People of Pakistan are paying for insatiable greed of its corrupt political elite and establishment which assured of no accountability has made lives of ordinary citizens a never ending misery. These financial terrorists have wrecked as much misery on unfortunate citizens of Pakistan as has been inflicted by booming criminal economy run by terrorists and criminals killing and maiming innocent citizens of Pakistan, while state shies from its primary responsibilities.
Can anybody justify permission to numerous CNG stations, knowing full well that gas reserves are depleting? So powerful is CNG pump station lobby, most of whom got permission after ban had been imposed, that millions of kitchens are shut but on some pretext or the other they prevail. Countless fatal accidents involving explosion of gas cylinders have not moved our government, whose heart melts for traders involved in massive gas theft by CNG stations. Rickshaws and taxis fitted with substandard CNG cylinders have been charging passengers fares based on petrol prices, yet state does not seem to be bothered.
In a country where hundreds of small dams could be built using run of river water to make cheap affordable electricity, vested interests gave permission for expensive rental power producers and IPPs using expensive thermal generation based on imported furnace or diesel oil. Daylight robbery like agreements with these private power producers guaranteeing them payment based on their own self evaluated production ceiling, instead of actual power supplied, has robbed Forex starved nation of billions which could only have taken place with the connivance of corrupt bureaucrats, regulators and those in power. Most recent unexplained controversy is about Sepcol and Japan Power.
Half of paid top bureaucracy, both civil and uniformed, migrate immediately after retirement to countries whose immigration they acquired while in service. As for ruling elite, across the political divide there is hardly any whose children or their assets are located in Pakistan, which explains unchecked institutionalised corruption. As long as the fate of Pakistan is decided by those with no stakes, the chaos and cancer of terrorism may be hard to contain.
MALIK TARIQ
Lahore
