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Pakistan’s Sicilian Mafias

The mental make-up of high level frauds and manipulators in Pakistan
is the same as that of their counterparts in other parts of the world.
No means have been found yet to control them.

By Imran Jan | September 2020

Francis Ford Coppola made a fantastic film based on Mario Puzo’s timeless book The Godfather. It will remain a personal favourite for me, much due to Al Pacino’s unbelievable performance and the impeccable script of the film. The story, as many will agree, sanitizes evil and glamorizes organized crime.

The terms ‘mafia’ originated in the Italian town of Sicily. However, it has transcended globally because of its natural synthesis owing to human greed and the quest for quick and illegal gains. Pakistan is no exception. It has had its fair share of organized crime. And while in many countries such as Colombia, Mexico, and elsewhere, the mafia was in conflict with the ruling government, in Pakistan, however, for the most part, the mafia was in bed with the ruling government. In fact, at times, it was difficult to tell the mafia from the government.

What has been happening ever since Imran Khan has been in government is quite a remarkable phenomenon. There is much to learn from The Godfather in this scenario. We have to understand that in the story, Vito Corleone also starts a new life with a positive energy. He lands in New York after escaping from certain death in his hometown in Italy where his mother is killed in front of his eyes.

He grows up to become a successful businessman and a respectable man in society. He is a man with positive vibes who gets rid of a local bully named Fanucci by killing him because he sees injustice in his actions. But as he grows in power and wealth, he becomes more entangled in crime and feels more insecure, which is obvious from his actions and which is a natural outcome when one has gained a lot.

A point is reached where he is completely unrecognizable from the good man who started out in New York as a store clerk. His son later, named Michael Corleone played by Al Pacino, also starts out as a nice college boy who is in love with a girl he wants to marry. But later he becomes a symbol of crime. The lesson in all this is that having good intentions is not enough.

Imran Khan certainly started out as a man with all the good intentions and I believe those ambitions are still alive. However, the people he has surrounded himself with only tantamount to turning a blind eye to their obvious criminal empire. My favourite name for Jahangir Tareen has merely an extra alphabet at the end - Jahangir Tareeno. His empire has spread its tentacles around many governmental actions.

Another common phenomenon observed elsewhere in the world is the accumulation of wealth in a few hands and for those hands to control the strings of those who make laws and also those who execute those laws. That is exactly what we are witnessing in Pakistan right now. If Imran Khan lets the wealthy barons who have erected a hologram mafia, if you will, influence the legislature and executive, then all his good intentions go down the drain and he becomes involved in this criminal empire that will engulf him too. That is the reason I highlighted the aforestated story.

Good intentions are a good start but the transition to being involved in crime is almost as if one sleepwalks into it. That is the stage where one must be alert. The biggest loss of all this is not Imran Khan’s fall but rather people’s loss of hope in their country’s politics. These mafias are like the distant stars in the deep cosmos. Those stars are actually long gone. When we look deep into the cosmic world through our high-end telescopes, we are actually looking into the past. Their light takes many years to reach us, just as the crimes of mafias come to light many years after the act.

Every time, we in Pakistan realize the damage the mafias brought to the people, it is always after the damage has been done and those mafias are on to the next hunt. We are talking about sugar prices and how billions of rupees were pocketed by sugar mill owners but what is it that they are busy doing now? What other commodity or legislation are they planning to manipulate to make up for whatever profits they may not have made due to this pandemic? Because the one indisputable fact about mafias is that they will do what they do best. Their quest for profits will never stop and their armoury to that end will always be fraud, manipulation, controlling legislation, influencing the executive, and all sorts of crimes their minds can cook up.

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