Mumbai, August 06: In the midst of a flood, guess who washed up at Mianwali in Pakistan’s Punjab province on Wednesday? Munnabhai.
TV channels and websites had a field day on Wednesday invoking the Sanjay Dutt starrer as one of the “relief camps” that Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani visited during his flood tour turned out to be fake, hastily put together by local authorities ahead of the visit, with fake patients and doctors, and equally quickly dismantled.
Anger has been running high against the government in Pakistan for doing little to ameliorate the suffering of the flood-hit, particularly after President Asif Ali Zardari chose to go ahead with his UK trip – even ignoring a scrap over British Prime Minister David Cameron’s remarks.
Wednesday’s trip was Gilani’s bid to show the “healing touch”, with the official PTV under specific instructions that he was to be bathed in a positive light.
What Gilani ended up displaying, in Dawn’s words, were “hitherto hidden magical healing powers”. According to a Geo TV report, no sooner had Gilani toured the “medical camp” at a government-run school, housing patients with gratitude writ large on their faces, that the beds were removed and the “patients” discharged. Soon all that remained was an empty school, apart from chairs, desks and some employees. And as the channel showed, empty cots.
The “patients” may still be happy: each one received a cheque of Rs 5,000 that the PM was distributing. As for Gilani, who has been complaining about the media not highlighting “the good work the federal government has been doing”, next time he may want to look at a photo-op twice.
——-Agencies