The Punjab Assembly on Wednesday increased the salaries, benefits and privileges of its members two fold, after enacting the legislation within 24 hours of tabling the bill concerned. Powerless to stop them, Khan took to social media to criticize the assembly members.
Comment:
Fueled by greed, the Punjab Assembly unanimously passed legislation to increase their salaries and privileges. The increase comes at a time when millions of Pakistanis suffer from highest rates of poverty, malnutrition and hunger found anywhere in the world.
The best Khan could offer was to express his disappointment over the decision of the Punjab Assembly. In a tweet, Khan said that once prosperity returned to Pakistan such a move would be justified, but “now when we do not have resources to provide basic amenities to all our people, this is untenable.”
Khan’s pathetic response not only undermines his anti-corruption agenda and change mantra, but underscores that Khan’s powers are limited in curbing corruption and nepotism in a political system that always favours the elite. The move by the assembly makes mockery of Khan’s self-professed austerity policies and his drive for a Madina like state.
For generations, Pakistan’s political elite has fought elections with the sole purpose of enriching themselves and plundering the country. This is expected as would politicians spend millions of rupees contesting elections and once in power engage in a wild frenzy of enriching themselves and their cronies.
Unless the vile political system is uprooted and replaced by a genuine political system that serves the masses, future premiers like Khan will face a similar fate. Individuals cannot change the system—many have tried and all have failed. However, by changing the political system from its root, we will ensure that both individuals and groups abide by the rules.
Khan would do well to study how the Messenger of Allah ﷺ laid the foundations of a brand new political system where needs of the masses were put ahead of the super-rich. This political system was able to achieve such remarkable results because man was prohibited from making laws. In both dictatorship and democracy, human legislators make laws to benefit the elite and not the masses. So why blame Punjab Assembly?
Pakistanis must follow the teaching of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and re-establish Khilafah Rashidah (rightly guided Caliphate) that will end the corruption and nepotism practiced by the Pakistani elite. Allah (swt) says;
أَفَحُكْمَ الْجَاهِلِيَّةِ يَبْغُونَ وَمَنْ أَحْسَنُ مِنَ اللَّهِ حُكْمًا لِقَوْمٍ يُوقِنُونَ
“Is it then the judgment of (the times of) ignorance that they desire? And who is better than Allah to judge for a people who are sure?”
Abdul Majeed Bhatti