Pakistan News And Discussion-10

[Naresh]

[center]<b><span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Good governance?</span></b> <!--emo&:flush--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Flush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='Flush.gif' /><!--endemo--> [/center]

<b>WITH 53 prostitution and gambling dens in the city of Lahore alone running under the patronage of prominent ruling party politicians and policemen, as identified by the President’s Secretariat, the claim that the province enjoys the distinction of good governance falls rather flat.</b> If Punjab is rated as the best of the four provinces in governance, one hates to imagine the state of affairs in the rest of the other three, which, it is learnt, are shortly to receive similar missives from Islamabad. While the police might be busy protecting their wards, the thoroughly disgraceful situation with what it entails for the inhabitants of areas where the dens are located has been common knowledge. Strangely, the Capital City Police Officer says that the campaign against these rackets has been stepped up, as if it had been already on before the Punjab received the presidential warning. The ugly reality, as anyone familiar with it would know, is that no such activity could flourish in the country without the police being in the picture and, indeed, on the payroll of the den masters.

Opposition parties have severely criticised the provincial government for turning a blind eye to these reprehensible activities by its supporters and rightly maintained that the exposé has served to show the real face of governance as well as the much-touted enlightened moderation.

Reportedly, the provincial administration has moved into action, arrested over 100 gamblers and raided a small number of dens, but not before the information had been leaked out to give influential persons involved enough time to go underground. Under the circumstances it seems hardly likely that the police will take the President Secretariat’s warning seriously and follow the CCPO’s orders not to yield to pressure, exposing all those who are at the back of these anti-social acts, irrespective of their standing in society or the government would unhesitatingly take action against them.

Cheers <!--emo&:beer--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' /><!--endemo-->