System Failure

by Iftikhar Quraeshi

"Money alone will not solve our problems. Ever since the school system was nationalized 1974 to 1984, I believe, we have produced a nation of mental midgets or as my friend Saeed puts it "intellectual Pygmies" – the smart ones skipped off to Canada, USA, UK, Australia etc. The dumb ones and us old fogies are left behind trying to figure out how to survive- and then along come white collar pirates like Shaukat Abdul Aziz and milk the country dry of whatever the Zardari clan left in the kitty. Today a stockbroker who used to share an office about ten years ago can buy a 6 billion rupee property on Clifton Road. The Manshas are another such product of the Nawaz Sharif era – the list is endless and this type of corruption has no end in sight until we collapse and leave a debt ridden nation to be raped by our neighbours."