Rauf Klasra’s report “It pays to be a bureaucrat in Pakistan” (October 28) was brilliant.
LAHORE: Rauf Klasra’s report “It pays to be a bureaucrat in Pakistan” (October 28) was brilliant. In reference to the many comments that were made on his article on your newspaper’s website, I would say that it’s easy to blame Asif Ali Zardari or Nawaz Sharif for our troubles and that it’s easy to fantasise that Pervez Musharraf will solve all our problems. The fact of the matter is that most, if not all, institutions in the country are corrupt to some degree and they look after their own interests and not those of ordinary Pakistanis. The point I am trying to make is that no one forces a general or a judge to enter the armed forces or the judiciary. They make these decisions on their own — and for that they get a salary and many perks, paid for by taxpayers’ money.
Given that, why should they also be given plots at below-market rates? I am a citizen who works in the private sector but I do not pay taxes so that a public servant gets to retire and be given a plot for next to nothing. Why isn’t the same concession given to me? We need to ban this because it is nothing but a severe misuse of authority and state resources. Governments should not have the discretion to hand out resources in this manner.
A Suhail
Published in The Express Tribune, October 30th, 2010.
