Who opposes presidential form of government in Pakistan?

Inheritance tax

When Corruption Kills!

In an op-ed piece that appeared in The News of August 1, 2019, I wrote: 

Corruption ... upends lives and shatters dreams. It has a multi-generational calamitous effect. When public sector corruption results in loss of life, its negative consequences can well be compared to those of terrorism. Link here.

I quoted Prof. Michael Johnston of Colgate University to describe systemic corruption, which creates an inexorable feedback loop in which malfeasance at the higher levels of governance intensifies incidence of ordinary bribery, fraud and extortionary practices at the lower levels.

My point was that the rulers can easily find public funds to finance a lavish lifestyle for themselves and to shower favors on their supporters. But they do not want to provide basic infrastructure and facilities for hospital and schools and invest in other essential social services for people. I gave the following examples, which show how the ruling elites' indifference results in catastrophic consequences for individuals, families, communities and generations.

1. On September 1, 2007, a portion of a newly constructed Northern Bypass flyover at Sher Shah, Karachi, collapsed killing at least five people and injuring many others. Among the killed were three sole breadwinners of their families and a young student. 

   

   A few hours after the collapse of the Sher Shah flyover (Source: Dawn)

   The bridge was built at a cost of about Rs. 3.5 billion and was inaugurated with great fanfare just a month earlier by no less than the President of Pakistan. The project was executed by the National Highways Authority (NHA) through the National Logistics Cell (NLC), which had subcontracted it to a private firm. An inquiry committee, later, determined that “neglect” and “design fault” were the root causes of the collapse.
2. On July 2, 2015, a special train carrying soldiers of Pakistan Army Corps of Engineers derailed at a bridge on a canal near Gujranwala that left 19 of its passengers dead and scores injured. 

   

   Rescue operations after the train fell off the bridge (Source: AFP)

   The investigation report attributed the cause of the accident to an ill-maintained railway track whose joints had come loose and to a creaky pre-partition bridge.
   
   A few days later, social media carried a picture taken just before the train’s departure from the Pano Akil Railway Station of one of the officers and his family - all of whom died in the accident. 

   

   The Jadoon family a while before the ill-fated train departed (Source: Twitter)

   The picture depicted a happy family with smiles and hopes of a more rewarding future. But that was never to be because of the action or inaction on part of some corrupt and indifferent people somewhere in some department or bureau.
3. When an overturned oil tanker caught fire at Ahmedpur East near Lodhran in June 2017, more than 100 people died within a few minutes, but dozens more later succumbed to their injuries as there was no standard burns unit in the area hospitals within a couple of hours drive.
4. After the terrorist attack at a mosque in Shikarpur in 2015, scores of people died on the spot, but the death count substantially increased as there was no well-equipped trauma center outside the remote cities of Hyderabad and Karachi.

Professor Johnston believes that just "relying on 'political will' to fight corruption is 'magical thinking'." Then what course of action remains? I think most people will endorse that dealing with corruption requires a multilevel, multi-institutional and multi-dimensional approach – an action plan involving some concerted, concrete and consistent measures. A good example to follow is that of China, which has been quite ruthless in dealing with its corrupt government functionaries. We do not tire of lavishing praise on that country for its spectacular economic progress and development. It's time we also followed China in practice and adopted some of the measures it has taken to tame the monster of corruption and build its institutions.

National Character

National character cannot be built by law. It is the sum of the moral fiber of its individuals. – Herbert Hoover.

In an op-ed, a couple of years ago, I wrote on the role of “leaders” in disseminating values and building next generations’ character. I argued:

The role models for the Pakistani public are leaders tainted with various scandals of character and integrity. The youth are steadily reminded that relying on ‘merit’ is not as rewarding as investing one’s energies and talents in currying favor with the elites. The term meritocracy in this country has been relegated to the realm of impossibility. Link here.

Charles Duhigg, in his self-help block-buster The Power of Habit, recommends that, to rid oneself of a bad habit, one needs to break free from the "triggers" or “reinforcers” of that habit.

And, basing my point on Duhigg’s proposed strategy, I emphasized:

Pakistan needs to immediately embark on purging all such “reinforcers” of malfeasance among politicians and civil servants.

We must act before it is too late. Time and tide wait for none!

Blog post Feudal Mindset endorsed by Professor Basu of Cornell

My post on feudal mentality retweeted by Prof. Kaushik Basu, currently Professor of Economics and International Studies at Cornell University and a former Chief Economist of the World Bank.

Imtiaz Bhatti on the tragedy of a feudal mindset. https://t.co/4z5B3DQztK— Kaushik Basu (@kaushikcbasu) May 20, 2019

Harassment Bribes

Source: Traveldudes

In a newspaper column in 2018, I wrote:

If the government is serious in dealing the culture of corruption a devastating blow, it should decriminalize the paying of ‘harassment bribes’, while substantially enhancing the punishment for demanding or receiving bribes. Link here.

I based my argument on the work of Prof. Kaushik Basu of Cornell University. Dr. Basu uses the term "harassment bribe" for the bribes that members of public must pay to avoid facing a grave loss.

Many countries' penal codes make both the taking and giving of bribe equally illegal and culpable. But, no course of action remains other than bribing the concerned official for a student with hard timelines needing her diploma certificate or a house owner urgently requiring a title certificate of her property.

Decriminalizing bribe-giving in such situations will reduce the incidence of bribe-taking, for the sufferer will no longer be discouraged from reporting the tormentor.

Feudal Mindset

One of Pakistan’s biggest problems is the diffusion of feudal mentality in the national fabric. Initially it was confined to the landed aristocracy which was created by the colonial masters and which still holds sway over the rural areas of the country, especially of Punjab and Sindh. Soon after the Independence, the bug of feudal mentality started to affect other sections of the society and the Pakistani bureaucracy was among its earliest adopters. Now, almost everyone from the politicians to civil servants to business community to military to academia somewhat exhibit the signs and symptoms of the ailment. Though this attitude has now suffused the country's national character, the grand scale feudal mentality remains the province of the landed aristocrats.

Those afflicted with feudal mentality can be spotted easily. When you meet such a person, you will encounter an ego on steroids, a person who will not tire of trying to prove the centrality of his being in the universe and consistently evincing a contempt of laws, rules, institutions and of social and legal systems. You can also tell immediately that you have sighted some feudal-mentality characters, when you see a bevy of private and police guards sitting in the open rears of double-cabin trucks under the scorching sun, while the so-called VIPs sit inside the air-conditioned cabins.

These people would betray several other symptoms of their affliction. For example, they consider below their station to stop at a traffic signal or obey the directions of a traffic warden. They barge unscheduled into government offices and want to get their matters “resolved” – unconcerned with their justification or legality. Impatience, short-termism, and vindictiveness are some of the main characteristics of such people. They detest rules and legal procedures, patronize cronies and sycophants, and discourage professionalism and integrity. They never have qualms about undermining the morale of competent and honest civil servants.

When in power, these people adopt non-visionary and expensive policies that are solely crafted to favor one or another of their lackeys or supporters or partners. The words “sustainability” and “long-term” are alien to them. Feudal lords hate government institutions and do their best to weaken them. In many cases, they have irretrievably damaged important institutions of the country.

Because these ruling elites are good at switching sides, they ultimately maneuver their entry into every government. This is a bitter and ominous fact that they are a perpetual ruling class. Pakistan cannot extricate itself from its current economic, political and institutional woes unless it seriously sets out to expose these demigods to some dose of “humanness.”