Psychiatrist vs Educationist-Selecting whom to consult: Psychiatrist, Neurologist, Psychologist, Educationist, "Aamil" (Exorcist), "Pir" or "Shaikh"

Selecting whom to consult: Psychiatrist, Neurologist, Psychologist, Educationist, "Aamil" (Exorcist), "Pir" or "Shaikh"

This post describes the roles various professionals such as psychiatrists, neurologists, psychologists, educationists and "aamils" (exorcist), "pirs" or "shaikhs" play during periods of tremendous stress. It also defines a process that needs to be followed when you are referred to anyone of them. Serious harm to your loved ones leading to drug dependency, permanent loss of mental physical health, and even death may occur if the distinction between the roles played by these professionals is not understood and the process described below is not followed.

Of Hanafi School of Marketing, Orientation of New Students and Dr Matin A Khan of IBA

As my experience of dealing with students continues to accumulate, and as I closely observe how priorities of students change from what they are during their university studies to what they are in their later careers, I appreciate more and more the criticality and the importance of the two advices given by Dr Matin A Khan in our orientation session at IBA Karachi in 1985. So much so that over the last ten years I have made it customary to emphasize these points in every orientation session for the new intake of students that I am now privileged to address as Dean.

How West Teaches History (through Movies) and How We have Forgotten: A Nation that has No History, has no Future !

A nation that has no history, has no future! Our ignorance about our history, our culture, our sensibilities are astounding. Recent protests about Geo's morning show speaks volume about the "insensitivity" arising from this ignorance, especially the ignorance of the media people. A few minutes of listening to the FM channels would convince you that the DJs have no grounding in our history, culture or tradition. Their only claim to their DJ position is their ability to talk in the twisted American accent with the phraseology and sound bites typical of an American teenager. With these kinds of people now holding our airwaves, the future of Pakistan can only be viewed with pessimism. Not only the ignorance of these people appear to be astounding, it is equally disturbing to find students of the Political Science and International Relations of HEC's top ranked university in Pakistan who after having done two courses in Islamic History are unable to tell what/when was the "Abbasid" reign or who was Halaku Khan and when did he invade Baghdad!

Capitalist Transactions Replacing Traditions and Values from Istanbul to Makkah

Free Water Fountain on National Mall

Last month during transit for a few hours at the Istanbul airport on my way to Tblisi, Georgia, I was struck by the "transactional" nature of every interaction at the airport. I was surprised that there were no drinking water fountains available at one of the busiest airports of the world. I started wondering if US and European airports have also lost the free water fountains that must have been there some 25 years ago because I don't seem to recall buying bottled water on my travels then, or has the University of Texas at Austin also lost its free water fountains which used to be there when I was there around that time. Nor do I recall having to buy bottled water during my visit to so many museums and buildings around the National Mall in Washington DC, or in Manhattan. If they have not lost them there in the heart of the capitalist West, then why this loss at Istanbul airport? However, a week later I got the opportunity to contrast this with the hospitality in the mosques of the same Istanbul! I will be connecting the dots later in the post.

Why do our graduates want to leave the country? Curriculum's Relevance to Social Impact

Curriculum's Relevance to Social Impact: Why do our graduates want to leave the country?

Why do our elite schools derive their prestige from the fact that their graduates get immediate placements in Western countries? Why do our highest performers of our universities consider their destiny to leave this country and build their life in well settled countries such as USA or UK? Why the ranking and rating criteria of HEC is geared towards acceptability of our graduates and their research in West? Why is PEC so eager to get our graduates accepted worldwide through Washington accord?

Georgia - Lesson in Preserving Language, Religion and Culture

Skyline with Churches

The first thing that strikes one in Tbilisi, Georgia is the love Georgians have for their language and their history and their resilience in maintaining their religious and cultural identity despite centuries of rule by foreign powers: Sign boards and billboards are all in Georgian, schooling is predominantly in Georgian, daily interaction is in Georgian, books and magazines are in Georgian, cultural performances are in Georgian and of course there is this distinctive Georgian Orthodox Church with its visible presence in every nook and corner and over the skyline of the city. So unlike Pakistan, where one has the foreboding of an impending complete loss of language, culture and tradition due to a whole scale adoption of English by the ruling elites including the religious elites.  Here I would relate some of my observations and conversations in my trip to Georgia and would later contrast them with what we see in Pakistan, and would derive some lessons.

Truth about Attention Deficit Disorders (ADD/ADHD): Reasons and Revelations

Truth about Attention Deficit Disorders (ADD/ADHD): Reasons and Revelations

cchrint.org

There is an epidemic of name-calling by school teachers and psychologists who are freely labeling the children with Attention Deficit Disorders such as ADHD. The epidemic started in the US and other "developed" countries and has now spread to Pakistan thanks to some powerful Hollywood and Bollywood Movies. Clinical Psychology Department of GCU, Lahore, conducted a survey of school teachers which revealed that the teachers consider nearly 60 percent of the children as having ADHD [See References below]. I would be describing the reasons behind this epidemic and five recommendations later in the post, but first consider the following questions:

Overprotected Kids: Need for Risk Taking and Self Discovery

Overprotected Kids: Need for Risk Taking and Self Discovery

Risk taking used to be part of the every day growing up experience of every child. With our over-protection and over-carefulness we are throttling the innovation, creativity and liveliness of our children. Risk taking and suspense used to make kids mentally strong and develop an ability to work under stress and pressure. Exploring new places, new situations that were often fraught with danger, were actually a preparation to cope with the uncertainties in life. This may very well be one of the reason of the psychological issues confronting many kids and youths today.

Plight of Sugarcane Growers: The Economic Costs of Regulatory Barriers for Small Businesses and Entrepreneurs

During the winter holidays, often extending from mid of December to mid of January, I often drive to Islamabad and back. The biggest nuisance on the National Highway as you pass through the upper Sind and lower Punjab are the miles and miles of queued tractor trolleys with over loaded sugarcane. The sugarcane is loaded in a manner that it extends on both sides of the trolley, doubling the width of the trolley and also increasing its height to an extent that the whole contraption is precariously balanced and is prone to overturning at the slightest pretext. It also becomes a major hazard by occupying most part of the two lanes of the road. The trolley now provides no rear visibility to the driver for traffic coming from behind, and providing no clue to the rear traffic of what lies ahead. On top of it, the drivers can't hear the horns or anything as their loudspeakers blare music at the top of the volume jarring the hearing.

Of Achars, Chutneys and Halwas: A Lifestyle Getting Lost Through Branding and Mass Production

Mangoe Flowers: Bur

Yesterday I heard the Koel's cu-ckoo and I could hear my nani jan (grandmother) calling from the past saying that this is spring time. There is now "bur" (small flowers) on the mango trees. "Remember Irfan, you need to go to the market to get the kai-rees (unripe mangoes)". Planning for the annual ritual of preparing the mango "achar" would then be underway.

Secret of Happiness: One Simple Rule

I was taught a very important rule about the secret of happiness and its relationship with expectations, the hard way, by my mother when I had returned back in 1995 from USA after having been there for over seven years. The lesson threw me on the ground, flat, and got the steam out of me. Bear with me as I connect the dots below.

How Language Acquisition is Made Difficult for Children: Eight Lessons from an Urdu Acquisition Case Study

How Language Acquisition is Made Difficult for Children: Eight Lessons from an Urdu Acquisition Case Study

[The later part of this post would derive the lessons that I learned from my experience of how I learned Urdu which is described first. These lessons address the problems that our faulty methodologies are creating today in language acquisition especially in teaching of Urdu. The lessons are general and apply to other languages also as highlighted by references to well established and well known research. ]

The first Urdu Book I remember reading around 1966-67 was I think Urdu ki pehli kitab[?]. I must have been around five or six years old at that time. Those were the days when the madness of imprisoning two and three year olds in the pre-school had not begun. (It is madness because nowhere in the developed world any educationist recommends this except schools in Pakistan run by administrators not academics.) I had by then must have gone through the Noorani Quaida. Anyhow, I distinctly remember a few lines from the very first page of that pehli kitab. Surprisingly many others who had started their Urdu from this book also do so. The first page had some very simple rhyming sentences with very short "meaningful" words such as:

Of Jungles, Streams, Berries and Wild Pink Flowers: Costs of Commercialization of Islamabad

Of Jungles, Streams, Berries and Wild Pink Flowers: Fragrant Memories of Islamabad that Was

This December I was in Islamabad. Going through the town brought a pang in my heart as memories of 40-45 years ago came flooding down. Those were the times when kids like us had immense open spaces with wild growth to explore and experience the nature. We used to call such places jungles as there were bushes, shrubs, trees, gorges, creeks, tall grass and all sorts of vegetation, where sighting of snakes, giant lizards, and jackals was common with occasional reports of sightings of even leopards and wild boars. For us that used to be a wonderland where we would go out for wild berries, swimming in the clear natural springs, and trying to relive Tarzan climbing the trees, jumping from one sheesham tree to another and roaming the jungles with bows and arrows like Robin Hood and Little John fighting the obnoxious sheriff of Nottingham.

Fairness in Grading: A Lesson by the Great Dijkstra

Fairness in Grading: A Lesson by the Great Dijkstra

In my another post "Beauty is Our Business: Mathematics and Dijkstra", I describe how I came to be enrolled with Dijkstra at UT Austin in the course Capita Selecta and how he and his students understood the meaning of beauty and excellence. But, my intention of taking that course in the Fall of 1988, was not as much to study the course but to have a pretext of knowing the great Dijkstra. As described in that post, I used to spend more time observing Dijkstra than preparing for passing the course. To shield myself from any adverse grade by this guru of Computer Science, I had taken the course on a non-credit basis.

How to find "Buzurg" and "Wali" of Allah

How to find "Buzurg" and "Wali" of Allah

During the late 1970s I started reading extensively and would read whatever came my way. This decade was probably the peak of monthly magazines or "digests" publications. Taking cue from the Reader's Digest and success of Urdu magazines such as Urdu Digest and Sayyara Digest, several "digests" became popular such as Subrung Digest, Jasoosi Digest, and Suspense Digest. Most of them relied upon crime, fiction and suspense short stories translated in Urdu from the West. However, some like Subrung Digest acquired a distinctive position due to the original fiction produced in Urdu, of which some of the long running series are now considered epic.

Problems with Bloom's Taxonomy: Impact on Curriculum and Motivation of Students

Problems with Bloom's Taxonomy: Impact on Curriculum and Motivation of Students

The basic problem with Bloom's taxonomy is defining the learning process as a sequence of progression from simpler memory recall function to the supposedly higher levels such as synthesis and evaluation which as Frank Smith argues below is contrary to the actual process of human learning. The problem is that the theoretical foundations of Bloom's Taxonomy are based on the experiments done (i) on pigeons, rats, and dogs by the founders of behavioral school of Pavlov and Skinner, and (ii) involving "senseless" and "meaningless" tasks. They unfortunately forgot to compare their experimental results with the observations of children learning in real life settings as the seminal work of John Holt, Chomsky and others demonstrate using sensible and meaningful activities. In the excerpt given below, Frank Smith points out the problems with Bloom's taxonomy through various observations of real people in real learning situations that prompted him to say:

Get Pakistan out of this quagmire: Economic Cost of War on Terror for Pakistan

[To understand the context of this post, please read At What Cost! Why Compute Economic Costs of Faulty Political Decisions]
Impact of War on Terror on Pakistan’s economy

[This post is copied from Pakistan Today and was written by Omer Zaheer Meer, Tuesday, 15 Oct 2013]

History is evident that wars had been and will always be costly both economically and in terms of the loss of human lives. The western world and its allies are facing a unique war with no defined goals, targets, definite end-period and a faceless enemy making it much more costly and destructive.

The USA-led War on Terror (WOT) and potential solutions as to its ‘end’ are the talk of the town these days, with different perspectives put forth by differing sections of our society, however the economic impact and cost of this war for Pakistan’s economy is an area less frequented.

Pakistan has been paying a very heavy economic price for the ongoing WOT. The economic costs have been high, including the direct costs due to heavier spending on defense, compensation for the affected, damage to the infrastructure, severely deteriorating law and order situation, extensive capital flight, lack of foreign investment, industry closures and resultant poor revenue generation for Government. Indirect costs includes loss of economic activity from increased uncertainty, lower investment due to increase in perceived risk, opportunity costs, social disorder, lack of exports due to uncertain conditions and travel restrictions on Pakistani businessmen and the economic impact of the loss of men and women earning bread and butter for their families.

Studies had been undertaken by government as well as non-governmental institutions to determine the cost of war on terror for Pakistan. While their estimates vary, they have all accepted that beside the irreparable loss of lives, a severe economic slowdown has engulfed Pakistan’s economy as a direct consequence of this war.

What’s significant for the economists is the recent initial estimate by the government of Pakistan of the up to date losses suffered by Pakistan’s economy in the last 12 years to be $100 billion, approximately. On the other hand, just $15 billion had been paid to Pakistan through official channels (recovery rate of a mere 15 per cent). It is worth mentioning here that the Pak-American Business Council and some other private institutions’ loss estimates are much lower, though still material losses are put at between 40 to 60 per cent of the official figure.

Pakistan received $10 billion from Coalition Support Fund (CSF) against explicit expenses incurred, $2.1 billion assistance from FMF (Foreign Military Fund) to strengthen the military’s capacity against terrorists, economic assistance grants had been $1.5 billion while budgetary support of $1.2 billion too had been received.

The amounts and purposes of the funds spent and distributed by USA directly through local and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are unknown while debt worth $1.65 billion had also been written-off.

The yearly official estimated losses to Pakistan’s economy as a direct consequence of participating in the USA led WOT are as below:

• 2001-02: $2.669 billion
• 2002-03: $2.749 billion
• 2003-04: $2.932 billion
• 2004-05: $3.410 billion
• 2005-06: $4.670 billion
• 2006-07: $4.670 billion
• 2007-08: $6.940 billion
• 2008-09: $9.180 billion
• 2009-10: $13.560 billion
• 2010-11: $17.830 billion

The total till 2010-11 comes to a whopping $67.926 billion.

The Economic Survey of 2010-11 disclosed that the loss to Pakistan’s economy due to participating in WOT was approximately $68 billion till then. The government didn’t disclose the updated economic losses in the Economic Survey of 2011-12. The latest official estimate as mentioned above is approximately $100 billion which is over 43 per cent of Pakistan’s GDP ($231.2 billion as per World Bank) and 164 per cent of the total foreign debt ($60.9 billion as of March 2013)

An interesting observation to note is the rising rate of the losses in the financial year 2010-11. This shows the rising intensity of the war and the upward trending economic costs. Moving forward this loss may rise at an even higher rate.

Not only did the growth in Pakistan’s economy nosedive but the overall economy was also hit hard. To understand the severity of the economic losses, let us examine the fiscal year 2010-11. The exports dwindled to the tune of $2.90 billion, terrorism compensation amounted to $0.80 billion, infrastructure damage amounted to $1.72 billion, foreign investment declined by $2.10 billion, privatization projects worth $1.10 billion could not materialize, industrial output was negatively affected to the tune of $1.70 billion, tax collection declined by $2.10 billion, cost of uncertainty amounted to $2.90 billion, expenditure overruns by $1.60 billion and others expenses incurred were $0.90 billion, totaling $17.82 billion in just one year.

Since accounts have been rebased to 2005-06, we’ll use comparative figures from 2006-07 to meaningfully appreciate the extent of the economic impact. Tourism industry has been destroyed. Industrial sector is adversely affected as working hours were lost with increased uncertainty, terrorism and resulting migration. Its growth rate of 7.7 per cent from 2006-07 fell to a mere 3.5 per cent in 2012-13 with the manufacturing sector amongst the hardest hit sub-sectors. The services sector also slumped to a growth rate of just 3.7 per cent in 2012-13 compared to 5.6 per cent in 2006-07. Agriculture growth rate at 3.3 per cent in 2012-13 almost regained the level of growth of 3.4 per cent from 2006-07. The massive potential of increasing this could not be realized though. Total investment has declined from 18.79 per cent of GDP in 2006-07 to 14.22 per cent of GDP in 2012-13.

Post 9/11 Karachi, the economic lifeline of the country, faced a series of terrorist attacks which were repeated in Punjab and Balochistan. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa without doubt has been the worst affected. This further increased the risk perception of the country. Economic growth slowed down to the point of stagnation growing at an average of 2.94 per cent since 2008-09. With all these staggering losses, there is still no end in sight to this war on terror ravaging the economic, social and political landscape of Pakistan. The quicker we get out of this quagmire the better it will be for Pakistan.



The writer Omer Zaheer Meer is an economist, a qualified chartered accountant, financial analyst and anti-money laundering expert. He can be reached on Twitter @OmerZaheerMeer - See more at: http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2013/10/15/comment/get-pakistan-out-of-this-quagmire/#sthash.v1M05kJr.HIBULzY6.dpuf

Whither Writ of the State? Costs of Breakdown of Law and Constitution in Pakistan

[To understand the context of this post, please read At What Cost! Why Compute Economic Costs of Faulty Political Decisions]

Whither Writ of the State? Costs of Corruption and Nepotism in Today's Rangeela Shahi Daur

I often see reference to the "writ of state" in talk shows and in the writings of columnists in newspapers invoked typically in the context of the Talibans threat and urging the need for military action. I wonder why these specialists fail to see the "writ of the state" being violated every day in a systematic manner by all and sundry in nearly every walk of life.

Who can stop the sons of the powerful from breaking the traffic laws or even committing heinous crimes? Is it possible for the traffic cop to stop a land cruiser with black tinted glasses when over speeding or breaking traffic signals or driving dangerously or threatening the other traffic with armed escorts? Taking the cue, breakdown of the writ of the state is visible on every intersection, every signal, and every place where a bus/mini bus stops, and in every taxi and every rickshaw running without a meter and every car driving outside the lane! It is visible in every government office where there is public dealing. Bigger the office, bigger the breakdown of the writ of the state. Why can't we see that Taliban threat is just one of the more visible manifestations of  the breakdown of the writ of the state, and is simply a logical consequence of the breakdown of state institutions that has taken place over the last so many decades.

• At What Cost! Why Compute Economic Costs of Faulty Political Decisions 

Our existence is not only being threatened by the so called Talibans but is being threatened on a daily basis by various gangs and mafias in a systematic manner. I compare this state of the affairs to the situation prevailing during the weakening of the Mughal Empire (early eighteenth century) when the breakdown of the writ of the state and breakdown of the control of the central administration enabled all sorts of groups to rear their heads and create havoc. Known famously as the "rangeela shahi daur", Marahttas, Rohillas, Sikhs, Afghans (Nadir Shah, Durrani) and all sorts of gangs and private armies would descend on cities and would indulge in loot and plunder and took control of vast areas. To protect themselves, people started paying protection money (or bhatta/taxes) to their area lords who maintained private armies, and who gradually separated from the Delhi rule and became independent princely states.

Isn't this the same situation? There is a general breakdown of law and order everywhere as evident from the emergence of mafias and organized gangs of looters and plunderers, as people are forced to pay protection money to them and they act as a state unto themselves for all practical purposes:

• Costs of Justice Munir's Doctrine of Necessity: 4 Martial Laws and 35 years of dictatorship

Whenever we talk of the violation of the "writ of state", it must start from the usurping of state, constitution and courts and other civil institutions by the military dictators. They trampled upon the law and the constitution for half of our existence directly and the remaining half by pulling the strings of the civil governments from behind, not letting them rule, and by calling all the important shots. To perpetuate dictatorial rule and protect its gains, influential groups and feudals were given a leeway and were allowed to morph into lawless mafias and gangs specializing in extortion of money through hook or crook; a distinctive attribute of the Rangeela Shahi daur was the captivity of state institutions by the private armies of the viziers and advisors. 

• Why Pakistani Democracies are a Sham? Costs of Controlling a Democracy from Outside

Most prominent among the gangs of today is the transport mafia that has destroyed the urban transport corporations (KTC, RTC, LTC etc), provincial transport corporations (PRTC, SRTC etc) and even the railway system (KCR and PWR and their branch network). Railway's freight business was destroyed by the NLC (an official gang hoisted by dictators) and forcing the freight movement away from railway to the transport mafia, which not only destroyed the road network, but literally handed over the safety of main highways to gangs. The mafia colluded and worked in tandem with the police (city transports is often owned by police) and other government bodies in getting route permits, then getting the bus stops encroached and soon with the help of the powerful groups the entire infrastructure (huge maintenance facilities, parking lots, railway land, and rolling and fixed assets) was encroached upon or sold away as scrap. The pitiful state in which the people now travel (jam packed as sardines inside and on roofs of buses, squatting on the floor of train) is visible everywhere as these mafias run transport in a pitiful state and extort the price of their choosing as the state haplessly looks on. Transport mafias are the precursors to the urban gangs and pressure groups that we see around. Convenience of the travelers and commuters is always the first priority of a competent administration as exemplified by Sher Shah Suri and the establishment of the GT Road and its support infrastructure (wells, checkpoints, saraiye/motels). The breakdown of the safety, security and convenience of the passageways is the first outcome of the breakdown of administration as witnessed in the Rangeela Shahi daur.

• Small is Beautiful: Why Small Businesses should Replace Big Businesses (A Case Study of Rickshaws vs Buses)

Then comes the land grabbing mafia famously referred to by Ardsher Cowasjee as "plot-ocracy". It started with the use of squatters by influentials to systematically encroach government land. But there is a more refined version to this crude tactic. Thousands of acres of lands are allotted to the favored individuals and institutions every year by every administration over the last several decades. Government land is forcefully occupied and then regularized or it is privatized illegally and sold away at throw away prices. Biggest landowner in Pakistan and the biggest land mafia in the organized government sector includes the military and its quasi institutions about which much has already been written. The trend again resembles the breakdown of the Mughal State during the Rangeela Shahi Daur when the commanders of the Mughal armies started proclaiming independence in the areas of their controls, as seen now in the cantonments, DHAs and feudal/wadera run territories that are virtually independent of the civil administration and hold the majority of the land in most cities and rural areas. These entities charge taxes/protection money from the businesses, which is not deposited in the state treasury, similar to what happened in the Rangeela Shahi Daur.

During the Rangeela Shahi daur, nepotism was at its height. People related to those in power got all the benefits and lucrative postings. We see a similar thing today. We have the drug mafia protected by the most powerful in the state. We have the sugar mills mafia that forces the prices down by creating surpluses during the buying season and then jacking up the prices during the selling season by creating shortages. They make money by creating shortages by first exporting the sugar out, and then importing/hoarding and selling at high price. By creating entry barriers, they do not allow new mills to be established and neither allow the farmers to make their own brown sugar. A racket about which even the state institution like Competition Commission of Pakistan expresses helplessness. Poor farmers are forced to park their tractor trolleys for weeks in miles-long queues on roads leading to the mills and not buying the cane until its weight reduces due to evaporation of the moisture content. We also have the wheat mafia that exploits the poor growers by colluding with the fertilizer mafia and the government institutions to jack up the fertilizer prices just when the sowing season is about to start, and reduces the selling price of wheat when the produce is ready for selling. Much has been written and documented about these practices but the state institutions are helpless or in collusion with these powerful groups.

• Plight of Sugarcane Growers: The Economic Costs of Regulatory Barriers for Small Businesses and Entrepreneurs

There is this racket of fake medicines mafia that run their life threatening business with impunity under the very eyes of the regulators that extort money when they fix the prices and when they go for inspections. About fifty years ago, the system of such inspections was really stringent and now it has evaporated. Thirty years ago we all used to drink tap water. Supply of clean filtered water was ensured in every city. Even the five star hotels used to serve this water. But, the filter plants were encroached, and the entire infrastructure of filtration and supply of clean water was handed over to the tanker mafia and the state responsibility was abdicated to appease the powerful mafia of the water bottling industry.

Loans write-off mafia was a big business in Zia's time continuing till today where the art of taking a loan, defaulting and then getting them written off became the popular way to become rich. Banking mafia is paying only 1.5% on certain deposits while charging +20% on the loans. A spread unheard of in the world under the very eyes of the world bank supported central bank.

• Costs of General Zia's Dictatorship in Pakistan

Adulteration mafia responsible for the substandard quality of edibles works with impunity under the watchful eyes of the inspection mafia that only ensures that protection money is being paid to them. Police mafia owns the police stations that are auctioned and that extort money from anyone and everyone. It is a misfortune of one to get entangled with them. In the court hearing on breakdown of law in Karachi, an official admitted that all agencies are taking protection money or bhatta.

Mafias in government departments have made government a "khairati idara" to provide salary without any work. The number of ghost employees is legendary. No one can tell with surety what is the strength of the real employees in schools, municipal corporations, provincial or federal government. There are ghost schools, ghost teachers and ghost employees. 

Oil companies cartel mafia charge whatever they want as OGRA looks on. The art of collusion is perfect. Electricity stealing mafia in tandem with NEPRA condones theft by allowing the utilities to slap the cost of theft on to the poor paying consumer. Energy sector mafia makes everyone blush. NAB and NRO allows mafias to go Scott free without any accountability. During the recent Supreme Court case hearing, a judge remarked that if we are allowing the big fish to return a percentage of looted amount and go free without a blemish to their existing jobs, then why should not the state allow all the petty thieves and dacoits to return their looted wealth and go scot-free! [1]

• Costs of General Musharraf's Dictatorship

Let's see the genesis of this situation emerging in Karachi. It all started with car jacking and a whole underground economy of stolen cars and their fake identity papers sprung up with the connivance of the police. Then came the menace of mobile snatching, which started as individual acts but then morphed in to organized gangs. The gangs began getting protection from police as well as political parties. Then came the menace of bhatta mafia. Beginning as a fund raising drive, it soon morphed in to big business. The gangs were few and the markets were many from where the bhatta was extracted. Then as the gangs increased and the space started shrinking, territories were defined and demarcated. Gangs had to coalesce together into bigger units and were adopted by one or the other political parties. Target killings is one of the symptoms of the territorial wars fought to demarcate the ownership of the boundaries where one or the other gang would rule. The situation is much akin to what happened during the alcohol prohibition in 1930s leading to gang warfare in Chicago and New york and other cities of USA. Territorial disputes would often lead to gang wars. This is what we are witnessing in Lyari today.  

I think the columnists identify the responsibility of the state but stop short of apportioning the responsibility on the state institutions and fail to find the parallel to the rangeela shahi daur during the twilight of Mughal rule which was accompanied by such marauding hordes. Centralized decision making in the hands of the dictators destroyed the entire culture of distributed decision making at different tiers of the government. Now no one makes any decision any where. For all decisions, they look at the center. Just recall the paralysis of the administration as exemplified by the Sikandar episode near the Red Zone in Islamabad. One man was able to command the attention of the entire nation and hold it hostage for more than five hours, prompting and forcing a courageous Zamurrad Khan to take law into his own hands and act.

When the state fails to perform, the vacum left has to be filled by someone, anyone who has the courage can fill it and will fill it. The result is the destruction of the writ of the state and the emergence of the "rangeela shahi daur" of today where the hordes of Nadir Shah Afghan and Durrani resemble the talibans,  marahttas are the gangs, rohillas are the mafias, and subedars are the agencies and government institutions. All states unto themselves. Whither the writ of the state?

References

[1]  SC assails NAB chief’s powers to let accused go off scot-free

See Also other posts on Pakistan History 101: 

• Are Generals Qualified to Make Long Term Strategy: Costs of Strategic Failures of Military Dictators
• Whither Writ of the State? Costs of Corruption and Nepotism in Today's Rangeela Shahi Daur
• At What Cost! Fazle Hasan of IBA and our Computation of Economic Costs
• Costs of General Zia's Dictatorship in Pakistan
• Costs of Sham Democratic Regimes in Pakistan
• Why Pakistani Democracies have been a Sham?
• Costs of General Musharraf's Dictatorship
• Costs of General Ayub's Dictatorship
• Costs of Military Dictatorships in Pakistan
• Costs of Justice Munir's Disastrous Doctrine of Necessity
• Traitors/Foreign Agents Production Factory of Pakistan: Costs of Branding Pakistani Politicians as Foreign Agents.
•  Political Will/Resolve of Civilian Governments vs Military Dictators. A Case Study of Karachi Disturbances and Relationships with MQM. 
• 
  
• Get Pakistan out of this quagmire: Economic Cost of War on Terror for Pakistan
• Anti-National Language Policy leads to Rule by Rich and Corrupt Elites

Most Effective Way of Cutting a Nation from its History and Ideals - Imposing a Foreign Language

Most Effective Way of Cutting a Nation from its History - Imposing a Foreign Language

The project for cutting a nation from its history and roots always starts with the introduction of a foreign "language". We know how Ataturk's drive for secularism led him to change the Turkish script from Arabic to Latin script to cut the Turks from their history, and we also know how the British used English as a tool to create an elite class more anglophile (more loyal than the king) to serve them during their colonial rule and later to extend their control during the post-colonial era. This elite class identified themselves more with their colonial masters than with their fellow country men as evidenced by the distance they still maintain (see the VVIP culture and the motorcades of our rulers; military, political or feudals). 

At What Cost! Fazle Hasan of IBA and our Computation of Economic Costs

[To understand the context of this post, please read At What Cost! Why Compute Economic Costs of Faulty Political Decisions]

At What Cost! Fazle Hasan of IBA and our Computation of Economic Costs

Fazle Hasan in his office 1981

Mr Fazle Hasan (1939-2006) was teaching us Financial Management in 1986 at IBA. During each class session, the discussion would invariably turn towards his oft repeated dictum "At What Cost". This was the major theme of his course. He wanted us to take stock of the long term costs of our decisions and to be able to estimate and recognize the costs of the faulty political decisions that have led us to this sorry state.