“Ramzan and Below the Line Activities… Buy Big and Still Act Low”

With Ramzan we witness a number of blessings, some are genuine while some are forced such as the case with goodwill paid under the table to police men, in simple words, bribe. However, it’s visible nature makes the premium quality of bribe quite obvious which further gets classified into various subtypes. These people simply get to fill their abysmal pits in all ways possible; food, money and even fuel for their newly acquired donkey carts . . . well cars, the reason I called these donkey carts is because these police men stop and feel free to ask anyone to get their cars fueled up to facilitate further negative reinforcement (more bribe).

It’s almost time for Iftar and we do see a police car honking away and enthusiastically stopping over for bribe. Ironically, one of the many policemen in their super luxury car gets off to collect Rs. 20 from each cart in the street, while two or three collect iftar blessings . . . dumplings, fritters, samosas, jalaibees and everything they can eat and as much as they can eat. Vegetable and fruit vendors are equally irritated who have come all the way from their respective villages to eke out their living in a city setup so that the profit repatriated could benefit their families in villages. For a total of ten carts in a street, the police easily gets Rs. 200 in the evening in a matter of less than 10 minutes and yes that includes a buffet iftari deal as well. . . rickshaw drivers are also seen negotiating with them to come down to a mutually acceptable amount. During peak shopping hours, they go about showing their dominance by kicking every vendor of Tariq Road who falls in their bribe vicinity, after all, this is what’s going to result in a transition from ‘Theory X’ individuals to ‘Theory Y’. The upgraded version of police cars is an outcome of bribe too, while on the other hand, their tag line of ‘Labbaik’ seems to be an insult to the word itself. They will continue to act low.

“I wish their children fail in the coming exams”, says an upset vegetable vendor after giving away his share of bribe. . . for he can save this money daily for a total Rs. 600 to be sent to his family in Khairpur.

Moreover, when market closes down at 4 a.m these days, the police is here again to get their sehri share, especially from food sellers. However, their vehicle upgrade has thankfully not resulted in bribe amount increase by a soaring figure. Ironically, big and better cars don’t mean better law enforcement since Karachi’s 96 police stations are only good at balancing out bribe from 18 million people. Our GDP calculation could account for this black money also since the rate is quite understated, this a form of earning as well.

On the other hand, bus drivers are not left untouched and they too don’t leave anyone untouched with their speed to kill, most importantly if the touched person is a police official himself then he gets all the bribe he can drain out. Their daily rate of Rs. 40 if multiplied by normal 8 working hours then the earning seems very substantial. Even if you multiply Rs. 40 for every brand of bus that arrives every 10 minutes, then you get 6 buses, and 6 times 40 is Rs. 240 per hour . . . Rs. 240 per hour times 8 is Rs. 1,920 . . . wow! Bribe is prevailing within the hierarchy of every public sector organisation, there is probably nothing that we can do about it than feeling pity for our country. It accounts for a trickle down effect where all obnoxious members of the society are benefited . . . well not to forget the daily muggings and those supervising them. . . those residing some place else . . .

Bribe has been prevailing in our society which pays no heed to any holy month and it’s rituals and will probably continue to exist to erode our country. Unfortunately, there’s nothing much we can do and there is nothing much we can do by writing about it as well. . .

Tags: aftari, black money, blog, bribe, chilren, city, Edi-ul-Adha, Eid, family, feed, food, iftari, karachi, market, Media, money, pak, pakistan, police, ramadan, Ramzan, rituals, Rs, sellers, theory x, theory y, traffic

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