Imran Khan is a regular visitor here. But the one that he made last week was perhaps his best in terms of his political career. And books about Pakistan are frequently launched here. But rarely has any one of them aroused so much interest among educated Pakistanis, academia, diplomats and media here as did Ayesha Siddiqa’s Military Inc. Imran spoke at two very well-attended (by British standards) public meetings in the London suburbs and delivered a ‘sell-out’ lecture on Dictatorship or Democracy at the London School of Economics (LSE). On all these three occasions his audience appeared fully involved and seemed hanging onto every word he spoke. He has definitely learnt the art of public speaking and the science to connect with his audience, both the masses and the educated.

But why this sudden interest among Pakistanis here in Imran? They had not shown so much interest in the former cricketer since he became a politician. They had occasionally exchanged pleasantries at his outings here with his former wife Jemima Khan. Some had also collected funds for his cancer hospital venture with a degree of dedication. But to come all the way from far and near to hear him speak about Pakistani politics and respond to him with thunderous applause and high-pitched slogans was indeed an extraordinary development.

And it must have really pleased Imran to see the response of the students at the LSE. They are a very difficult audience to please. Even the best have had to face downright insulting questioning and at times they had to bear with the boos and hisses of the audience when they said something unpalatable and unacceptable. But for Imran they were all ears. And in fact it was the other way round for him. A couple of questioners were booed down when they tried to go off the track.

Imran focused on two themes in his speeches. One was the ongoing judicial crisis in the country following the attempts by President Gen Musharraf to get rid of a seemingly non-compliant chief justice. And the other was Altaf Hussain, his alleged involvement in the May 12 massacre in Karachi and Imran’s determination to take him to a court of law. It was very clear from the way his audience responded to these two themes, that in Altaf Hussain, the Tehrik chief has discovered the topic that interested most Pakistanis living in London.

His announcement in Pakistan before his arrival that he would take Altaf Hussain to the courts in Britain seemed to have whetted their interest. It was mostly to find out how he was going to do this that they thronged to his public meetings. And every time he mentioned the subject and lampooned Altaf the audience erupted into frenzied clapping and sloganeering.

Imran did meet a number of Labour and Conservative MPs during his stay here to discuss his allegations against Altaf Hussain. As a result of his efforts on this front the maverick MP George Galloway, ousted in 2003 from Labour Party for opposing the Iraq invasion, spoke at length on Altaf Hussain in the House of Commons last Monday.

Interestingly, when Minister of Europe Hoon responded to Mr Galloway on the floor of the house, he took great care not to speak a single word in defence of Altaf Hussain. But in his eagerness to defend President Musharraf, the British minister welcomed the ‘appointment’ of an independent election commissioner in Pakistan, which has not yet happened, and also praised the president for revoking the infamous Pemra amendment, which unfortunately is still on the books. It is to be withdrawn only after the broadcasters come up with an agreed code of ethics.

Imran believes that in the absence of any known means of income in the UK, the MQM cannot run its Edgware international headquarters without committing money laundering. So at the press conference on Wednesday before flying back home, he said his lawyers have asked the Scotland Yard to treat the charge of money laundering on a priority basis before what he said the MQM destroyed the evidence.

Clearly Imran’s campaign against Altaf Hussain seems to have won him a lot of new supporters and his own unstinted support to the CJ in the streets of Pakistan seems to be catapulting him into a position of leading the opposition struggle against the military rule of President General Musharraf in the absence of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif.

And one cannot also rule out the possibility that if Benazir Bhutto continued attempts to come back to power through a deal with Musharraf, the part of political space she would be losing as a result would fall in the lap of Imran. The denials from both sides that no deal was being negotiated have now entered the realm of public joke.

The deal talks started soon after Musharraf escaped two attempts on his life in Dec 2003. A panicky US wanted to find an alternative to President Musharraf. So they pressed the UK into service to find one. And the UK came up with Benazir. But as Musharraf was never interested in any deal with Benazir, he kept putting up impossible conditions for her to agree and she, believing in her naiveté that Washington will somehow force Musharraf to let her come back and lead the election campaign for her party, continued to pursue a line which seems to have been rendered outdated after March 9.

And now to Ayesha Siddiqa. Her book is really an academic thesis. Those looking for juicy disclosures would put down the book even before they cover 10 pages of it. It discusses the idea of military in business the world over in the most dispassionate language that is the usual hallmark of scholars.

So, why is there so much interest at the non-academic level in the book? The simple answer is that the current political focus on Pakistan’s military because of its continued refusal to go back to barracks and let the people of Pakistan elect their rulers in a fair and free election, has given the book a public dimension not intended by the author or the publisher.

According to the author, the timing of the launch was fixed some eight months ago when no one had any inkling of what President Musharraf would be doing on March 9. Ayesha introduced the book also at a gathering of interested citizens on Wednesday evening and is likely to be invited to do the same at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and Oxford before she leaves. She has also given a number media interviews.

Interest is a curse which casts its negative impact on the one who gives and the one who receives in one way or the other. It owes its existence to the poor man’s need to keep the wolf from the door, the mediocre’s bid to keep up appearances and, in the current economic scenario, the rich man’s wish to multiply his resources however much each one of them has to pay for it.

A high interest rate is the basis of private money lending which may seem attractive in the beginning, but has far-reaching consequences sometimes even beyond the wildest of imaginations of the debtor. The creditor, too, at times have compunction for fear of losing both money and the friend. It is an ill wind that blows nobody good.

Gujranwala is one such place where many individuals have lost home and hearth while clearing off their dues (loan and interest) for years together. The poor have turned poorer and at the end of the day and many a family has marred its fortune by paying interest to private lenders who have thrived in the absence of any law.

A survey conducted by Dawn revealed that the illegal trade (a bill had recently been passed by the Punjab Assembly) had flourished in many and varied forms, proving itself an evil in disguise. The cash-strapped families had turned to private money lenders for arranging dowries and paying off their previous debts and the businessmen got immediate money to avoid complexities of bank loans.

Sheikh Mushtaq, a local transporter, told Dawn that during the last 10 years he had paid Rs7 million interest to some private lenders he had contacted to purchase buses. But in the process he lost more than he gained and now he had one flying coach at his disposal.

He said the private lenders took blank cheques and charged 50 per cent interest for purchasing buses on the total loan which had virtually marred his business.

There are three major types of private lenders –- professionals, foundations and single non-professionals who lend money or goods for earning high interest rates.

Single non-professional lenders give loan on 20 per cent interest normally to their relatives, friends and colony-mates for their routine needs. These short-term loans range between Rs5,000 and Rs50,000 which have to be returned before one year. Such lenders are found in almost each colony and town of Gujranwala and they all are local people.

A non-professional lender told Dawn that he was doing his business secretively and helped relatives and friends who would not let the cat out of the bag.

Foundations are private partners in investment who lend money to whoever comes to them. Mostly they are doing a roaring trade in Satellite Town and Shaheenabad areas.

Foundations, as they are called, give short-term loans for less than one year ranging between Rs10,000 and Rs100,000 with 25 per cent interest rate. The borrower has to give an additional Rs900 as service charges and a personal guarantee for obtaining the loan.

Foundations seek the national identity cards and photographs of borrower and guarantor while the signature of a debtor is also secured on some documents to develop a sense of legality. In case of default, the guarantor is solely responsible for paying back the loan.

No foundation could be contacted due to their locked offices after the legislation against private lenders.

Then there are professional lenders who are classified into single lender and group of lenders who run the business in unison. Professionals lend money, lease private vehicles like motorcycle, commercial vehicles, including vans, buses, flying coaches, rickshaws, loaders and trucks, provide goods like clothes, shoes, lease home appliances like fridge, sewing machine, washing machines, mobile handsets, airconditioners etc., and hold “Boli Wali Committees”.

Those professionals, who give rickshaws on lease, are located on Sheikhupura Road (Gujranwala), who charge 100 per cent interest and 40 per cent of the actual price of the rickshaw as down payment. The normal rickshaw costs Rs.60,000 and with 100 per cent interest, the borrower has to return Rs120,000 in monthly instalments of Rs3,000. A majority of such professionals are single ones and they are Pathan by caste.

Such professionals keep rickshaws on their names until the whole payment is made while the charges of transferring a rickshaw on the name of lender and to borrower are borne by the last mentioned.

Muhammad Shahbaz, a rickshaw driver, said he was unskilled and a poor man who could neither get a job nor could he manage to obtain loan from anywhere. So in the form of private lenders he was able to have a rickshaw (but at the cost of high interest rate and exploitation). But he still had to say that the poor would have another door to relief slammed if the government banned the private lending.

According to a rickshaw lessor, after the legislation of the trade he would show that the borrower was his paid driver and would neither give any receipt of payments to borrowers nor deal with any borrower without personal guarantors who would assure him of the secrecy of the deal.

Those professionals, who give other commercial vehicles like buses and vans on lease, are found in and around the General Bus Stand area. They work in the form of groups and a majority of such groups belong to Gujranwala and Sialkot.

They give 30 to 50 per cent of the actual price of the commercial vehicles and charge 60 per cent interest rate. The long-term loans are to be returned from one-and-a-half-year to three years. The instalments of the loan are calculated as six per cent to seven per cent of the total due amount, including interest.

They keep commercial vehicles on their personal name until the whole due amount is paid. It is the debtor who also pays for transferring the vehicle. The borrower has to give five per cent of the total amount invested by the lender to his body guards and accountants once.

They take blank cheques from the borrower as well, and in case of late payment of an instalment the lender detains the vehicle and charge five per cent extra late-instalment charges every month along with the charges of detaining the vehicle from the borrower.

Their customers are transporters. A transporter, Aslam Mughal told Dawn that he had to sell his house for paying the interest for borrowing a van.

A bus lessor said they would show the borrowers as their drivers and had to keep the deals more secretive and confined to a limited community.

Those professionals, who give home appliances like washing machines, sewing machines, airconditioners even mobile phones etc., have their businesses in the length and breadth of Gujranwala.

They charge 10 per cent interest and allow instalments of Rs1000 a month. They take not only the NIC of the borrower, but also pay personal visit to his house. Sometimes the personal guarantees are also required.

In case of not paying an instalment, they confiscate the leased appliances until the due instalments are paid without charging additional money.

The borrowers of washing machines, sewing machines and refrigerators are the poor people who gift their daughters these appliances in dowry.

Muhammad Aslam, alias Rocket, requests the government to give an alternative to the poor parents (of girls) to arrange for dowries after banning the private lending.

There are those who borrow mobile phones and airconditioners. They belong to the middle-class which does not afford such luxuries without instalments.

The professionals, who give private vehicles like motorcycle on lease, have their roots on GT Road, Sialkot Road and Khiali Road. They charge 40 per cent interest and take the whole amount of interest as down payment while divide the actual price of the motorcycle in 18 instalments.

They keep the motorcycle on their names until the total dues are paid by the borrower. Some motorcycle lessors run away by taking the interest amount and the companies register a theft case. A borrower is a loser as he neither gets registration book nor the right of ownership of such motorcycles.

Their customers are poor people who gift motorcycles to their sons-in-law and the middle-class people who don’t afford a transport without instalments.

Muhammad Hanif, a citizen, told this correspondent that gift of motorcycle to sons-in-law was a tradition of middle-class families and banning the private lending would create problems for such people. He urged the government to start any lending scheme of motorcycles and other home appliances through banks in order to accommodate the poor enslaved to traditions.

Among the professionals who lend money in the form of goods are those who charge some fixed amount, say a meter of cloth or a pair of shoes, as an interest from the borrower. The second category is of those who charge 20 per cent fixed interest on the actual value of goods. There are those who lend money on 36 per cent interest per annum.

They take written statements of borrowers on simple paper called ‘parchi’ which is considered to be a cheque in market or take cheques of all instalments and manage at least two witnesses from the same market of the borrower.

Muhammad Anees, a local trader, said banks pledged the properties and took time in processing the loans while private lenders gave them loans in the hour of the need. He wants the government to minimise the formalities and processing time of bank loans to accommodate small-time traders.

‘Boli Wali Committee’ is another name for earning money through interest where some people form a committee and every member has to pay a fixed amount (say Rs100,000) every month for a fixed period (say 10 months). Every month the amount collected (Rs1 million) is given to a member who demands minimum amount (say Rs700,000) in that bidding session while that member will have to pay the fixed amount (Rs100,000) every month for all 10 months and the remaining Rs300,000 of the monthly collection is distributed among the other members as profit.

In this way, those in need are exploited by those in greed. Some well-off investors purchase memberships from other needy members in minimum amounts (say Rs700,000 from each member). An investor, thus, becomes the sole member and gets a maximum of Rs1 million every month.

A private motorcycle lender believed that in order to immune his business from the new law, he would show that he had given motorcycle on rent to a person and no one could take legal action against him because the motorcycle would be on his name.

A private lender of cloth said he would get cheques from borrowers to show the sale-deed to keep his business going.