It would not impress any Saarc country to see Pakistan’s rulers, the elected public officeholders living on luxury
LAHORE: This is apropos recent reports that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has ordered the Murree Government House to be renovated at a cost of over Rs430 million in view of the likelihood of Saarc leaders staying there. As a registered taxpaying voter, it is my right to know why there are these lopsided priorities in a country where there is not a single hospital or medical facility to provide adequate healthcare nor check-up facilities to satisfy our elected prime minister, president and paid civil or uniformed bureaucratic elite. When was the last time we heard that an Indian prime minister or member of his cabinet proceeded abroad at the state’s expense to seek medical services?
I am sure it would not impress any Saarc country that Pakistan’s ruling elite lead a lifestyle that would match those of oil-rich countries, or that its paid and elected public officeholders live on islands of luxury, receiving multiple prime real estate plots for allotment at subsidised rates to be sold for reaping bonanza profits. Nor would they be thrilled to know that Pakistan’s forests are forcibly occupied by land mafia. It would certainly not be a matter of pride that Pakistan, which, in 1947, had some of the best state-owned educational institutions in the subcontinent, does not have a single university or hospital today that is ranked among the top 500 in the world.
India is our rival and its ruling elite are forced to put on a show of living simply, despite their trillions in foreign exchange reserves. Its political elite cannot afford to get away with having assets abroad. Of course, the cancer of corruption continues to haunt India and other Saarc countries as well, but once caught for tax evasion, money laundering or kickbacks, no Indian politician or public office holder can evade accountability or claim immunity from prosecution.
No Indian prime minister would dare be seen wearing a $4.5 million Louis Moinet watch in public. India has progressed and achieved international fame for its reputed institutions of information technology, hospitals and research institutions that even attract foreigners, while in Pakistan, sadly this is not the case.
Malik Tariq Ali
Published in The Express Tribune, May 13th, 2016.
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