Reforms useless if elite remains unaccountable

LAHORE: One area, where every government in Pakistan has failed, is to tame the country’s entrenched elite. Pakistan, with a population of 200 million people, has since long been dominated by a tiny elite; comprising a few hundred extended families.

Though even the developed economies have highly influential and powerful elite, their influence pales when compared with the dynastic elites that control the top echelons in every field of public life, be it politics or business. Most of the political families and feudal have roots going back to the British era.

The elite ensure that the leverage from the state contracts to industrial licenses is used to maintain this power system.With the passage of time, the ties of patronage and marriage have created a new enviable class.

A little probe would reveal that almost every politician or an industrialist is related in some way with the other. Irrespective of their roots, now they live in big cities like Karachi, Lahore or Islamabad. Only a few have small presence in other parts of the country. This class is easily identifiable from the exclusive English-language schools, summer houses at hill stations, and flats in Dubai, London, New York or Switzerland that keep them aligned with the developed world. Entering this exclusive club is not easy, but those that are accommodated are expected not to interfere with the system’s perpetuation.

It should not be surprising that moving in this close elite circle gives its members a strong sense of entitlement. They are convinced that they are above the law that is made for petty people. Any move to make them equally accountable results in a united opposition and stiff resistance.

They forget their political or business feuds and close ranks. They openly flaunt their power. In case of raid by tax officials, they use phrases like “how you dared to confront me or do you know who I am”.

These few sentences are usually enough to force the officials to retract. Those that dare to confront are made an example for others. We often see traffic sergeant removed from duty if they dare censure a public representative for violation of traffic rules.

Our intellectuals and economists advocate for reforms, but will reforms deliver in the presence of entrenched elite? We are plagued with the interpretation of law that is different for the poor and rich. There are numerous cases of open murders committed by the member of the elite. In almost all the cases, they went scot free, as either the aggrieved party was forced to make a compromise or the witnesses of the murder vanished or gave some other narrative favouring the murderer. So, the law to punish the murderer is there, but its implementation on the influential is impossible.

The cases of rape are reported and even the medical evidence identifies the rapist, but the member of elite society remains unscathed. First, he gets bail and then uses the influence on the aggrieved party to withdraw the case. If he fears that he would be convicted, he runs away to a foreign country.

The confiscation of bail amount is not a big deal for the family. If a petty thief is caught red handed, he languishes in the jail for months without trial. If a member of the elite society openly deprives the exchequer of taxes or commits fraud, he is informed before hand, and gets bail before arrest. The matter then lingers on indefinitely. If an ordinary person brings in dutiable items from abroad, he is made to either pay the duty or a bribe. When someone from the elite brings in luxury cars without paying duty, they are granted amnesty and asked to pay a fraction of the original duty to regularise the import.

Reforms would bring no change if we continued to apply law differently for ordinary citizens and the influential. Weak governments cannot muster the courage to reign in the elite that are remarkably resilient and somehow cling to the power biding time to strike back at the first sign of weakness.

The buzzword these days is merit, and elite are strongly supporting it because they have developed an ecosystem under which only the children of upper class would be selected purely on merit.

They study in high quality schools paying monthly fee in dollars. The children of lower middle class get education in lower standard private schools and the children of poor in substandard government schools and colleges. It is natural that a well qualified elite child would top in merit.