Ever since I was born I have been told by the ruling elite that Pakistan is passing through ‘nazuk morr’, nation needs to make sacrifices for a better future. However, more than five decades later, the country is still passing through ‘nazuk morr’, and still those very politicians, and their progenies, who have been at the helm of affairs for all these decades –playing musical chairs with each other, are telling us that we, the ordinary folk, have to make sacrifices for the good of the country, as if it is our country and not theirs.
And while the ordinary mortals have been asked to squeeze their bellies and cough up more and more taxes, the rulers, and the elites are gorging on the poor, taxed, salaried class people in particular and on the general populace in particular. Thus, this is a land of contradictions and extremities.
On one hand, we have people who cannot afford more than a rickety bicycle, but on the other hand, we have cavalcades belonging to ministers, government officers, and elites all paid by the poor people of Pakistan. On one hand, we don’t have enough police to police the streets to maintain law and order, but on the other hand, there are contingents of police guarding the residences, and motorcades of VIPs and VVIPs. On one hand, we have people who have to pay unexplained taxes and levies on utilities such as petrol, gas, and electricity, but on the other hand, we have elites, politicians, and ministers who live on free electricity, petrol, gas, and even their servants, residences, motorcades are paid for by the cash-strapped Gov. of Pakistan. On one hand, we have people running from pillar to post to get themselves and their loved ones medically treated for serious ailments, but a class exists that flies abroad, on taxpayers’ money, at the hint of a sneeze.
While the government is perpetually asking for belt-tightening and sacrifices from the ordinary people, its profligacy has no limitations. The cabinet and bureaucracy size is ever-bloating despite the passing of the 18th amendment where many portfolios and functions have become purview of provinces. To keep a ragtag coalition together, treasury parliamentarians are allocated funds in billions, but citing lack of funds, the government is cutting on health, education, and infrastructure development. Further, government and banks write off billions of loans to a selected few, but ordinary people’s abodes and assets are auctioned off for missing an installment here or there.
Similarly, most people, because of inflation and steep increases in utilities, are struggling to have two decent meals a day; and even the middle class has become thrifty in use of air conditioners in summers and gas heaters in winters. Thus, the prevailing economic conditions have affected the overall lifestyle of the majority of people of Pakistan. To make the economic conditions worse, the government has imposed innumerable taxes, which are killing the economy: closing down businesses, increasing unemployment, and thus severely affecting the buying power of ordinary people. But then we have an elite minority who line up, in their fancy drives, for Tim Hortons, McDonald’s, KFC, and other fancy restaurants, and are patronized by the government as they remain untaxed and protected through the category of ‘non-filers’.
Thus, contradictions and extremities galore in this land of pure for the last seventy-five years. But the real question is: where to go from here? Should the people stay ignorant of their rights and privileges and hope for a Messiah for their deliverance from their Pharaohs or develop a collective voice across the political spectrum, and call out their leaders on their shortcomings and demand a better society where every citizen can have honor, better standard of living, access to health and education, and a future for his children.
Ahsan Munir
The writer is a freelance columnist.