NOTHING has changed for the better. Nine years ago, in May 1990, during Benazir Bhutto's first round, I was visited one evening by a henchmen of the prime minister and her husband, an officer of the grade of an SDM. He sent in his card which read "Ahmad Fahim Mughal, Private Secretary to the Prime Minister, Bilawal House, Karachi."

He had come to see me, in his official capacity, about a huge highrise complex, 'Classic Homes,' of which he claimed to be a part owner, the others being 'Powerful Friends.' I had filed a suit against this illegal construction and the Sindh High Court had granted a stay. He very directly asked me to withdraw the suit and have the stay vacated at the next hearing of the case in three days time. If I did not do so, showing me his fist, he told me I would have to face the consequences.

The suit had actually been filed by 27 affected citizens, many of the 26 not accustomed to dealing with people such as Mughal and his bosses. Worried about their safety, I went to court the next morning to find my lawyer, Khalid Anwer, to ask him what could be done to save the others from potential harassment. Khalid told me that fifty per cent of our judges exist in fear of their rulers and were not likely to spring to our aid. Safety could only lie in exposing bullies who issued threats. His suggestion was that I write to President Ghulum Ishaq Khan, sending copies to the high office holders of the land, and spread the word in the press, which I did. I also wrote a column the following Friday and no more was heard from Mughal - no further threats issued. Khalid had given sound advice: when threatened, expose the threatener.

Now, in 1999, on the morning of Sunday July 18, Moinuddin Khan, who had been brought in by the prime minister early in his second round to be chairman of the Central Board of Revenue and who has now reverted to his original profession, banking, rang from Riyadh. He told me that his brother, Naeemuddin Khan, an officer of the United Bank who dealt with bad debts and recoveries, had been abducted from his house in Karachi the night before by the FIA under instructions from Senator Saifur Rahman, head of the accountability bureau, the prime minister's chief trouble shooter. Naeem's whereabouts were not known. Knowing how Najam Sethi and Hussain Haqqani had

been recently treated, Moin was naturally worried. What could be done?

Ringing Saifur Rahman would not help as he would deny all knowledge or involvement. All that could be done was to file a writ of habeas corpus, though many of our judges are not aware of the meaning or importance of the urgency of this writ, and do not realize that it must be heard as soon as a petitioner's advocate rises and announces that he has filed such a writ. Moin said that they had already decided to do this and that advocate Akram Shaikh was being instructed accordingly.

Senator Saifur Rahman, close confidante and friend of the prime minister from whose secretariat he operates, has taken upon himself the responsibility of ensuring that Nawaz Sharif and his government rule over us in perpetuity. Like the rest of the partymen, using his clout he had borrowed money from the government bank UBL in 1991, during Nawaz Sharif's first round and become a mill owner and industrialist. Some sums have been repaid but as of today he, his family, his textile mill and his business concern Redco owe UBL, from borrowings made in Pakistan and abroad, some Rs.1.4 billion (140 crores).

Before Nawaz Sharif came in for the second time, the loan repayments were rescheduled twice but the repayment schedule was not adhered to. Come Sharif and his second round, banker Zubayr Soomro was brought in to head UBL and the recovery process in all cases was activated. For the third time, Saifur Rahman's repayments were rescheduled, and yet again no repayments were made in time. Finally, UBL filed a recovery suit in the Lahore High Court and the harassment of Zubayr commenced. His safety was guaranteed by the fact that he is the son of the Speaker of the National Assembly, Ilahi Bakhsh Soomro.

Saifur Rahman, in turn, filed a suit in the LHC against UBL claiming damages, pleading that interest was un-Islamic, etc, etc. The suits are being heard. Then, about six weeks ago, Saifur Rahman filed a writ in Justice Malik Qayyum's court at the LHC seeking, inter alia, that proceedings in the UBL suit be stayed so as to give him time to approach the high-powered bankers' rescheduling committee. Justice Qayyum passed no orders.

The heads of seven banks and financing institutions forming the committee are: Shaukat Tareen, Habib; Mohammadmian Soomro, National; Zubayr Soomro, United; Mian Mohammad Mansha, President, Muslim Commercial; Rashid Chaudhry, Allied; Mohammad Ali Khoja, PICIC; Bilal Shaikh, NDFC. This committee cannot take notice of any rescheduling until the affected bank itself refers the matter to it. This UBL has not so far done. Saifur Rahman can prevail upon five of the seven committee members (let each think he is one of the two).

In the meantime Saifur Rahman managed to get one-time Ittefaq lawyer, Chaudhry Mohammad Farooq, who is also the Attorney-General of Pakistan, the first law officer of the people, to write to the Governor of the State Bank asking him to direct the committee to consider questions relating to Saifur Rahman's unpaid loans. The State Bank has brought this letter to the committee's attention but so far it has taken no action.

In the meantime, on the orders of Saifur Rahman, the income tax authorities commenced harassing Naeemuddin and his other brother, Banker Bahauddin of Deutsche Bank. Saif rang Moinuddin in Riyadh on July 9 asking him to prevail upon Naeemuddin to be reasonable. Moin told him his brother abided by his own norms.

On July 18, as soon as Zubayr learnt that Naeemuddin had been abducted by the FIA, he moved to save his man. The first person he turned to was naturally his father, Ilahi Bakhsh, who leapt into action, and found the prime minister at Lahore airport as he and his ninety hangers-on were about to board their special Umra flight. The prime minister took a second wise decision and instructed his Principal Secretary, Saeed Mehdi, to order the immdiate release of Naeemuddin, who had been flown from Karachi to Islamabad and lodged in Saifur Rahman's safe domed secretariat.

On July 22 when I rang Saif to ask him why he felt compelled to harass those who did not 'cooperate,' he denied all knowledge of Naeemuddin's abduction. For good measure, he informed me that the previous day certain power-wielders of Islamabad were considering sending the federal police to collect me from Karachi and to ensure my presence before the Privileges Committee of the National Assembly. When I asked who they were, he would not name them, but told me he had restrained them from taking any such action. I had to refresh his memory.

On April 13, 1998, MNA Khwaja Asif, holding the rank of a federal minister, reported to the National Assembly secretariat that I had not only "used abusive language but also threatened me with dire consequences." He considered this to be "a clear breach of my privilege and attempt to stop me from performing my duties as a parliamentarian." I was summoned by the Privileges Committee. Much correspondence ensued. On December 5, 1998, I wrote a seven-page letter in the final paragraph of which I wrote : "Let me state that in principle I have no objection to appearing before the Committee but before I do I would like to be categorically told about the law under which I am required to appear, the details of the allegation, as well as the evidence upon which it is based, and the finding of the Committee on the crucial issues I have raised hereinabove."

After my talk with Saif, I wrote another letter to the Secretary of the Privileges Committee drawing his attention to the General Clauses (Amendment) Act 1997 (adding section 24A to the General Clauses Act 1897) passed by parliament. This requires any authority, office or person making any order, or issuing any direction, to give reasons for making the order or issuing the direction. I reiterated my readiness "to appear before the Committee as and when lawfully summoned, but I must be made aware of the law which entitles you to summon me . . . . . I justifiably feel that an unsubstantiated statement made by a legislator is not sufficient reason to inconvenience any citizen."

I would like to believe that my lawyer, Khalid Anwer, our present government's law minister, is giving 'sound advice' to the prime minister but that his advice is not being heeded.