"Corruption is not gender neutral in Pakistan."
"What a stupid comment, of course corruption is not specific to any one gender. Besides you have heard the proverb behind every successful man is a woman..."
"Are you defining success as being corrupt?!"
"You have to agree money talks, right, and as Raisani said very aptly a degree is a degree, be it fake or real, I say the same about being wealthy - money is the same colour whether you acquire it legally or illegally."
"Don't be facetious. Besides the world has begun to look at money from corruption differently to money from legitimate sources and..."
"Hmmm, anyway in this country we tend to charge only men for corruption and generally leave the women alone. If we convict a woman then we let them out, take the case of Maryam Nawaz, she is out of jail, yes her appeal is pending but she is still out, I can't imagine the same treatment being meted out to a man; and I hear Faryal Talpur if arrested would be under house arrest and not..."
"What about Captain the very retired Safdar?"
"He, like his wife, was always an innocent beggar by the wayside and before you take exception to what I said let me remind you that a beggar is not only defined as someone with torn clothes by the wayside asking for your change but someone who lives by gifts...and gifts could be in pennies and also in crores..."
"That reminds me by keeping women out we are following the Arabs... If you recall the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia got billions of dollars from his uncles and male cousins by imprisoning them in a five star hotel but there were no aunts and female cousins and..."
"That's true - anyway our politicians reckon filing tax returns absolves them of all corruption. Shahid Khaqan Abbasi claimed he was whiter than white because he had filed his returns but accountants file them and..."
"Indeed, and that reminds me of Dar. Remember he sent boxes upon boxes of his returns to the Joint Investigation Team and yet he failed to prove how his income increased by, was it ninety times, after he was released by the dictator Musharraf?"
"You know the moral of that story?"
"Yes I do. I would urge all rich Arabs to please begin to pay Pakistani advisors and politicians with cheques directly into their bank accounts and not by sending camels laden with money every month with their pay! I mean poor Dar sahib - he gave the Joint Investigation Team boxes full of his tax returns and a letter from the UAE sheikh who employed him for about a million dollars a month as advisor and he did not use the banking system..."
"Don't be facetious."

Copyright Business Recorder, 2019

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