Burning hearts on backbenches of PTI.

For around a decade, Ms Andleeb Abbass has been promoting the PTI narrative by vigorously participating in TV talk shows. She surely deserves attentive listening, if someone really wants to fathom the dominant themes, motivating what we call 'the base' of a political party. Thanks to the speech she delivered in the national assembly Monday, I also felt compelled to consider Pakistan's problems with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) from an entirely new angle.

This global outfit had put Pakistan on its 'grey list.' Normally a country is pushed there if presumably found not being able to check 'terrors financing' on or through its soil. Ms. Abbass took long to explain, however, that 'terror financing' was not the sole issue, the FATF deals with. 'Money laundering' is also its concern and Pakistan has been pushed to its 'grey list,' due to Asif Ali Zardaris and Nawaz Sharifs of this world.

With utmost contempt, Ms. Abbass kept insisting that both of them were compulsively addicted to abusing their political power for amassing 'millions.' The huge amount of money they ruthlessly extracted from Pakistan was then transferred abroad to buy luxurious properties in many countries of the world. This required habitual dependence on multiple means of 'laundering' the ill-gotten money.

Both these characters, Ms Abbass went on, were the actual drivers of the governments, which had been ruling Pakistan from 2008 to 2018. For obvious reasons the previous governments felt reluctant to confront the menace of money laundering. FATF was thus forced to put us on its grey list.

With the advent of the Imran government in August 2018, Ms Abbass claimed with obvious sigh of relief, the FATF kind of outfits seriously began to develop trust in its style of governance. The global community also realized that a leader with spotless integrity, i.e., Imran Khan, was now leading Pakistan and he would never blink an eyelid while combating money laundering. Explaining the delicate nuances, related to FATF operation, Ms Abbass never cared to state the latest status of Pakistan, vis-a-vis the grey list.

Ms Hina Rabbani Khar took the floor immediately after Ms Abbass. She had taken command of the Foreign Office during Yousaf Raza Gillani-led government of PPP in 2011.

Shah Mahmud Qureshi, the incumbent foreign minister, was holding the same portfolio during initial three years of the Gillani government. But he resigned in protest; the hyper patriot in him could not agree...