Most of the Pakistanis are extremely poor. Some of them are eternally underfed. The underfeeding keeps killing them inch-by-inch. Some of them have nothing to eat. They go mentally deranged. Their empty stomachs dig their graves. What a relief For numerous Pakistanis, the country has no jobs. Out of sheer desperation, some of them resolve to smuggle themselves into certain foreign lands. Unfortunately, some of them get arrested and some lose their lives in the process. Fortunately, some succeed in getting through to their fancied destinations. Their successful violation of the international laws pays them handsomely. In their new abodes, they somehow get jobs. The jobs relieve them of their financial misery. They keep kissing their salaries. What a heavenly kissing What they earn abroad, they could never have dreamt of earning in Pakistan. They thank Pakistan for keeping them jobless. They left Pakistan because Pakistan did not feed them. Instead of being offended, they are feeding Pakistan as much as they can. They are regularly sending a part of their earnings to the motherland. What a superb filial loyalty The Pakistanis who are unable to feed themselves because of their joblessness must not blame the motherland. A mother is not obliged to suckle a grown-up son. On the contrary, the son is morally bound to feed the ageing mother. In addition to the illegal migrants, there are numerous other Pakistanis who have been lawfully living in other countries. These Pakistanis are poring huge sums of money into the country. Since Pakistan's birth, the masses have been making stupendous sacrifices for the country. They wonderingly ask: "What sort of sacrifices, if any, have the rulers ever made?" The masses should know that the rulers are not born to make sacrifices. They are born to rule. For them there is no greater sacrifice than ruling the country. Thus there is a clear division of labour in Pakistan. The rulers must rule and the masses must serve. The rulers have invented various kinds of technologies for running the country. Under one of these technologies, the rulers keep regularly visiting foreign countries. They believe that regular visits to foreign countries deepen the mutual relationships. But they have never revealed how much depth is achieved by each visit. Nor have they ever disclosed how much each deepening costs Pakistan. But for them expenses are irrelevant. Only the deepening of the relationships is crucially vital. No wonder, they keep flying in and out of the country regularly. So much so that even the Pakistani eagles are getting envious of the rulers' flying sprees. Reportedly, the Pakistanis who keep sending money from abroad are somewhat unhappy about the ultimate destiny of their money. Their anxiety is absolutely uncalled for. What the rulers do with the money is the rulers' own affair. If the rulers were asked to account for the money, they would justifiably get offended. It would be tantamount to interfering in the rulers' personal affairs. And such an interference must cost the interferer dearly. Financially, Pakistan has always been dependent on foreign loans, foreign charity and the remittances of the Pakistanis abroad. The size of Pakistan's loans-cum-charity bowl has been steadily growing. We can shatter the bowl only by becoming self-reliant. Self-reliance would mean immense sacrifices on the part of the affluent classes. The more the sacrifices, the greater the self-reliance. But would the 'luxury-addict' classes be willing to sacrifice some of their luxuries for making the country self-reliant? Not the remotest possibility. Let the addicts enjoy their addiction. And let the bowl keep on growing. Pakistan and the bowl have become synonyms. Unfortunately, the bowl is a very partial creature. Whatever it collects is for the rulers. The rulers spend it as they fancy to spend it. Obviously, the bowl is the greatest source of the rulers' political strength. The masses are extremely unlucky. The bowl has nothing for them but utter indifference. They keep looking at the bowl with begging eyes. The bowl keeps hilariously laughing at them. The writer is an academic.