Plunder by default can be as disastrous as plunder by design

By Gulam Akbar

If Kamran Khan, arguably the most well-informed journalist and anchorman of the country, is to believed ---and I have no reason not to believe him---almost every major state-controlled organization and enterprise of Pakistan has been successfully brought to the brink of bankruptcy and collapse. PIA and Pakistan Steel can be cited as the classical examples of the government's callousness in treating the State's assets as God-gifted rewards (for the favourites of the party in power) for being in the right place at the right time. In the times of General Musharraf, the right place used to be 'Nine Zero'. I remember how the 'cavalcades' of the MQM used to arrive at the headquarters of P.I.A, with great pomp and glory, sometimes led by Mr. Farooq Sattar himself, and some other times by some other luminary of the party of Altaf Bhai. But when President Asif Zardari's chum Mr. Ijaz Haroon (a P.I.A pilot) took over the administration and the destiny of the national airline in his hands---the position of the right place was quickly acquired by Zaradri House. Since then PIA has been a story of mounting appointments and declining passengers and revenue. If the goal was to make the national airline breathe it's last as early as possible, it seems already to have been largely achieved. The signs of life in PIA are just symbolic. Pakistan Steel's story is even worse. And these are just two key examples. There are many more which are being considered as 'well-deserved booty' for 'the struggles' of a particular party. In fact the party may have no share in the grand loot. Those who enjoy access to the man in command of the party and the country may well be the exclusive beneficiaries. Who will save Pakistan and its assets from this monumental plunder---which may not wholly be by design---? Some of it can certainly be by default! Corruption may be a horrible vice. But there are occasions when the results of incompetence are more disastrous.