The tsunami, as Imran Khan’s supporters like to call his movement, has wiped the whole Pakistani nation. The waves of this tsunami are uncontrollable at this stage. If you ask anyone to single out a reason for this massive support for Imran Khan, the most common response would be: Imran Khan is an honest person. He vows to put a full stop to the corruption engulfing the nation. I am not going to go into the debate of to what extent is Imran Honest or what guarantees that he will keep his party workers, the recently added ones, away from corruption when he gets into power. In fact, my focus of writing is to point out the levels of corruption at the lower echelons: at individual levels.
What right do we have when we vent our anger at our political leaders for the level of corruption they do? Do we really deserve honest leaders who can pull the country out of this plague? What do the talk shows aim to achieve by blaming those in power for the causes of all evils in the society? I agree that the leaders of a democratic government should be held accountable for their actions to the people who voted for them but hoping that the ones elected will act as messiahs and eradicate all vile practices in the society, the foremost being corruption, without changing ourselves does not make much sense to me.
You sit in a taxi and have a little chat with the driver, and the conversation would revolve around the driver’s frustration with the elected party with one statement being the centre of everything: They have taken away all the wealth and left us with inflation. I ask do these taxi drivers really deserve this freedom to complaint. During the days when there is no gas, the taxi drivers increase their fares and use the excuse of no gas as their justification, even though they have sufficient gas for the remaining day to transport passengers to the destinations.
During my days at high school, if anyone would come to me with a charity box, I would always hesitate for sometime before donating to the cause. My reluctance was due to the fact that I do not trust the youth. I have seen my friends eating the money that they collected in the name of ‘funds for the poor.’ How can a milkman who mixes water in milk expects that he will get pure medicines and dutiful people around him?
According to a recent survey released by Berlin-based Transparency International in the Nepalese capital Kathmandu, bribery has become so endemic in South Asia that 40 percent had paid backhanders over the last 12 months to public servants, with police being the largest recipients. Two thirds of Indians, Bangladeshis and Pakistanis who dealt with the police last year said they had paid bribes to corrupt officers. This sums up the sorry state in our country.
If we want the next government – be it PTI or PPP or PML(N) or any other party – to make significant strides towards ending corruption, we will have to reform ourselves. The time has come that we question our own deeds and make efforts to correct them. We need to look at ourselves before pinpointing the corrupt leaders. The ones who come to power are a product of this corrupt society and look to maximise their output from their positions. So unless we rectify ourselves, even Imran Khan will fail to deliver on his promises of eliminating corruption from Pakistan.
SALEH MIRZA
LUMS, Lahore
