FOREWORD

Let me Come to Pakistan
By Humayun Mughal
( Translated by Dr. Afzal Mirza )

After visiting any country which is clean and free from lawlessness and law and order situation we the expatriate Pakistanis start praying that Pakistan may also become such a country also. We see in those countries that their factories are running three shifts in twenty four hours and a large number of skilled and unskilled workers are entering and leaving the work places. The stores have merchandise in abundance and
their prices are the same through out the country. If we buy a match box or a pack of cigarettes the shopkeeper issues a receipt for it.
If the prices are escalated after years then the reasons for this price increase are advertised through the media. The prices of every item are fixed after consultation with the consumer associations. If a theft or burglary takes place the police is so efficient that the culprit finds himself behind the bars in a few hours times and the articles are
retrieved from him which are returned to the owner. I do not say that foreign countries are crime free but the ratio of crime is too low as compared to our country. Mostly I shall talk about Japan because in Japan police officials are your friends and helpers. Instead of punishing the common man they help the common man to obey the law. In
Japan you can see any police officer without any hesitation and seek his assistance.
In contrast to this when we arrive in Pakistan on a very comfortable foreign airline we find that from Airport Security Force(ASF) to custom staff both senior and junior stare at us with piercing eyes and mercilessly insult the Pakistanis coming back from foreign
destinations. Sometimes we feel that we should return back from the airport. Before our eyes jumbo sized suit cases of important people are cleared just in the twinkling of an eye and the baggage of unimportant persons is checked many times with greedy eyes and they snatch as many items that they can lay hands on.
I shall say with lot of apology that we expatriates when travel in Pakistan International Airlines we are so much maltreated and insulted by the PIA staff that a sampling of it the reader will find in one of the chapters of this book. An okayed ticket is okayed many times and still the passenger is treated as if he is travelling without a ticket or as if we are criminals. Those people who have any doubt about my statement should see the long queues of Pakistanis going abroad outside the PIA office where they are asked to get the tickets okayed again and again and one has to visit the office day in and day out. Why PIA is going in loss? It is not due to dearth of passengers. The fares are
highest of all and still the PIA staff tries to fleece bribe out of the passengers and in case they fail to get some thing they usurp some of their items. After coming out of the airport the passengers arewelcomed? by the police men, the tax collectors and the taxi drivers.
We the expatriates send every month millions worth of foreign exchange every month and yet they are treated as criminals on arrival in their own land. The airlines world over not only thank their passengers but also present them gifts or package of concessions. The PIA high-ups should revise their attitude and its employees should perform their duties more efficiently so that the Pakistanis coming from abroad with
love and affection for their country do not shed tears on seeing the
attitude of their compatriots. The Pakistanis who work day and night diligently away from their motherland feel a strange fear when they want to come to see their dear ones. The fear is due to the rampant lawlessness that can result in the blood shed of innocent people in the twinkling of an eye. It happens every where in the world. But in those countries the lawbreakers are apprehended. Here the criminals are never hauled up. If the accused has a strong backing then police can make any body a ?criminal?. But where are the real culprits no body knows. The Pakistani expatriates want to invest in Pakistan but how can they invest here by passing commissions or using recommendation or bribing people. And supposing they succeed in crossing these hurdles then they are confronted with four times increase in the prices of electricity and petrol in a year and a monthly change in the prices of raw materials and those who impose new taxes do not have any guess how much taxes they had already imposed. The result would be that the investor or the factory owner would leave the country after shutting and locking the factory and return to the country he came from.
In a country where the economy is controlled by accountants, auditors or bankers instead of experts in economics the people will remain poor and the economy, agriculture and industry will remain in bad shape like in Pakistan. The Pakistanis living abroad want that there should be peace and rule of law every where in Pakistan. There should be so much prosperity that Pakistanis do not leave their country to work and earn
their livelihood. The rulers of the country should work with honesty and sincerity to improve country’s system. The manpower should be judiciously used to benefit from their labour. It should be used to build the country and secure its borders. The factories are run in three shifts in a day. The prices are kept stable and the proportion of
profit is reasonable. Pakistan should be turned into real Pakistan–.a respectable country whom no one could term as terrorist or narcotic supplier. The brain drain of skilled, educated and experts in modern technology is stopped and the new avenues of progress are created. We have become nuclear power. But Pakistanis need a high status and respectability. The government can not do it alone. There are duties of the common man as well. If the government will fulfil its duty then people will also attend to their obligations. For poverty alleviation in Pakistan a sum of twenty four or twenty five billion is just a joke. If we want to finish poverty from Pakistan we should develop our Industry, Agricultural Industry, and Agriculture . The people should be freed from the shackles of unemployment and poverty will automatically disappear. In this book there are many constructive proposals alongside criticism. May be many people would get upset on reading them but just read all this as a Pakistani living abroad who has returned to this land of the pure after years of hard and strenuous work.
May be these observations touch your heart.
(Humayun mughal) Japan