The Afza Altaf Flyover is a monument to political sycophancy and the silence of an enslaved ‘civil’ society
KARACHI: Spending public funds for private publicity is not just unethical but also unlawful. The disease is hugely prevalent in countries where ethics, and accountability are never seriously questioned. There are schools, hospitals, playgrounds and markets all over the country that have been named after people who have been in the corridors of power. GIK Engineering University, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi Institute of Cardiology Multan and Nawaz Sharif Kidney Hospital Swat are just a few examples of this disease of using taxpayers’ money for personal glorification. The number of structures and schemes named after Benazir Bhutto would call for the services of a professional accountant.
Often, these ‘publicity-at-state-expense’ projects become questionable and discreditable when the individuals concerned retire or fall from grace for any reason. Consider the flyover in the Sindh Industrial and Trading Estate area of Karachi built by the Sindh government at a cost of Rs547 million. Planned to be named the Habib Bank Flyover, the audience was left in a daze when the Sindh governor rebaptised the overpass as Afza Altaf Flyover at its inauguration ceremony. The sole idea of naming the overpass after Altaf Hussain’s daughter was to seek appeasement and show loyalty to someone who was well-known to be involved in anti-state activities.
The Afza Altaf Flyover is a monument to political sycophancy and the silence of an enslaved ‘civil’ society. The bridge ought to be de-baptised and reverted to its originally planned name. Why are buildings, institutes and bridges named after those who never contributed a single penny of their own — and possibly siphoned many millions from the contracts and construction of these buildings? The self-aggrandising tradition of public structures and institutions being named after politicians or government servants, especially in their own lifetime and while they are still on active duty, must be formally brought to an end — by an act of parliament.
Naeem Sadiq
Published in The Express Tribune, August 30th, 2016.
Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.
