Broken promises

People voted for the PTI with hopes that the country would turn into Jinnah’s modern democratic welfare state where laws will prevail over individual whims and every citizen will enjoy equal opportunities. Now that the PTI is in power, it must realise that the government has to uphold rule of law and resort to legislation in the NA to fulfill the promises it made to those who voted for them. For financial resources, the government must ensure that the tax net is widened through direct taxation on income generated on all sources. PTI leaders must stop talking about hanging corrupt people at D-Chowk. Such arbitrary illegal punishment reminds us of TTP’s brutalities in Swat and has no space in Jinnah’s Pakistan.

There is no doubt that the Quaid was referring to institutionalised corruption which the British Raj practiced to prolong its occupation through its practice of allotment of state land, bribes and titles to paid servants and opportunist political elite when he referred to the curse of bribery and corruption. He wanted to eradicate this cancer with an iron hand. The unfortunate bitter reality is that such practices and irregularities have increased and assumed status of regularity through abuse of power. Even forest land and amenity parks have been grabbed by the mafia.

Malik T Ali

Lahore