Ahad Cheema: Another victim of Pakistan’s proxy war

By

Imad Zafar

Eric Hoffer once said that ‘propaganda does not deceive people, it merely helps them to deceive themselves.’ To manipulate the masses and turn the opinion into mythical belief; the art of manipulation and propaganda. Courtesy of the mass media and billions of rupees campaigns, the ordinary public is consciously and unconsciously always ruled, their belief system built on a constant series of lies.

Through the magic of propaganda the product is made sellable to the masses. This product can be any doctrine, any ideology, any patriotism or treasonous belief or goods and services. Since ordinary people have no time, nor do they tend to think critically and objectively, it is very easy to free their minds with the desired set of beliefs and perceptions. This is the reason that the corporations, governments and strong institutions spend billions of rupees on propagating their doctrines.

In our country the most effective self-created doctrine that is pretty easy to sell to the masses is ‘Accountability and Patriotism’. Since the birth of Pakistan the slogan of Accountability is being sold successfully to the masses and it has yielded the desired results for the powerful groups and institutions. The masses have been made to believe that all the problems the country and the society are faced with, are the result of corruption of the political elite and their cronies. Interestingly all the leading political figures or bureaucrats who stand against the establishment are declared corrupt and all of a sudden they become a threat to national security. The invisible forces have successfully orchestrated this act of victimizing the opponents in the name of Accountability for a number of years.

The latest victim in the drama of Accountability is Ahad Cheema, a senior civil servant. Cheema is from the DMG group of the Civil Service of Pakistan and has been arrested on charges of corruption. His name first came into the limelight during Musharraf’s tenure, when the then Chief Minister of Punjab Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi put him in charge of the successful “Parha Likha Punjab” project. After tha,t when the PML-N government came to power, the CM of Punjab Shehbaz Sharif put him in charge of the Lahore Metro project.

Ahad Cheema successfully completed the project in record time and after that was awarded many important projects and successfully accomplished the desired results. He is also known as “metro man” in the bureaucracy. Wherever Ahad Cheema was posted he rendered flawless services and saved hundreds of millions of exchequer money. His competence and honesty has also been appreciated by the international donor agencies. But for all his competence his efforts were in vain when he was arrested in a humiliating way outside the accountability court and was handcuffed. If this was not enough his pictures behind bars were also released to the media.

A top civil servant was arrested only on accusations which were never proved in any court of law and then the hypocrite and political opportunist Fawad Chaudhry, now a days spokesperson of the PTI, held a press conference where he alleged that Ahad Cheema was actually the front man of Shehbaz Sharif and is involved in mega corruption scams. Whether or not Ahad Cheema has been part of any corruption or dishonesty still remains to be proven in the court of law, but he has always been made a criminal by the invisible forces and their pawns. Even if Ahad somehow gets a clean chit from the judiciary, he still will not be able to convince whole the country that he did nothing.

In a tussle between the invisible forces and the ruling PML-N, Ahad Cheema has been made a villain in the matter of a few hours. The allegations, which do not have any evidence, are still been levelled against him through the media by using pawns like Imran Khan and Fawad Chaudhry. On the other hand there is another man who is wanted for the murders of at least 444 innocent people. The hit man of influentials and invisible forces Rao Anwar the ex SSP of Malir Karachi is still at large and making a mockery of the whole judicial and political system. Rao Anwar killed hundreds of innocent people in fake encounters on the behest of influential people and institutions, he ran private torture cells, was involved in land grabbing and giving support of drug mafia, but he is still not being arrested, In fact he is hiding in a safe place, sends messages on whatsapp with the judiciary and other law enforcement agencies by texting them; he is in a safe place and will only appear when his choice of inquiry committee will be formed.

The case of Rao Anwar and Ahad Cheema actually depicts the whole truth and state of the society mindset. Who is supporting Rao Anwar is not a secret, even a child can tell you who is behind Rao Anwar and who is hiding him in a safe place but the courts and other institutions do not have the courage to order the invisible forces and influentials for his reproduction in court. On the other hand Ahad Cheema is behind bars and allegations are not proved but he has to face the music. This hypocritical and dual standard of justice has actually given a message to the other intelligent government officers that if you are backed by the influentials and invisible forces then you can kill hundreds of innocent people like Rao Anwar did, but no one will dare touch you. On the other hand, if you are competent and are saving the exchequer money and in doing so if are found siding with a political opponent, your only place will be behind bars.

Ahad Cheema seems to be the right man at the wrong time, in the wrong place, and is the first victim from the bureaucracy in the war between the invisible forces and the ruling PML-N. He is certainly not the last victim, many of his colleagues will also be sent to prison or will be pressurized to record false statements against Shehbaz Sharif, so he also can be ousted and the pawn of the invisible forces can be made the Prime Minister of Pakistan. In the process it does not matter that the lives of innocent civil service officers are destroyed, their families going through mental torture due to this, the whole function of the provincial and federal government almost coming to a halt.

Instead of damaging the lives of government officers and destroying public institutions, the forces behind this mess should realize that times are changing and the growing anger in the masses of Punjab and the Punjabi civil bureaucracy against them can prove catastrophic to the state. It seems the majority of society and the invisible forces are happy to deceive themselves by living in their own and self-created world of lies and propaganda.

Imad Zafar

Imad Zafar is a journalist based in Lahore. He is a regular Columnist/Commentator in newspapers. He is associated with TV channels, radio, newspapers, news agencies, political, policies and media related think tanks.