Stay true, stay you

According to the transcript of the State Department special briefing on John Kerry’s two-day visit to Pakistan, he was asked among other things: “... that you guys had been pushing [on them] for about 10 years now about not collecting tax money”. For any leadership with an iota of dignity, self-respect or even shame, such lecturing by foreign leaders and journalists of donor countries should have yielded the desired results. Needless to say, it is the implementation of laws against violators and tax-evaders that will help to achieve economic self-sufficiency.
As long as the establishment and our ruling elite do not realise this, we will continue to be rebuked by foreign countries that are bridging our fiscal deficit through their taxpayers’ money. Without tax collection, a state cannot fulfil its constitutional obligations to provide education, health, security, justice, employment, etc, to its people, thus making them vulnerable to extremist forces and criminal elements.
Malik Tariq
Lahore