PERHAPS the inspiration came from milking the buffalo his father-in-law gave him. Or the hardships he endured during his training for the Olympics 2024, in which he won the gold medal for his record-breaking javelin throw. It is said that recently, when invited to be a motivational speaker at a school in Lahore, someone on his behalf demanded a fee of Rs50 lakhs.

Instant celebrities have just cause. In the 1960s, the British model Mandy-Rice Davies charged an exorbitant fee from a Sunday rag for her revelations about the Profumo scandal. Her justification? She needed to pro­vide for her “predictably insecure future”.

Was that the rationale for the startling increase approved last year in the perquisites for Senate chairmen, past, present and future? Their benefits extend over nine pages and into the lifetime of the beneficiaries. Clearly, John F. Kennedy’s advice is lost on our legislators: “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.”

Milking our country is now a given. A former president is supposed to have told an incoming State Bank governor: “I am the president; therefore, understand that the State Bank is my bank.”

The fund provided no mechanism for refunds to........

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