A payment delayed is a payment denied

Sometimes, exploitative tactics in a profession remain present like a big elephant in the room until someone like director Mehreen Jabbar and actor Syed Mohammed Ahmed challenges the taboos. The exploitation of man's creative faculties can't be perpetrated for long because either the creativity dies of asphyxiation or the stifling hands loosen up their claws from being cramped.

A recent spate of revelations about the delayed payments by the production houses to actors, filmmakers and crew is a crack in the gilded facade of the Pakistani entertainment industry. Mehreen Jabbar, during a virtual interview with Drama Pakistani, laments the unprofessionalism in showbiz and compares the punctuality of payments to actors and crew in the Pakistani TV industry with that in the US: "You know, in the US, they have many problems, but over there, payment schedules are kept. You know you will be paid. But in Pakistan, with every channel and production house (and yes, some are better than others), you have to chase them like beggars, asking when you will be paid."

Mehreen seems to be more perturbed about the financial plight of the crew, as they receive payments like a monsoon - late and uncertain. She sounds a bit pessimistic or perhaps realistic about launching new projects in the country of her origin, as they constitute "an unrewarding experience".

Similar grievances were voiced by the veteran actor Syed Mohammed Ahmed. In an Instagram video, he expressed the anguish and humiliation that one faces in claiming the wages of one's creativity and artistic diligence. In his raw, unscripted indictment, his tone and facial expressions spoke nothing but truth: "Except for a production house or two, I haven't seen people being paid on time. Your payment being delayed for three to four months is normal. That too, after begging for what's yours... and they will still behave like they've done you a huge favour."

His words echo the wounded soul of an artist with a begging bowl: "We really have to kill our egos, our self-respect, to get paid by these production houses."

Even before these two straight shooters, Ramsha Khan and Khushhal Khan, the co-stars of the drama Dunyapur, spoke about the delayed payments in the TV industry in an interview on the BBC Asian Network. Khushhal speaks the logic, "It's disrespectful not to pay on time because we're there on time." Ramsha adds to his point, "I have to pay my bills, man."

Perhaps it is the norm rampant more vexingly in our part of the world. Parents willingly delay the payment of school dues for their children. It isn't a matter of affordability. Actually, nothing is paid unasked. The school management delays the salaries to teachers and minor staff.

The delaying tactics spiral down to financial affairs of lower social strata. It mars the image of educated and creative people and repels people from pursuing their fields as careers. It's a mentality acquired subliminally while living in a capitalistic world that people want to cling to their wealth as long as possible, as parting is painful.

Some parents default on educational dues in the bad faith of leaving the school for good without paying their arrears. This trend fosters in the children a realisation that their education does not top their parents' priority list. Grown up, these children would imitate the behaviour. They, too, start deprioritising their own education and hence lose interest in their studies. It's the downside of financial education that parents and people around want to impress upon the tabula rasa of the youth.

In this age of galloping inflation, a payment delayed is a payment denied. The purchasing power of deferred payments depreciates over a period of time. Isn't it a hoarding of wages of sorts?

Promptness and fairness in financial dealings reflect how cultured we are. A right career guarantees not only a profitable livelihood but also unbruised self-respect and unshattered mental peace. Only a cultured society respects the self-esteem of its artists and intellectuals, who have the power to inspire people towards any desired change.