By K. Hussan Zia
This is not about Imran Khan, Nawaz Sharif or anyone else but about some of what I have observed and experienced in my eighty-six year journey through life, starting with why and how Pakistan came into being; the holocaust in East Punjab that ended the lives of one million innocent men, women and children and forced close to nine million bloodied, bruised and battered Muslims to seek shelter and safety in Pakistan.
Subsequently, I was privileged to serve in one of Pakistan’s defence forces and whenever called upon, stood to die for her. There have been many ups and downs in Pakistan’s brief history but throughout this period my faith in her future never wavered. It is only now that I have started to lose hope. This is not based on any particular aspect or event but on the way things have been taking shape generally in all these years. Unfortunately, the curve has trended steadily downward which does not bode well for the future.
The British had administered India under a system of pro-consuls that governed on behalf of and ultimately reported to the British Parliament. The country was divided into provinces each of which was ruled by a governor, assisted by a covey of relatively junior career civil servants who basically liaised with relevant departments and officials in the field.
Each province was divided into a number of districts administered by experienced career civil servants, designated as Deputy Commissioners, who were responsible for maintenance of law and order, collection of revenue and administration in general within the district. Only the judges and some aspects of police work remained outside their jurisdiction.
The politicians did not interfere in the administration. They only made policy. The entire system hinged on the work done by the Deputy Commissioner. He was the man on the spot, mostly a senior ICS or, occasionally an experienced provincial service officer. The British realized that in order to maintain their position and superiority they had to remain a cut above the rest avoid any temptation and conduct themselves with propriety and diligence.
Anyone found wanting was dealt with swiftly and peremptorily without exception. This applied to both the civil as well as military service and was the main reason why their rule lasted for as long as it did. The system had worked well for, as Churchill claimed, a woman in India could walk from Ras Kumari to Torkhan without fear of being molested which could not be said for one in Britain.
Things took a different turn after independence. Without going into details, the politicians wanted a piece of the pie in terms of power, privileges, perks and anything else they could lay their hands on. To get this they curtailed the autonomy of Deputy Commissioners by assigning the posts to relatively junior officers and centralized power in the hands of provincial secretaries. It suited the senior civil servants as well since they could now enjoy the facilities and comforts in the provincial capitals that were not available in the outlying districts.
In doing so they undermined the very foundations on which the administrative system had been based. The district administrator lost his hands on freedom of action and the people no longer had ready access to a single source of power locally for solving their problems. Worse still, politicians in power became increasingly involved in administration of which they had no training, understanding or experience and for which they could not be held directly accountable.
As the system began to crumble, it opened floodgates of corruption. The quality of civil servants declined precipitously as did their accountability. Paradoxically, no matter how morally detestable, it is not corruption that destroys countries, certainly not as much as incompetence and inefficiency. If the latter be flowers, spring has certainly dawned in Pakistan in a big way. For all intents and purposes there is no system left. Only anarchy and arbitrariness rules as can be gauged from my own observations and experiences some of which are related in this piece.
Having said this, properly trained and motivated competent individuals can find a way to deliver the goods regardless of the system but no matter how good the latter it will not work if those who run it are ill-trained and work only for what is good for them and not the country. This becomes apparent when one considers that in 1947 Pakistan’s population was thirty-five million and that of Lahore and Karachi about three hundred thousand each.
Today the combined population of the two cities alone is touching thirty million and that of Pakistan tops two hundred and twenty million. No one that matters has given much thought to this looming disaster in all this time let aside doing something about it. All the talk in the corridors of power has been about who gets what and how much for himself.
Institutions, be these universities, colleges and schools have not kept pace with rest of the world and in most cases have slided backward. Nationalised enterprises like the Railways, WAPDA, PIA, steel mill, etc. have fallen victims to inefficiency, incompetence and corruption. There is no incentive left for indigenous industries and manufacturing in general is no longer competitive causing serious job losses since there is more money to be made in commissions and profits from imports.
Siemens heavy electrical complex in Lahore closed down because tender specifications made it impossible for them to compete against pre-selected suppliers. It is an open secret that high officials have been acting as agents for some of them.
Organisations set up to serve the public are in name only. Most of these have become self-serving, rife with ineptitude, bribery and corruption. It took me five years to get a plot of land in Lahore transferred to my name in LDA records. Every time the stipulated requirements were completed, I was told they had ‘lost’ the file. Then they would try and have the plot declared as ‘unclaimed’ to be auctioned, in all probability to their nominees.
Months later it would reappear miraculously after I provided them with certified copies of all the original documents to make a duplicate file. By this time new requirements had been added and the process started all over again. Now there are three files dealing with my plot, all mixed up in a tattered folder, hopefully still in LDA’s record room! God only knows how many visits it took from me to the Director Generals down to the lowest clerks.
The one thing I did not do was to pay any bribe but did lose fifty thousand rupees to a pickpocket on the premises. I wrote a letter to the chief minister, with a copy to the DG, explaining all of what I had experienced. They did not even acknowledge it.
I built a house on the plot just so that I would not have to put up with LDA. Little did I know! The house has not been occupied and is still incomplete. Fearing theft, no light fittings, fans or appliances of any kind have been installed. For three years the monthly electricity bill averaged about Rs. 300. Suddenly, four months ago, it increased first to four thousand, then eight and the last bill was for twelve thousand rupees —- for the house that consumes no electricity!
I have visited LESCO offices of the local SDO as well as XEN and lodged complaints both with them as well as the chairman, even asking them to disconnect the power supply, to no avail. No one has turned up to check in four months and my letters remain unacknowledged. LESCO must be the only utility supply company in the world that keeps its field offices closed for two days on weekends!
Who in the world in his right mind would want to invest in a country that provides this kind of service to consumers of utilities?
This is not all by any means. Some years ago I felt that I had more than what I was likely to need for myself and my family for the remaining years of our lives. It led me to writing a letter to the previous chief minister asking if I could build a public library in Lahore.
He kindly indicated a piece of land on which I built a large library and to start with stocked it with three thousand or so books and magazines that I had collected over the years. Under an agreement signed with LDA the library was going to be managed by a committee composed mostly of representatives of the local community.
This is how it remained for the first year or so when LDA ordered me to hand over possession of the library to them. I told them it did not belong to me but the public and as such I could not comply with the order. They took it over any way in 2013, brought in some new furniture that did not quite serve the purpose and appointed their own men. Since then the library has remained unused for a variety of reasons. I have no idea if all the books, some of which are quite expensive, are still there.
All I know is that it is not serving the purpose it is meant to serve. I have repeatedly met some of the D.Gs and also the Director General of Libraries in his office in the Quaid-e-Azam Library but nothing has come of it. They just don’t care and there is no one to question them. There is something awfully ominous when the effort to do public good is so callously obstructed,
It only gives a glimpse of the way the country is being managed. The rot does not extend to just a few departments or places but has deeply infiltrated the entire edifice. If anyone thinks there are exceptions, please be assured that it may not be the case. Time and space do not permit this to be explored further. We just have to hope and pray that a miracle happens for that alone can save the rudderless ship that no one seems to have been steering. It matters not for me personally but one does worry for those who come after us will inherit.