One sometimes wonders why those who have had most powerful jobs in Pakistan, seek immigration to foreign safe havens.
LAHORE: This is with reference to M Ziauddin’s truthful expose “The matter of governance” (February 27) of the extent and involvement of our bureaucracy in the institutionalisation of the culture of corruption within Pakistan. Whilst corrupt practices within the bureaucracy have been there for long and are not confined to this country alone, the daredevil defiance and its enormity in Pakistan is perhaps, matchless. One sometimes wonders why should those who have had most powerful jobs in Pakistan, seek immigration to foreign safe havens. Perhaps, the enormity of daylight robberies they commit forces them to run away for fear of accountability. The top choice of service that successful candidates of competitive examinations opt for these days is the service where the quantum of corruption and abuse of power is the most. We live in a country where terrorism thrives and this state of affairs has been reached because of corruption within our law-enforcement-cum-intelligence agencies and those responsible to keep a check on the flow of ammunition through designated and irregular checkpoints. The ease with which tax evasion is facilitated, land records fudged, drugs sold, murderers and rapists escape, criminals protected and the process of accountability frustrated is because of a nexus of the corrupt within the bureaucracy, both civil and uniformed, which thrives financially, while Pakistan becomes bankrupt.
Malik Tariq Ali
Published in The Express Tribune, March 2nd, 2013.
