Salman Rashid

Travel writer, Fellow of Royal Geographical Society

Another Sad Joke

Bookmark and Share

Today, 9 April 2014, there appears in newspapers this ad. It says that it is essential to have only that computerised registration plate on your vehicle that is issued by the Excise and Taxation Department. This is such a crock of shit!

I would like to know who is going to enforce this law. We have hundreds, nay thousands, of all kinds of laws that have never been enforced because our rulers are spineless. To match them is a bureaucracy that was castrated during our eleven year-long night of the great incubus Zia ul Haq. Years after the untimely death of the dictator the bureaucracy has become so accustomed to the sloth induced by him that it has no wish to change itself. And of the political class, the least said the better.

Aside: I say ‘untimely death’ of the accursed dictator. It was most untimely in that it was very, very long overdue. The curse should have been stillborn!

So now we have this from the Punjab government. On this, the ninth day of April, 2014 of the Common Era I say two things. One, this law will never ever be enforced. Secondly, I want to challenge Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to grow a spine and try to enforce it. HE WILL FAIL. As surely as night follows day Shahbaz Sharif will not be able to remove the Al-Bakistan registration plates for they are financed by his patrons in the Middle East. Nor indeed will he be able to rid us of all the fancy registration plates that everyone affixes as their fancy pleases them.

This is my challenge to the chief minister.

PS. Since we are on the subject of the government’s spinelessness, consider the federal order to shut down businesses at 8:00 PM in order to conserve power. I’d like to see that mother’s son who can enforce this law. The prime minister has already wet his pants. In a day or two we will hear of the order being rescinded.

Related: Without pride, nations fail

Labels: ,

posted by Salman Rashid @ 00:00,

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home




My Books

Deosai: Land of the Gaint - New

The Apricot Road to Yarkand


Jhelum: City of the Vitasta

Sea Monsters and the Sun God: Travels in Pakistan

Salt Range and Potohar Plateau

Prisoner on a Bus: Travel Through Pakistan

Between Two Burrs on the Map: Travels in Northern Pakistan

Gujranwala: The Glory That Was

Riders on the Wind

Books at Sang-e-Meel

Books of Days