Sometimes something sets a train of thought in motion. The same happened today in a WhatsApp group.
Someone shared the following news item with a comment on it.
Source: The Express Tribune:
$200m more approved for FBR
Rs57.1b TADRA project recommended; total foreign loans for tax system reach $4.9b
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2628843/200m-more-approved-for-fbr
Comment: FBR trans-fooling plan.
I expressed my frustration thus:
Dr Khalil: Doing economics in Pakistan is an endless and useless struggle!
Someone else: Multiple entities working on developing their own version of economic reforms. Not even one being implemented in totality.
Shahid Mehmood (An economist):
A primary reason for this state of affairs is the non-interest of our people in econ issues. They have all the time in the world for politics, theatricalities and needless gossip. In the US, elections are decided on the programs and vision both parties present in terms of the economy. Here, I’ve rarely heard any such debate; it’s mostly nonsense, gimmickry and cheap shots. Just observe the main topics of discussion in the last week or so, on social media and on channels, it’s all gibberish. Meanwhile, what no one is discussing is how the Govt secretly signed 4 new IPP deals, extending capacity payments beyond 2040. Good luck running this country.
Dr Khalil: Shahid sahib,
People are not to be blamed for this, politicians and intellectuals are the culprit, only they alone need to be blamed. That’s why I call them Siyasi Ashrafiya and Danishwar Ashrafiya.
Shahid Mehmood:
Sir, politicians respond to peoples’ demands. If the public demand is pakki galli and pakki naukri, that’s what the discussion will be about. If the demand were for reforms, we’d have them by now.
Dr Khalil:
I think that’s a misplaced perception. Politicians in Pakistan respond to the establishment’s baits…
But in the first place Pak political parties don’t represent the people. They represent the political Ashrafiya. Why would they respond to the people’s demands?
Someone else:
In a nut shell, we all victims of KAKISTOCRACY.
Dr Khalil:
To be Kakistocratic is merely a trait of Aristocracy اشرافیہ)). It’s the state aristocracy (ریاستی اشرافیہ) that is in control of the state and its resources.
Shahid Mehmood:
Ashrafiya is everywhere and they never relent; reforms are forced upon them. French and Russian revolutions serve as a good example.
Someone else:
Kakistocracy is a government “run” by the least capable people (Google).
Dr Khalil (Replying to Shahid Mehmood):
I think strict constitutional rule is the way out, to be demanded by a movement from below.
Dr Khalil (Replying to someone else):
Aristocracy may comprise the least capable people and good efficient people, also. Merciful and benevolent rulers, history talks of…
Dr Khalil: Pakistani political parties, and for that matter the bureaucracy, the judiciary, and intellectuals, etc., imbibe almost all the traits and the mindset that the local Muslim Ashrafiya of the subcontinent is said to have possessed and exhibited.
12 September, 2026