There is no theory from the west that has emerged as to what to do when there are freeloaders in a society. Freeloaders are persons/institutes that tell a lie to take benefit from the government or the country even if they have to tell a lie. They are usually to be found amongst the country's elites and powerful persons.
The legal system is trying to take care of the system but the difficulty now is that this has spread like cancer. Cancer is bad news and cancer in a society is even worse and more difficult to handle. Was it not mystic philosopher of ancient China Lao-Tzu who said that when a problem is difficult take care of it. Later the complexity of the problem would be such that it might defy solutions.
Who are the freeloaders? They are not the feudal, they are not the Waderas but they are created by the modern economic system that we have so assiduously followed. We in fact, are mortgaged to the west. If that mortgage is to be removed there has to be massive changes in the institution structure within the country. The changes cannot be dictated by the west (as in the case of service reforms) for then there is confusion and disaster. The man-made in-charge was the ever cribber Naqvi and the staff he had put together were the persons who were of the same category - unable to do it themselves but asking others to do it. The name of the service may have changed but the encountered difficulties remain. It is also true that every time a tyrant comes to power the civil takes a knock. It happened in Ayub's time; it happened again at Yayha's time and again in Zia's time and then Musharraf took the cake by demolishing the entire edifice. One fails to see the reason as to why a service determined by a centralised and constitutional system should be so destroyed. Was it the way of the westerner to demolish what was essentially a federal service? They did it with a carrot being held out to them. Any decision by the Pakistanis was welcome but not by the outsiders and far away decision-makers. Over the years, it had been demolished by the politico-tyrannical system that had next to nothing in terms of knowledge about the management structure and the way administration had moved away from the earlier one to new interventions in management. Freeloader Naqvi and the coterie in the cabinet were all excited as it gave them massive authority to abuse the system and carry out massive acquisition of assets. Having removed all vestiges the freeloaders became more active. Under the garb of investment and foreign investment organisations from abroad were to start housing societies.
But for a moment let us see how this freeloading culture developed in the industrial sector. Textile was the first one to come. It came via a credit facility for the industrial and other banking systems - private and public. Over-invoicing was rife. People were made to become robber barons thanks to the advice of one Papanek who came to us from the USA and the University of Boston. The risk that the entrepreneur was to take was not there even the equity was from the over-invoice system. Not only that, there was a cushion for building one's liquid assets at the expense of the credit facility. One of the former deputy governors of the State Bank of Pakistan used to say that if we had merely invested what was handed out to the textile industry. Since then, there have been other freeloaders in the economic system of this country. The poultry and the tractor industry have had it all their way. The poultry industry is a multiple monopoly. It was brought in to take care of the rising red meat prices but instead it is the cause nowadays of increasing inflation in the food and nutrition industry. They hold the cue after the wheat price support system to inflation. In fact, the reasons for inflation are totally different in this country. There has been over the last 50 years only two machinery-building industries in Pakistan. They may have done a job for the country but in capitalism there is no short-cut to competition and comparative advantage. This was all done to placate the few that were in the industry.
Mafias in the economy kept on growing and the edible oil industry that had a precursor to it the ghee industry was there to mess up the farmer's income system. Ghee industry was based on the palm oil industry and the country exporting the raw material had learnt a thing or two from the USA soya industry and how to demolish the local farmers and look after the farmers of elsewhere. The ghee industry was based on three imported items and dependent on what one wanted one took on the cheapest raw material - Sterin rather than Oliene and RBD products from the same source. Of the three, Sterin was the cheapest as it meant more profits. It did not matter that this was used for soap making. The scandals that emerged never went to fruition as these people have a stronger honour than the thieves in the system.
Every entrepreneur is averse to risk and therefore they belie the very definition of an entrepreneur. Where did they have risk embedded in their decision-making? MNCs followed this over-invoicing system and one confessed that their Karachi plant only cost 4 million dollars but that they had stated over 40 million dollars. So the game was caught on by the MNCs. Any economic sector that one comes across in this country one finds freeloaders. The Karachi Fishing Co-operative is no different. The moles [intermediaries] and the staff have the public at their mercy. It continues to waste and to defy the rules of management of a co-operative. It is merrily siphoning of resources and the elites got on to the act and joined hands with the trawler operatives. Not only did some chiefs get involved but the MNCs simply had the very highest involved in it.
Meantime, the farmers and the lower orders suffered. Markets in agriculture were not allowed to develop and the countries that ought to have had many agric-markets simply were not allowed to have them. Much as the private sector tried and much that one tried the mafia was just too politically strong for anything to be done. It was a free system and would have meant that markets would have enabled the local farmers to obtain better prices.
The strongest management structure is the revenue system. With the elimination of the collector from the scene they have had a field day. Their annual dinner used to be in the Marriott but now it is in the Serena and they have amassed so much wealth that it is impossible to check them. Who has been responsible? Well, the very highest in society. Try transferring any one of them. They have properties in 'benami' system and these properties are worth billions of rupees. They have been cuddled and cajoled by the civil service secretaries, by the tyrannical system of generals that have ruled this country and that have acquired massive lands. Mal-i-ghanimat and if you were to go to rural areas of Pakistan unashamedly boards can be seen indicating which authority had lands and where. Never try and have patwari transferred. You just cannot for he is the baghal bacha of any one that is the most powerful in this country. On one occasion a very dear friend received a telephone. The power structure wanted him to intervene on behalf of the revenue man (he would not do it himself - his reputation would be sullied) in a corruption case where he had been caught red-handed. Incidentally that very night he was again arrested and heaven and earth were moved for him to get bail since the power structure did not want him to stay in jail.
The tales of such nature abound. Next time it will be the banking system and what they have done over the years to mess us up. Try any theory of development and see if it fits Pakistan. That is how irrelevant we have become.