The rule of law alone can protect state sovereignty and lives, honour and property of citizens
LAHORE: For Pakistan to survive, the Quaid-e-Azam’s legacy must be restored. On August 11, 1947, while addressing the Constituent Assembly, the Quaid tasked it to “adopt a provisional constitution for federal legislature of Pakistan”, and stated that the “first duty of a government is to maintain law and order, so that life, property and religious beliefs of its subjects are fully protected by the state”. He emphasised the major curses from which India suffered at the time — namely bribery and corruption: “We must put it down with an iron hand.” He also named the black market as another curse: “A citizen who does black-marketing commits, I think, a greater crime than the biggest and most grievous of crimes.” In the Quaid’s opinion, they “undermine the entire system of control and regulation of food stuffs and essential commodities, and cause wholesale starvation and want, and even death”.
Those who held power after his death — politicians and the civil or uniformed bureaucracy — collaborated to prevent the drafting and finalisation of the Constitution because they witnessed that India, after breaking subjugation to the British dominion, went on to cancel vast allotments of lands and titles, given as bribe to those who had supported the British Raj and opposed liberation. Intrigues of the bureaucracy and remnants of the Raj, such as the Unionists, went on to institutionalise corruption by regularising irregularities. Today, the land mafia in the country holds clout within the bureaucracy, the establishment and the political elite and extracts decisions favourable for its own commercial interests, and yet, the state, with all its apparatus, fails to take action against this bribery.
The tragedy is that the media often portrays such men as philanthropists instead of as villains, and criminals. For the sake of political exigencies, various elected political governments and military dictators, like Ziaul Haq, allowed private militias to be formed, openly engaged in crime and extortion, resultantly creating a criminal economy reaping profits of hundreds of billions, which are now siphoned out of Pakistan for mafia dons and their families living abroad. The East India Company has been replaced by brown opportunists who have either pledged an oath of loyalty to another country or attained residential status abroad, with almost all assets located overseas, and what Pakistan is left with is loot and plunder. The rule of law alone can protect state sovereignty and lives, honour and property of citizens.
Malik Tariq Ali
Published in The Express Tribune, August 18th, 2015.
Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.
