False piety

There has been much ado in the Senate the other day over the issue of three recent prime ministers having spent between them Rs 43 million from the public exchequer on Umra trips for their near and dear and favoured ones. The controversy arose as a result of a written answer by the Foreign Office that it had paid this amount on account of such expenditures. This provoked PML President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain to flare up at his party colleague Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri for making a false statement on the floor of the Upper House, since Chaudhry Shujaat had paid from his own pocket for those who were his relatives or friends accompanying him to Saudi Arabia while he was prime minister.
This elicited a near apology from the foreign minister, who clarified that he had made no statement in the House and that the misunderstanding had arisen because of "inaccurate" and "incomplete" information given to the Senate Secretariat in writing. The foreign minister has further ordered an inquiry into the circumstances that led to furnishing an incorrect answer to the Senate Secretariat.
The two ruling PML colleagues may thus have defused a potentially acrimonious exchange between them, but the matter does not end there. The fact is that ever since General Ziaul Haq's tenure in power, the practice of taking large entourages with the heads of state and government on state visits to Saudi Arabia has become well entrenched.
The temptation to take advantage of such visits to do an Umra has proved beyond the power to resist of Pakistanis in positions of power and influence or those close to persons having such power and influence. The result is that hordes of relatives, friends and hangers-on have been accommodated to do Umra during state visits at public expense.
General Ziaul Haq became well known for not shying away from using state funds for personal or political benefit. The Umra 'business' is only one manifestation of his tendency to be profligate with public funds. However, as usually happens in Pakistan, once a bad precedent that benefits a few with vested interests is set, it becomes the norm.
There is room to argue that such piety gains the person no credit with Allah, since nowhere does Islam sanction the use of public funds, which are the rulers' trust, for such private purposes, albeit religious. It is not even certain that such an Umra would be considered valid in Islam.
If successive prime ministers and other power holders since General Ziaul Haq have chosen to milk the exchequer to accommodate their near and dear ones for Umra, the expectation was that a man of seemingly ethical bent such as Shaukat Aziz at least would set a healthy precedent of departure from such a norm and refuse to dip into public funds to accommodate the Umra-seekers.
This expectation was reasonably founded on the fact that both as finance minister and prime minister, Shaukat has not even taken his due salary. That was a gesture of public service to be appreciated. It would have been in conformity with that approach and in the fitness of things therefore, if he had applied the same principle to the use of public funds for purposes they are not intended or sanctioned for.
As it is, there is much heartburn in a country in which about 40 percent of the population lives below the poverty line at the perks and privileges the rich and famous and powerful enjoy. To such perks and privileges have recently been added increases in pay and allowances for ministers and members of parliament, the latest luxury vehicles for ministers ostensibly for their security, etc.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz should take the lead in forbidding extravagance at public expense for freeloading on state visits to Saudi Arabia in order to take advantage of the opportunity to do Umra.
Similarly all such frivolous wastage of public funds must be put a stop to, and such funds treated as a trust that needs to be spent carefully, and for the right purposes.