Culture of shame

The death of 10-month old Bisma has once again got us talking about the country’s VIP culture, under which hundreds enjoy privilege at the expense of millions. In this particular incident, Bisma’s arrival at a public hospital in Karachi was obstructed because the chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party, once the most popular party in the country, was to arrive to inaugurate a publicly-funded facility.

It is still not yet clear whether the delay caused by the police blocking all entry and exit points to the hospital resulted in the death of the infant. What we do know however, is that VIP movement does cause inconvenience and untold public misery. But the VIP culture continues, unabated.

The government addresses this problem by compensating victims instead of ending the VIP culture. In Bisma’s case, the otherwise slumbering chief minister awoke to offer Bisma’s father a government job. We have also seen the Punjab CM offer compensation money to victims. Who can forget the murder of young Tahir Malik in Lahore in 2014, when he dared cross the path of the son of former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani. Money was given. Case closed.

The most visible sign of our VIP culture is the blocking of roads and the use of state machinery and resources for personal security. In Sindh, over a thousand personalities are accorded police protection on grounds that their lives are at risk. While some would argue that the country would be better off if such people were dead, what we see is several hundred policemen as well and police vehicles being misused at public expense.

Politicians usually end up getting a bad rap. But there are many others. They are members of different pillars of state as well as the civil and military bureaucracy. Then there are diplomats, religious leaders, advisors, special assistants, media persons, Pir’s, pop singers and even fortune tellers. The list is endless.

The center too has been magnanimous. Our indefatigable interior minister Chaudhry Nisar, who with a straight face say’s he has never abused his office and not given any undue favor, has however permitted guards for Maulana Abdul Aziz and many more.

And yet police guards and vans with flashing lights are just one of the several ways that people announce their VIP status in Pakistan. VIP means getting land for free or at incredibly reduced rates. It means exemption of tax (like the income of our landed aristocracy). Free government housing, usage of cars, electricity and other utilities. Provision of guards, drivers, cooks, cleaners and gardeners at no expense.

But there is more. VIP culture extends to preferential seating on PIA. Free airline tickets and free passports. Free access to travel lounges. Exemption from paying toll tax or parking fees. This is just the begining.

Almost anybody who is somebody in Pakistan enjoys VIP facilities. Imran Khan may have made announcements against VIP culture but he is a major beneficiary. In the past, his motorcade exceeded 20 vehicles, many of which were government owned. The same is the case with politicians from other parties and pillars of state in Pakistan.

It is a huge burden to bear for the public, more so because most VIP’s don’t pay any tax. And even if they do, it is a token amount. So far, no political party or government functionary has made any effort to eliminate VIP culture. Even ministers of the Jamaat-e-Islami, when in power in the then NWFP government, enjoyed such privileges. Military governments have fared no better.

I remember in 1996, when left-wing politician Malik Meraj Khalid was made caretaker prime minister, he announced the ending of many VIP lounges at airports. The Rawal Lounge at Islamabad airport, which is now almost as large as the departure lounge, was restricted to only those who could pay for it. In response, the bureaucracy turned the first class waiting lounge at the airport into a VIP lounge where unpaid benefits continued to flourish. Meraj Khalid left in three months. The VIP culture has flourished for more than thirty years. The culture will not end.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 28^th, 2015.

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