adil najam, sher bano and jamshed nazar

my friend adil najam has written about his wish list in Pakistan in 2008: My Wish List.


my response there took a life of its own and i ended up with this:

drinking water and toilets

tough choice...very tough! how can any one possibly select between sher bano and jamshed nazar's choices? (click on the heading to go to adil's thread and check out their wonderful comments.)

my wish list?

easy access to drinking water and toilets for all Pakistanis!

and like adil and sher bano - would urge to reflect on the bold

to provide for the two we need financial resources:

* which comes with taxation
* and since taxation without ' representation' is an anamoly it will come with democracy
* which means free and fair 'something'
* which means a semblance of free judiciary - from which will surely come a free election commission - or everyone will trash the results which will result in chaos which will mean the uniform we finally got rid of last month will return and we do not want an encore do we?
* which means restoration of the constitution of 1973 and the restoration of the judges let go
* which means a more responsive bureaucracy and legislature
* which means a return of the ordinary people's trust in governance - oh how i dislike civil society - perhaps because deep down we are so uncivil

and oh - once the financial resources are fixed and streamlined then other benefits can flow too - education, employment, health care etc. but first my dear adil, sher bano and jamshed nazar drinking water and toilets!