The 72 million rupee question
10/04/2007
Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur
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 nose dive 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 most corrupt countries 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 about the reasons for this state of affairs and justifiably demand answers.
Everyone asks 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 the 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 the judiciary, increasing number of disappeared persons, creating a military-dominated political system, Talibanisation, rampant white collar crimes, proverbially corrupt politicians, inducting military personnel into key civilian institutions, falling educational standards, declining medical facilities, increasing defence budgets, expanding the military?s 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 an emergency is forcing them to land on 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 for 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 Rs 72, 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 Rs 32 million for the purpose. The ministry concerned on Saturday paid another Rs 40 million to the service providers on the recommendations of the City District Government Gujranwala.?
Respected readers, now count the meetings the General-President wearing fancy headgear has addressed in his seven-year tenure; a tenure which has continued at his pleasure and may well continue indefinitely, until of course the people decide otherwise. Then multiply the number with an average of say Rs. 100 million, for some meetings like 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 billboards, banners, telephone 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 ?Glock-carrying? president on February 3rd this year in Okara, a news report said, ?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 the law enforcement agencies.?
If 6,000 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 must it be costing to provide this blanket security cover? Another report said that the ?taking no dictation from anyone? PM needed 2,000 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 to 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 favoured 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, 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 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? airline will fly into oblivion as it is in the red to the tune of $ 300 million. Tariq Kirmani was doing what he was supposed to do; those who accepted his resignation should resign 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 and to pinpoint their culpability in the ruin of this place.
These deities, professing to be the redeemers of the country and Ummah, are the bane of the 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 benefited with perks and privileges.
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, our problems cannot 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 a 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.
The writer has been associated with the Baloch national struggle
