AT the end of his article ‘Political engineering’ (April 29 Irfan Husain says: “For most voters, taking a commission is not a mortal sin. In fact, they expect their leaders to make money on the side, provided they deliver on the basics. And the leader and his brother have delivered: why else would they be popular after the massive campaign you have run against them?”

Now, as I see it, what the Sharifs have delivered to the masses is rampant corruption, bad governance and massive loans the servicing of which eats up nearly a third of it. We also know that during its previous tenure, the Punjab Assembly passed two resolutions for the reinstatement of Bahawalpur and for the South Punjab province. However, when it ruled both in Punjab and at the centre and was in an ideal position to implement these, it just forgot all about it.

Despite being businessmen, the Sharifs could not revive the steel mills even though Russia had offered to rehabilitate and upgrade it, and PIA is worse than before.

The killing of 14 innocent men and women and the wounding of over 80 by police bullets at Dr Tahirul Qadri’s Model Town secretariat clearly shows how they treat the masses.

Irfan Husain must be naive to take the large presence of hired crowds at Mr Sharif’s public meetings as a sign of their popularity.

R.H. Syed

Karachi

Published in Dawn, May 22nd, 2018