Double or nothing

Why is there duplication in many things in Pakistan but nothing improves?

Have you ever wondered why there is duplication in many things in Pakistan but nothing improves? For example, we have the Pakistan Coast Guard and the Maritime Security Agency (MSA) doing almost the same job, but with entirely separate and independent set-ups?

Imagine the cost to the taxpayer. A DG and a team of directors, officers, clerks, guards. The works. Two times over. The cars, the equipment, the housing. All paid for by me (I pay direct tax) and possibly you too.

Is it worth it? No. Both agencies patrol our seas but there continues to be massive poaching by foreign (read East Asian) trawlers. We don’t catch them because they bribe us but we do catch the poor fishermen who stray into our waters from the Indian side.

The duplication-mentality does not end there. The Sindh Police and the Rangers. Again, essentially one job but two entire set-ups. The KMC and the KDA. The cantonment boards that work side by side with the housing authorities. Not just in Karachi but all over the country. Only a bureaucrat can dream up such an arrangement.

Imagine the cost to the people. The coast guards and the MSA only make life difficult for our fishermen. The policemen, increasingly desperate for money, come up with ways to extract from the common man. The housing authorities increase their income by coming up with more taxes and other forms of revenue. This system has to end. It will be the death of us.

Our justification is that this leads to counter-checks. Enter the airport and your passport will be checked twice. No one trusts the other. There are two drug-checking squads — one for the customs and one for the ANF. Even security checks are conducted twice.

And yet, smuggling is rampant. Drugs flow freely through our airports. Under-invoicing and mis-declaration at our ports has crippled our domestic industry. One blames the other.

The two-faced approach doesn’t end there. Our businessmen keep two books of accounts. Taxpayers make two sets of payments. When you buy property, you make two valuations — one for the government treasury and one for the revenue official. It’s not just the government that plays by these rules. Thanks to our clergy, we even have two Eids every year.

Then there is the ‘do-number’ phenomena. Almost everything comes in two or more grades. Genuine and China. In most instances, both are ‘do-number’. We compromise on quality every day. In many instances, on things that can be a danger to us. But we do it without batting an eyelid. Like when we use sub-standard pipes and electricity wires in our homes. Or fake parts in our cars and public transport. Then we wonder when accidents and fires take place.

Two wrongs in Pakistan sometimes make a right. We possibly specialise in the worldly concept of double or nothing. Life for us seems to be a gamble. We are double-Shahs, all of us.

We have two systems of justice. Two centres of power. Two mediums of education. Two class structures. Even two Taliban. One can argue that we are a nation of double standards. Nothing is in black and white. No one speaks the truth, it seems.

Corruption has a particular fascination for us. We have the anti-corruption wings, the task forces, the committees, the squads, the vigilance departments. But we are still most corrupt. Never have I seen a tax raid on the house of the high and mighty. Tax raids only take place on people we want to punish politically.

Despite the large number of organisations and entities it maintains, the government remains as incompetent as ever. As many layers and parallels you put, there is still a lot that is wrong.

That brings us to the issue of double-speak. Our two tongues. We are for peace but we are for war as well. We want to talk to the militants but we don’t want to talk. The militants want to talk, but at the same time, want to attack. We want to sell state assets. But the military-commercial complex continues to expand, which means that the state enters into areas it has no business to. Can we make any sense of what is happening? Not at all. It seems we are two-timing ourselves.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 17^th,  2014.

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