LORD Acton wrote “All power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Living in these harsh times, bogged down by severe economic crunch; the Pakistani nation look up to ‘Tabdeeli Sarkar’ to bring about the much touted change in the system.

Be it education, health, airline, railways, agriculture and revenue department; matters have gone from bad to worse. None of these could withstand the pressures of Covid-19.

Ironically, in such a challenging situation where our lawmakers should have burnt the midnight oil to chalk out effective strategies to deal with the pandemic;,they have all their energies focussed on enhancing their perks and privileges. The approval of the Senate’s committee to extend the facility of free business class domestic air travel to the family of the parliamentarians reveals the callousness with which the taxpayers’ money is spent. In case they do not avail the facility, Rs 300,000 will be reimbursed to them. How cruel and heartless of our policy makers who already own hefty bank balance and property!

The taxpayers’ money needs proper discretionary usage. A country where the already rich succeed in amassing more wealth and where the poor are pushed deep into the bottomless pit of poverty requires serious reshaping of the power corridors.

Khaula Ghulam Nabi

Islamabad

Published in Dawn, June 28th, 2020

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