PEOPLE often wonder how to fight corruption in Pakistan. It is actually a no-brainer. You fight corruption by letting people speak their mind, by refusing to snub those who disagree with you, by not harassing and abducting journalists and intellectuals and casting them in front of a lion or a tiger. That happened in the Colosseum in ancient Rome. Known as damnatio ad bestias, the gruesome executions took place as ‘half-time’ entertainment for the main event: the gladiator contests.

Meandering through the shady underground passageways on my last visit to the Colosseum, I could imagine slaves, and those suspected of being a threat to the status quo, bound in chains and dragged to the Flavian Amphitheatre where they were greeted by a cheering crowd of 50,000 fans.

You fight corruption by letting people question the dogma, by paving way for revamping and refashioning the collective mindset of the people. You turn every university into an epicentre of research and innovation. You provide competitive education that prepares the younger generation to take on the world.

You create civic and leadership platforms and rewarding employment opportunities for the promising college graduates from all nooks and corners of the land, including rural and tribal areas. You realise that yours is one of the youngest nations in the world with about 30 per cent of its population aged 15-29 years.

You believe, to quote Dr Mahboob Ul Haq, that people are the real wealth of a nation. You fight corruption by nurturing young minds, men and women alike, to yearn for scientific inquiry, to crave for intellectual discourse, to pulsate with creative energy. Sapere aude; dare to know; that becomes your dictum as used by Immanuel Kant, who borrowed the phrase from Roman poet Horace, to describe the age of enlightenment, the age of reason.

You do not protect your wealthy friends and thugs in exchange for political favours, but bring about tax reforms that will reduce income inequality. You repair your country’s anaemic domestic productive capacity. You fix, once and for all, your ‘broken economy decision-making process.’

You fight corruption by paying respect to the founder of the nation, by paying heed to his advice of fighting bribery and corruption by putting them down with an iron hand.

Yes, you fight corruption by turning over a new leaf in the history of the nation. Despite unrelenting opposition, you liberate yourself from antiquated paradigms and embrace the Copernican revolution. You recreate yourself and enrich your life by breaking the shackles of social conditioning and indoctrination that reek of bigotry and intolerance.

You believe in the father of the nation who once proudly proclaimed: “I can look forward to Pakistan becoming one of the greatest nations of the world.” Easy, you see!

Baqar Hasnain
Atlanta, USA

Published in Dawn, February 20th, 2022