THE richest man on Earth, Elon Musk, considered by many to be the de facto president of the United States, recently asked government employees to state what work they had done in the preceding week. I was wondering what the response of Pakistan’s civil servants would be if they were asked to present a similar status report.

It can be said with certainty that out of every 10 employees, half of them would say that they turned up for work only on one day in the month, and that was to collect their salary cheques. Three of them would say that even though they went to the office daily, they did not know what to do there, as no one had explained it to them.

One out of 10 would probably be vacationing with their families outside the country, spending their hard-earned money lying in foreign bank accounts. That leaves just one out of the 10 who is the person who does the actual work.

Shakir Lakhani
Karachi

Published in Dawn, March 15th, 2025