A strong antidote to nepotism is yet to be brought forward and implemented
KARACHI: Recently, an international awards ceremony of the Indian film industry stirred up a much heated debate on nepotism in the film industry. Ironically, nepotism is rampant in politics and among politicians more than it is in any other spheres of activity. But alas, politics is not a field of work but a service to the masses. Nepotism in any other industry does require a skill set particular to the job but coming from an established and a well named background certainly reduces the ordeal one has to pull through to make it big in that very industry. In the context of nepotism, the case of politics and politicians is an exception. While nepotism brings name, money and fame, incompetence drags down the popularity graph or the approval ratings keeping the inherited fortune intact in a majority of the cases. Nepotism and favoritism poses a dilemma in many Asian countries. Logically, nepotism in politics paves out the path for the same practice in other social realms too, granting powers or making appointments on the basis of personal affiliations or relations at the top most level of hierarchy seeps down to the deepest levels too. Unfortunately, so deep rooted is the ill of nepotism in politics that drafting out any legislation to counter it one way or the other might wipe out the entire fraternity from the picture. Hence, a strong antidote to nepotism is yet to be brought forward and implemented. Lastly, it goes without saying that many of the institutional failures and by extension failure as a state and a nation stems from nepotism and its practice.
Sundus Uzair
Published in The Express Tribune, August 12th, 2017.
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