Daily Times

While there is no dearth of ‘black sheep’ in society, the white sheep from Australia is just one more reminder of how deep and wide the net of mercenary corrupters is. With 60 percent of water in Lahore infected due to mixing up of water and sewerage pipes and meat imported from Australia, infected with foot and mouth disease, there is hardly any organ left in the body that is safe from the constant crumbling of a system of checks and balances. The sheep scandal is reminiscent and reflective of so much that is happening and so much that is not happening in Pakistan. What is in huge surplus is that the country has become a fertile ground of fake degrees, fake medicines, fake safety standards and fake leaders. What is in dire deficit is the enforcement of laws and standards and people of merit and competence who can be trusted to do the job given to them with total honesty, to the best of their ability.

The free for all culture has really encouraged more and more degradation of standards of ethics, safety, health, etc. The Australian sheep import is an act equal to intended murder. Knowingly, to import 22,000 sheep carrying lethal bacteria is not just a breach of safety laws but almost like a dirty bomb that spreads incurable chemicals, capable of killing thousands without making a blast. The sad part is that these white sheep have been ordered for culling, but the black sheep who were responsible for ordering and allowing their import, despite the same being rejected by Bahrain, should have been penalised as well. The Sindh secretary of livestock who lashed media in the beginning declaring that the latter was trying to sensationalise the issue is still roaming scot-free. The importing company, PK Livestock and Meat Company, have been allowed to take these sheep to a farm and cull them there. According to many reports, some of these sheep are finding their way on discounted rates in various restaurants. With such terrorising news all around and media highlighting the grave health danger, we do expect some serious action to nail and prevent a recurrence of this offence. However, the only offenders punished so far are the sheep who actually are just the proverbial sacrificial lambs.

Familiar is the pattern of the scandal management. We get breaking news by a channel that becomes screaming news by all channels, supported by headlines and investigative reports in the print media. Inevitably, some organisation due to either government negligence or connivance becomes the centre of the story. Announcements and denouncements follow with fading space in media and attention is diverted to some other catastrophe. The culprits of the previous scandal hide or disappear, changes in law enforcement as a preventive measure never go beyond rhetoric and the same status quo is the end of most stories. A typical example of this is the horrendous and inhuman burning of almost 300 people in factories in Lahore and Karachi. They were objects of horror and sympathy for hardly a week and then the Australian sheep and massive killings in Karachi and Baluchistan took centre stage, with no follow-up on what happens to the scores of factories that are worse off in safety standards in the major two cities.

Fundamentals are a fundamental to success. Good governance may be a cliché heard and dismissed many times but it is a fundamental without which no political economy can function. Flood management this year is another example of a complete lack of coherence amongst various departments and their ability to play their role to the best of their abilities. The meteorological department has been making all types of predictions for rain this year. The accuracy of forecasts is of course subject to errors but within a range. From the beginning of summer, they had predicted in Punjab early and above normal rain. August was full of predictions that monsoon was about to begin but the whole of Ramazan, the weather was dry and sultry. Then they predicted below normal rain and rains started and created havoc in Sindh and Punjab. Is there any system to check the authenticity of these reports and are they accountable for making wrong forecasts and endangering many lives and livelihoods of thousands of people? It seems that the story is the same everywhere. Do wrong, become newsworthy and then recede quietly into the background without any repercussions.

The prime minister has just announced Rs two billion for flood relief and rehabilitation. If a pittance of that had been allocated to improve the weather forecast system and their technology and capacity to make accurate predictions, it would have greatly reduced the need of these resources for flood affected. Similarly, in the fire incident in Karachi, the investigation has proven that the fire brigade was so inadequate that it let the fire rage to an extent that more people were killed in this incident than in any bomb blast. While the fire brigade has only few snorkels in its equipment, it needs at least 50 more to cover the needs of a city like Karachi. In addition, the fact that the highest reach of these snorkels is 100 feet, it makes you wonder what will happen to many buildings whose height is far more than the maximum limit of the snorkel. These and many other questions remain unanswered and when you are not answerable for your deeds then the chances of rectification are minimal.

The facility of whitening the black money has been and will remain an incentive to do massive wrong and turn it into a right at an un-pinching cost. Similarly, the best way to create a doubt about any investigation is to create confusion and delay to the extent that the black turns into grey. If you see cases in court of the most known political offenders, you will see how stay orders and adjournments create the benefit of doubt that eventually renders the evidence immaterial and the case unreliable. This is the reason that even when people are apprehended on damning evidence, they manage to eventually go free. Laws and rules are made by people and until and unless the people enforcing these laws are not subject to these laws themselves and are not afraid of calling a spade a spade, the descend to social abdication will not cease.

The writer is a leadership coach, columnist and a former information secretary of the PTI Punjab and can be reached at andleeb.abbas1@gmail.com