact, next to an all-time infatuation with Cricket, their rampant indulgence in speculations at a collectively massive level must rank at the top of the nation’s priorities.
Apart from the nation’s current total immersion into the ongoing Cricket World Cup in England and Wales, kite-flying as to whether or not Nawaz Sharif would get an NRO from Imran is as good as a buzz-word in Pakistan’s social media, which must have easily a far greater following among the intelligentsia than conventional news media.
PM Imran Khan has been forthright, as ever, on the issue of NRO for Pakistan’s mega-corrupt politicians—such as Nawaz, Zardari and lots of others in their ignoble ilk.
Earlier in June, Imran took to the air waves to tell the nation, in as simple a language as he’s quite capable of articulating his thoughts in, that on his watch there will be no deal, no NRO, for those who have ransacked Pakistan and looted it to their hearts’ content.
Imran has much greater credibility with the people — though not so much with the chattering, drawing-room intellectuals — than any other Pakistani politician. The people — and I hate to use the pejorative term, masses — may have believed him and accepted his unequivocal assurance of ‘no deal’ with the corrupt.
However, his straight-from-the-heart, unvarnished and cliché-free, talk seems to have done little to dent the ardor of the social media speculators; the social-media gurus and pundits are convinced that there’s whiff of a deal in the air. They insist on seeing plenty of straws in the wind to suggest that Nawaz, first, and Zardari, later, will get an NRO ‘package-of-sorts’ from IK letting them off the hook and paving the way for their passage to plush sanctuaries abroad: UK for Nawaz and Dubai for Zardari.
The ‘deal’ protagonists seem to have received a shot in the arm from the recent visit of the Amir of Qatar to Islamabad. It triggered a train of speculation that the Amir came as an emissary on behalf of the incarcerated Nawaz to plead for his release and eventual exile.
The Sharifs’ decades-old connections in Qatar, including its royals, is no secret. The active presence in Qatar of that notorious Saif-ur-Rehman — Nawaz’ principal henchman when he was in power and attained notoriety as EhtesaburRehman because of his inquisitorial role as head of the Ehtesab Bureau in Nawaz’ hey days — lent considerable weight to the NRO gurus.
Saif-ur-Rehman is well-connected with powerful people within the Qatari ruling elite, which further buttressed the argument of conspiracy buffs. The Sharifs’ last-ditch attempt to avoid the hangman’s noose in the Panama Scandal was anchored in the so-called ‘Qatari letter.’ That letter, albeit, exploded in their face but had so much drama and theatrics to it that it got implanted into the psyche of a common Pakistani for good. The Qatari letter has ever since been a household word in the lexicon of an average Pakistani. As such, it would be unreasonable to totally discount a putative role by the Qataris — though not necessarily from the Amir of Qatar — to put in a good word for an old Pakistani ‘brother’ as reasoned by the NRO protagonists.
However, Imran Khan’s statement, following the Qatari Amir’s departure from Islamabad, that no country, or its leader, has interceded on behalf of Pakistan’s mega-thieves is categorical and unequivocal enough to take all the wind out of the NRO sails, or those swearing of its whiff in Pakistan’s air.
Imran’s public pronouncements ever since he stepped into the minefield of Pakistani politics speak abundantly of his crusading zeal to go after the looters of Pakistan with a barge pole. His total track record as a politician and leader of Pakistan stands on the pivot of his crusade against corruption. Therefore, it would be unthinkable of him being influenced or brow-beaten by anyone—even one amongst his, or Pakistan’s, recent Arab benefactors—speaking to him on behalf of Nawaz or Zardari.
Imran Khan’s unequivocal assertion that he will not be swayed by any plea, or offered deal, to him from any quarters should snuff out the enthusiasm of those still insisting on their NRO theory. It should put paid to all the permutations and combinations of a deal bandied about in the social media on behalf of NRO for Pakistan’s this or that mega-thief.
Imran’s determination to not repeat Musharraf’s Himalayan blunder that has been the root-cause of Pakistan’s ongoing travails, has a moral anchor. If he were to walk into Musharraf’s dubious foot-prints he’d be doing something categorically against his grain. A deal-making Imran would be a ghastly shadow of the crusader sworn to rid Pakistan of its culture of corruption.
The entire thrust of Imran’s decades-old crusade against corruption demands that the likes of Nawaz or Zardari be made horrible examples in order to thwart the cancer from spreading and seeping down to the roots of Pakistani society. One can well imagine what message Imran would be sending to an ordinary Pakistani if he were to cut a deal with thieves, big or small. The cancer of corruption would be unstoppable if a deal was struck with any of those he has so routinely denounced and castigated as the villains of Pakistan.
But the NRO aficionados still have an arrow in their quiver. Their argument is that consigning these notorious robbers of Pakistani to the fate they deserve, because of their crimes, will not bring back to Pakistan a penny of the loot stashed abroad. What material benefit would accrue to a cash-starved Pakistan and its hemorrhaging economy by sending the culprits to the dungeons they belong to?
Of course, there’s a powerful logic to the pragmatists’ argument. Common sense says get the loot back and let the brigands rot in their exiles abroad. Pakistan will be richer, materially, with the loot back in its coffers; it’d still be richer, morally, with rogues and poltroons like Nawaz and Zardari banished forever from its shores.
So, there it stands: a test case like no other for Imran, staring him squarely in his face and poised to put him on the razor’s edge. Should he opt in favor of the moral crusader and not give an inch to those promoting their pragmatist argument? Or should he jettison the moral crusader and trade him in return for the tens of billions, nay hundreds of billions according to some, stolen from Pakistan?
I’d hate to be a party to Imran in squaring this circle. Let him alone bite or not bite the bullet. It should be his call only.
Allow me to add a sad foot note here, unrelated to the topic of this discourse but definitely relevant to Pakistan, especially its foreign relations and foreign policy.
MrAbdusSattar was an icon of the blue-blood Pakistan Foreign Service. He passed away in Islamabad on Sunday, June 23. A career diplomat of exceptional brilliance and intelligence, MrSattar served as Foreign Secretary, under General ZiaulHaq, and as Foreign Minister, under General Pervez Musharraf.
Perhaps the best compliment to Ambassador Sattar’s unflappable qualities of a seasoned diplomat was paid by PM Indira Gandhi when he served as Pakistan’s High Commissioner in Delhi in the late 1970s. Paying him tributes for his sterling traits and credentials, Indira said she wished she had diplomats like him in the Indian Foreign Service.
I’d the abiding pleasure of serving under him and learning from him. May Allah repose his departed soul in His eternal peace. - K_K_ghori@hotmail.com
(The author is a former ambassador and career diplomat)