Mafias

Prime Minister Imran Khan, during his Lahore visit, said that an ‘organized mafia’ is trying to forestall change and that he knows who are hatching these conspiracies. My three humble questions to the honorable prime minister: Why don’t you name the names? Why hasn’t the mafia been caught over the past 17 months? What are your plans for this mafia in the future (neither hope nor talk is a plan)?

The word ‘mafia’ has its origin in Sicily, the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea just south of the Italian Peninsula. Interestingly, Sicily was once the Islamic Emirate of Sicily (831 to 1091) and ‘mafia’ may have come to Sicilian through the Arabic world ‘marfud’ which means ‘rejected’ (marfud became marpiuni, swindler, to marpiusu and finally mafiusu).

I am really not sure if our prime minister had ‘political mafias’ or ‘economic mafias’ in mind (I am sure there’s an overlap between the two). In economics, a cartel is “an association of manufacturers or suppliers with the purpose of maintaining prices at a high level and restricting competition.” In economics, state capture is a “type of systemic political corruption in which private interests significantly influence a state’s decision-making process to their own advantage.”

We consume around 2 million tons of flour a month. So, when the price of flour goes up by Rs20 per kilogram a wholesome Rs40 billion a month is transferred out of the pockets of the consumers of flour into the pockets of suppliers of flour. We consume around 400,000 tons of sugar a month. So, when the price of sugar goes up by Rs20 per kilogram a wholesome Rs8 billion a month is transferred out of the pockets of the consumers of sugar into the pockets of suppliers of sugar. We consume around 8 billion units of electricity a month. So, when the price of electricity goes up by Rs5 a unit a wholesome Rs42 billion a month is transferred out of the pockets of the consumers of electricity into the pockets of suppliers of electricity.

We have the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP), the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra), the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra), the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) – and some others. These regulators are supposed to safeguard the interests of the 210 million Pakistanis. They have failed miserably (at the cost of 210 million Pakistanis).

We have a sugar cartel, a power cartel, a banking cartel, a cement cartel and a steel cartel. The Government of Pakistan, the regulators, the 81-member All Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (APSMA), the 16-member All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA) and Pakistan Banks’ Association are all living in problem.

Why are cartels that are rich getting richer? Why are three out of four Pakistanis that make an equivalent of $2 a day getting poorer? Our rulers love cartels. Our rulers think cartels are beautiful. Remember, if Jack’s in love, he’s no judge of Jill’s beauty.

The writer is a columnist based in Islamabad.

Email: farrukh15@hotmail.com Twitter: @saleemfarrukh