"...THE skies above are clear again/ So let's sing a song of cheer again/ Happy days are here again." (Yellen and Ager, 1929). But the question is, for whom - the governors or the governed? As the old saying goes, ask a silly question and you get a silly answer.

On this last April Fool's Day, quite coincidentally and with no obvious intent of fooling the people, the governors of the Sindh Industrial Trading Estate (SITE) announced that they had good news to spread around for the people of Pakistan. They had 140 plots of prime land, admeasuring half an acre each, which they wished to "allot" to a fortunate few to be utilized for "industrial purposes". The applicants would have to prove their credentials.

They were required to purchase application forms at Rs.5,000 each (non-refundable) and deposit 20 per cent of the cost of the plot, i.e. Rs.3 lakhs (refundable), each plot having been priced at Rs.15 lakhs. Allotees would also have to pay the development charges (should the plots not have been auctioned in terms of Notification No.SB-III/1-30/P/236/1999 of April 7, 1999, and its subsequent amendments).

Further, if the number of eligible applicants exceeded the number of available plots (140), the core issue would be decided by ballot. An undertaking was required from the applicants that in the event of "an unfavourable ballot of allotment" the unsuccessful bidders would not raise any claim in a court of law or at any other forum.

Some 5,000 "eligible" applications were subsequently received. SITE reportedly wrote to three banks asking if they would hold the ballot, two regretted, and the National Bank of Pakistan agreed to help and prepared the necessary software.

On May 11, the day the ballot was to be held, SITE requested the NBP to bring the CPU and the software to the offices of the Sindh Employees Social Security Institute (SESSI). Why to SESSI? No one asked why, no one was informed. NBP duly obliged, the working of the system was demonstrated there, the software was loaded into the CPU and it was duly sealed and handed over to representatives of SITE.

That same evening the ballot was held in the presence of various "dignitaries" many of whom were ministers of the province of Sindh. Prior to the actual balloting procedure, some of these local worthies addressed the gathered audience and ardently assured them a dozen times over of their combined impeccable honesty. Why they did so and why they had it all recorded for posterity on videocassettes is anyone's guess.

The NBP officers who had presented themselves at the SITE office to operate the computer were not allowed to enter the computer booth. When they enquired why, they were told: for "reasons of security". The balloting computer, either that provided by NBP or a substitute, was operated by persons appointed by SITE (recorded on videocassettes). Thus, NBP accepted no responsibility for the actual balloting process. It was neither asked to nor has it authenticated the results.

The computer "spat out" what had been "fed in", mumbo-jumbo. It did not choose random numbers, it had been programmed to spit out lots - 17 chunks of consecutive numbers:

Lot 1, seven consecutive numbers (file/form number 131-137); Lot 2, three consecutive numbers (file/form numbers 277-279); Lot 3, two consecutive numbers (file/form numbers 322-323); Lot 4, two consecutive numbers (file/form numbers 441-442); Lot 5, three consecutive numbers (file/form numbers 698-700); Lot 6, four consecutive numbers (file/form numbers 750-753); Lot 7, four consecutive numbers (file/form numbers 818-821); Lot 8, eight consecutive numbers (file/form numbers 1038-1045); Lot 9, four consecutive numbers (file/form numbers 1404-1407).

Lot 10, two consecutive numbers (file/form numbers 1469-1470); Lot 11, 14 consecutive numbers (file/form numbers 1819-1832); Lot 12, eight consecutive numbers (file/form numbers 3519-3524); Lot 13, 10 consecutive numbers (file/form numbers 3743-3754); Lot 14, two consecutive numbers (file/form numbers 4359-4360); Lot 15, eight consecutive numbers (file/form numbers 4380-4387); Lot 16, four consecutive numbers (file/form numbers 4515-4518); Lot 17, 17 consecutive numbers (file/form numbers 4963-4979).

Later, at the NBP offices, the Karachi Institute of Information Technology, an independent institution, ran the NBP-prepared software many times over, and it delivered its report:

"To whom it may concern: Karachi Institute of Information Technology conducted a number of tests to obtain results from the general Random Number Generators and the Balloting Software provided by the National Bank of Pakistan. These results were compared with the actual results of the recent ballot conducted for SITE. The following presents out findings.

"Multiple random number tests: We generated multiple sets of 140 random numbers by using MS Excel. The enclosed file 'Results for multiple random tests.xls' has all the iterations data and the graph for one iteration. It is very clear by seeing the graph that the generated random numbers are evenly distributed between 1 to 5,000.

"Test run on National Bank software: We performed the similar test multiple times using the National Bank software; it always produced evenly distributed numbers. One of the test cycle results are enclosed with this report in file 'Results of a test run on 20040526.xls'. The graph of this data is very close to the other random number tests.

"Actual results of [SITE] Balloting : The actual results are not evenly distributed, there are many chunks of data that have consecutive numbers. It is almost impossible to get such results by using a proper random number generator."

The National Bank of Pakistan agrees with these findings.

The value of this scam is estimated to be around Rs.0.75 billion (three-fourths of a billion - not million - rupees) - this can be ascertained from any reputable real estate broker of the city of Karachi. The involved ministers of Sindh are trying to pretend they are ignorant and innocent; the governor to whose attention the entire matter has been brought, is maintaining a stoic silence. He has ordered an inquiry. Everything has been put on hold.

The people are helpless, they can do nothing. They did not select President General Pervez Musharraf's collaborators.

"Altogether shout it now / There's no one who can doubt it now / So let's tell the world about it now / Happy days are here again."