Government and Media

Pakistan faces a strange situation these days. Everything around us seems to be falling to pieces. Nobody in power feels he or she is answerable to anyone. The latest rhetoric is that they want power because they want to serve the people. Once in power, they completely forget why and how they came to power, and life for most of them goes merrily on. Our Prime Minister, after being elected almost unanimously, said that austerity will begin with the P.M’s House. He said that he would reduce the P.M House’s budget by 40%. He promised good governance, open merit and equal justice. As a first step, he ordered all judges to be released. He could have reinstated them then and there, but he deferred. Like the other promises made, these too were not Quran or Hadith to be strictly adhered to. Anyway, nobody in our media or opposition has bothered to remind him of his promises. Think of all the trouble we could have avoided had he reinstated the judges that day. As for austerity, it is simply not possible.

Mr. Zardari, too, in one of his first interviews as President said very passionately that PPP wanted Governance and NOT Government. All beautiful words, music to our ears at the time. Now these words are forgotten, buried under the rubble of many non-issues raised by friend/brother Nawaz Sharif. The media, which according to the Pippians was on the verge of being liberated by Ms. Bhutto, and is now fully liberated, has completely forgotten about these promises. Nawaz Sharif’s predicament was given more importance and coverage. The amount of money that is being spent on maintaining such a huge cabinet is being completely ignored. Once a Minister or MNA was on a talk show, and a caller put up this question to him, demanding an answer to the unlimited Government spending. The person very calmly answered that the Government spending came only to about 2 or 3% of our total budget. I wish the Government would swap their budget with the combined budget allocated to Education and Health. It might make some difference to the type of educational and health care facilities being provided to the common man.

Let me tell you some horrible facts which all of us tend to ignore or even avoid talking about. Watch any Pakistani TV channel; it caters only to the 30% people of Pakistan. The rest of the population does not matter. Talk to most people who run schools for the poor. They will tell you about their achievements, but not a single one can tell you that one of their students now holds a high Government post or has become a CEO of a multi National company. I am sure we would have learnt about it. It is sort of understood that the ordinary people do not matter at all. They are only to be used as human fodder. Look at the uses we have of them.

1. As students who are responsible for keeping our Madressah culture alive.
2. As Jihadis to be brain-washed, trained and sent to places where you would not want your loved ones to go.
3. As potential suicide bombers; brain- washed into doing the Jihadi Leaders dirty work / give their lives for the cause of Islam, whichever may be the case. It is even said these days that they are paid handsomely to commit suicide, an act abhorred in Islam.
4. To add to the crowds you want the world to see protesting for the cause of our great politicians, at a very nominal price, of course.
5. And last but not the least, to provide the cheap labor force we so much depend on to do all our menial jobs.

So, only a limited number of people can get things done in Pakistan. Even people like us, who are educated and reasonably well off, live in a kind of fear, which is growing and spreading like cancer in our society. The fear of break-ins, of mobile snatching, car thefts, cars being lifted from areas where no sign shows a No Parking Zone, or plain simple police harassment.

An anchor from Sama’a TV channel once started a sort of reform program, but now I don’t see any more such programs from Sama’a any more. May be the Electronic media has been told to toe the line, or they too have been given what every human being desires most in this world. I feel it must be the case as many talk shows these days are on non-issues. With few exceptions, most TV anchors or those print media journalist who are invited to these programs, go through an hour or so of rhetoric and that’s that.

Where is all this leading to? Now thanks to our media, even illiterate people know of promises made and broken. Their personal experience tells them that Policemen can be bought and sold. So they feel comfortable when they cheat the country by not taking out licenses for their motorbikes, or bicycles. Majority do not pay their road tax. And they feel happy when they break a traffic light, because beyond that they have no knowledge, respect or understanding of traffic laws. This holds true for our semi-literate lower middle class also. They too, avoid paying any taxes to the Exchequer. But their tax evasions and law breaking is a very minor thing indeed. All these people’s taxes put together may be less than the tax default of one of our great Money makers. The ruling elite, industrial giants, land owners and other rich people have the services of income tax practitioners who make it possible for these rich people to pay a paltry sum against taxes. So who pays income tax? Only a handful of fools who work in private or Government offices whose taxes are deducted at the base, or those middle class businessmen who cannot afford to pay for the services of these tax practitioners. We can safely conclude that our country’s resources our being used by a small segment of people who refuse to pay back an iota of what they receive. As far as the respect of law is concerned, they have none.

Can our highly paid Advisers and Government functionaries do something about this situation? Or are they going to keep quiet because of political expediencies? Or will they give their attention on increasing indirect taxes and putting the burden on the helpless people of Pakistan? Surely this is the only solution Mr. Tareen can think of. How can he expect our highly paid executives to make such a huge sacrifice, that too for the country in which they do not have any of their interests? Their houses, businesses, their children are all aboard. They can perform their jobs equally well while living out of this accursed country, where lawlessness and terrorism have taken root. So why should they pay anything back? While living in Pakistan, they are already taking such huge risks to serve the people who should be grateful for their mere presence.

Who do you think can stand up and change this situation? Can anyone try and bring back some balance in this lopsided society we live in? I don’t believe anyone can. These days everyone and everything has a price. Those joining the band wagon, whether an ordinary middle class man, a member of the media community (the better educated lot) Clerics or a common political worker, all have their eyes on the big and easy buck. One cannot expect the politicians of today to think beyond their families. Each leader has only one agenda, to promote and train his own offspring to take over from him. The result is the present day chaos. Their children are educated abroad, their mindset is already a feudal one. So they cannot, and I repeat cannot have any interest or love for the people of Pakistan. Pakistan itself has some meaning for them. A place where they come to rule; to implement their Western ideas and training; to live and behave as Kings; where the only people who matter are their families, friends and relatives. So what do you see in our country today? A take and run policy. Rule as long as possible, then leave when things become difficult. In this scenario, only Allah can save Pakistan. Those leaders who have come to serve have no love for it.