A busy schedule

PRIME Minister Yousuf Reza Gilani intends to visit a good number of countries in the near future, according to a press report. The schedule suggests that his absence from the country would be fairly long, removing his focus from the country’s deteriorating political landscape as well as the law and order situation. It would be unfair to term these visits as totally pointless, but the failure to capitalize, not just on the real meaning but also the manner in which they should be conducted, raises many an eyebrow. Our leaders travel in style, flying by luxury jets and accompanied by a large entourage, causing a big hole in the national exchequer. Worse still, the taxpayer hardly gets anything out of these junkets. Contrast this with the norm of most Western countries where the head of the state travels with a much smaller delegation in a regular flight.

The amount of money spent on President Musharraf and ex-PM Shaukat Aziz’s junkets runs into billions. This lavishness is a serious misuse of public funds, which a poor country like Pakistan cannot afford. But unfortunately our heads of state and government feel neither qualms of conscience nor fear of accountability in throwing away huge sums of money for their comfort. The government should introduce a code of conduct that reduces the size of delegations, restricts travel by normal flights, etc.