A
petition to the Chief Justice of Pakistan
By Shakir Lakhani Published: August 3, 2016
Dear Chief Justice of
Pakistan (CJP),
I am an ordinary
Pakistani, one of
those unfortunate residents of Sindh; the province which does not seem to have
a functioning government. Although our taxes per capita are much more than
those of other provinces, the budget
amount is not
being spent on our welfare; on the contrary it seems that the entire amount is
siphoned away to foreign bank accounts.
1. Our
roads look like they have been bombed recently.
2. Our streets
are full of garbage, which
is affecting our health because it remains on the streets for months and then
burnt which causes respiratory diseases.
3.
Despite Rs150 billion being allocated
for education, most of our schools are empty (except for “ghost” teachers and
“ghost” employees who are paid salaries every month).
4. The
police are employed only for the use of government ministers and functionaries,
although Rs70
billion is
supposed to be spent on the police and home department.
5.
There is virtually no security for the common man and we are afraid to venture
out of our homes, because we fear we may be kidnapped or looted. Every day we
read of dacoits
barging into houses, killing the inmates and escaping, and sometimes it is apparent
that the police are protecting the criminals.
6. We
have to spend a high amount on buying dirty
and impure water from
tankers, although we pay
water tax to the
government to provide us with clean water.
7. Our
children are dying due to the poor standards of our government
hospitals, althoughRs55
billion is
meant to be spent on the health sector. Our hospitals are often without doctors
or nurses and many pregnant women die
every year, because they are not provided medical care in government
hospitals.
8. The Sindh Building Control Authority, which is supposed to
ensure that all buildings should be constructed according to approved plans,
ignores the fact that most under-construction buildings almost always exceed
the permitted built-up area. Where the permitted number of floors is six, the
completed building has at least ten floors.
9.
Recently the ruling party in the province made a lot of brouhaha over sacking
the chief minister and
replacing him with a younger man. But it is apparent that the new chief
minister is also subservient to his bosses, and it is doubtful if he will be
able to alleviate our sufferings. He has to travel to a foreign country to take
instructions, and he has retained most of the ministers in the outgoing
cabinet, while the new faces in his cabinet are all feudal lords, and so they
cannot be expected to solve our problems. While the chief minister himself
declared at the outset that he will do
away with protocol and
will not travel with many vehicles behind him, he continues to do so, making
motorists wait until his entourage passes by and the road is again open for
traffic.
Sir, I am not an expert on
constitutional issues, but it is apparent that nothing can be done about the
gross corruption in Sindh. However, I do believe that Your Honour can at least
help by insisting on the adoption of the following measures:
1. The
Chief Minister, his cronies and all other Sindh government functionaries and
their family members should not be provided police
protection, until our streets are safe and we are able to sleep every
night without worrying about ourselves or our loved ones being killed or looted
on the streets or in our houses.
2. They should not be provided
with water until every house is supplied with enough water for the needs of the
residents of the province.
3.
They, their wives and children should not be provided health care at government
expense, until and unless we get adequate and free treatment in government
hospitals. They should, in particular, not be paid for seeking
treatment abroad.
4. They
and their families should be prevented from
going abroad until they do what they have been elected to do, like protecting
the citizens, providing education and health care for all, provide clean
drinking water to the populace, maintaining the roads in good condition,covering
all manholes to
prevent the deaths of children etc.
5. And lastly, they should not
be paid their salaries, and all their perks be withdrawn, until they do what
has to be done.
Your Honour, please treat this
as a petition from the common man of Sindh and provide us relief from the
torture being perpetrated on us by our government ministers, whose sole purpose
is to enrich themselves so that they and their future generations can live
lives of luxury.
Engineer, teacher, industrialist, associated with
petroleum/chemical industries for many years. Loves writing, and (in the
opinion of most of those who know him), mentally unbalanced. He tweets
@shakirlakhani (twitter.com/shakirlakhani)
http://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/38259/a-petition-to-the-chief-justice-of-pakistan/
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