"The
72 Million Rupee Question"
By Mir Mohammad Ali
Talpur
Sindh, Pakistan
The 72 million rupee question
is 'why after a passage of sixty years are we
still up the creek without a paddle and in an
unstoppable nosedive into chaos and disaster?
People wonder how this country has managed to
remain in the backwaters of the civilized world.
It certainly doesn't register anywhere on any
scale on this benchmark, except of course topping
the list of the most corrupt country or languishing
at the lowest point on the scale of human welfare.
Naturally all those crushed by the shocking and
grotesque living conditions are forced to ask
the reason for this state of affairs and justifiably
demand answers.
Everyone asks why and why is this overpopulated
and well-endowed place continuously failing to
contribute anything of substance to the world
and humanity except in the shape of military dictatorships,
'doctrines of necessity', human-rights abuses,
indifference to country's break-up, army actions
against its provinces, elimination of those who
refuse to bow down, terrorist outfits, selling
of nuclear technology, political shenanigans,
declining living standards, weakening of the civilian
institutions and processes.
To continue, capitulation at a single call, assaults
on judiciary, increasing number of disappeared
persons, creating a military-dominated political
system, Talibanization, rampant white collar crimes,
proverbially corrupt politicians, inducting military
personnel into key civilian institutions, falling
educational standards, declining medical facilities,
increasing defence budgets, expanding military
role in business, environmental disasters, non-existence
of historical and human rights, imposition of
arbitrary rules by anyone who wields and uses
a stick; name anything negative and we have it
in abundance?
A 'good news bad news' joke will illustrate the
situation here: a pilot announces to the passengers
that emergency is forcing them to land at an island.
The bad news is that there is nothing to eat there
except horse dung but the good news is that there
is plenty of it.
The onus of this mess lies squarely with those
who have consistently and recklessly misgoverned
this country. The quality of governance, rather
the lack of it, has naturally led to these appalling
conditions. The entire establishment is culpable,
culpability being proportional to the amount of
power wielded and exercised.
On April 1 a national daily reported: "The
expenditure on the president's public meeting
in Gujranwala on March 15, which was estimated
to be around Rs72 million, has been paid to the
people concerned by the relevant ministry, it
was learnt on Saturday.
The amount was spent on people's transportation
to the Jinnah Stadium from remote areas, security
measures, installations at the venue and facelift
of city roads and other public facilities.
Sources said that the government had already released
Rs32 million for the purpose. The ministry concerned
paid another Rs40 million on Saturday to the service
providers on the recommendations of the City District
Government Gujranwala."
Respected readers, now count the meetings the
General-President wearing fancy headgears has
addressed in his seven-year tenure; a tenure which
has continued at his pleasure and may well continue
indefinitely until of course people decide otherwise.
Then multiply the number with an average of say
Rs. 100 million, for some meetings like the one
in Rawalpindi recently will have cost a fortune
and you will get an answer for the 72 million
rupee question why man-made disasters and catastrophes
afflict and confound this blighted place.
The ruthless loot and gross ineptitude just don't
leave much money behind to be spent on people's
welfare. Just imagine how many 'state of the art'
hospitals and educational institutions among other
things could have been built if these luminaries
had decided to stay at home and tried to prove
their worth with actions rather than with the
rhetoric that is spewed out at these 'rent a crowd'
meetings.
Mind you the amount of Rs.72 million is just what
a ministry doles out for the meeting. Imagine
the sums spent on the meeting by the reimbursed,
over-enthusiastic sycophants on monstrous bill-boards,
banners, telephones bills, full page advertisements,
fuel expenditure and numerous other heads of essential
expenditure for making the 'rent a crowd' meeting
appear a success. The razzmatazz there equals
a Bollywood production and that dear friends costs
money.
The cost of providing security to these very insecure
personages is also mind boggling. For example
a meeting which was to be addressed by the president
on February 3 this year in Okara, needed elaborate
arrangements. A newspaper reported: 'Nearly 6,000
officers and personnel of different law enforcement
agencies will be on guard here on Saturday during
President Musharraf's scheduled address at a public
meeting. The venue of the meeting, Zila Council
Stadium, is already under siege of law enforcement
agencies".
If 6000 are needed for providing security to the
General in the heartland of Punjab how many more
must be required for security in Balochistan and
Sindh? How much it must be costing to provide
this blanket security cover? Another report said
that the 'taking no dictation from anyone' PM
needed 2000 personnel for security for a meeting
in Attock. All this must be costing the state
an arm and a leg but the delusion that they are
popular leaders has to be maintained and forcefully
projected on paper even if it bankrupts the tottering
economy.
Apart from the condemnable superfluity, triviality
and the extravagance of these meetings one certainly
cannot overlook the misery and problems that are
caused to the general public by this sort of security
due the insecurities of the Margalla Deities.
The city unfortunate enough to deserve their (un)
kind attention must be ruing the presidential
fans' club desire to earn brownie points by inviting
them.
Normal life is simply impossible in a city favored
by a visit from the Deities from Mount Margalla.
Numerous reports of traffic jams holding up ambulances
with patients who fail to reach the hospital in
time have often been occurring in cities visited
by these luminaries.
If 72 million rupees are spent for single day
meetings now imagine what it must be costing when
these Margalla Deities visit foreign lands for
18-day long book promotion excursions and for
jaunts to unite their beloved ummah.
Mind you a PIA plane is permanently on the standby
here as long as their Excellencies are on their
junkets. Little wonder that PIA being too busy
with their needs had little time to maintain reasonable
safety standards and hence the EU ban. It is only
a matter of time when this great people to fly
with will fly into oblivion as it is red to tune
of $300 million Tariq Kirmani was doing what he
was supposed to do, those who accepted his resignation
should have resigned instead..
How much money is being spent on the daily upkeep
of these 'gifts of god' can only be guessed because
they won't tell. I mention all this to present
the amazing scale of impropriety that is practiced
by those who decide the fate of 160 million people.
These Deities, professing to be the redeemer of
the country and Ummah, are the bane of
people because of their reckless mis-governance.
They squander the toil and sweat of the people
to project and protect their personal rule. They
know that they can smirk at people's misery with
impunity as long as the constituencies that really
matter in this country are properly perked and
privileged.
Until and unless the rulers become answerable
to the people for every cent they spend, every
utterance they make, every law they enact, every
action they take, every trip they make; in short
be answerable for every minute they spend as rulers
only then can the problems be reduced. This will
happen when the rulers rule at the pleasure of
the people and not at their own pleasure.
There is something in human history known by the
term 'people's power' but unfortunately those
claiming exclusive rights to it are busy sorting
out deals. So when and if they return it will
be the case of very old and stale wine in already
tarnished and sullied bottles. The people should
aim at a comprehensive change if they do not want
to keep suffering as they have till now.
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