AS last week's successful strike called by the Sunni Tehrik showed yet again, the state's writ does not extend much further than the confines of Islamabad.

True, the city of Karachi came to a grinding halt purely out of fear and not sympathy for the ST cause. But the fact that a military government can do little more than haul up a few hundred activists, only to release them as part of a deal with this fundamentalist organization a couple of days later, indicates the low esteem authority enjoys in Pakistan. When a quasi-religious outfit can hold the nation's biggest city hostage without any fear of official retribution, we are in serious trouble.

Over the years, corruption, inefficient government, political bickering, military interventions and judicial somersaults have steadily eroded the authority of the state. From such mundane, everyday actions like stopping at a red light to paying taxes, everything is subject to the individual's perception of what he can get away with. And in today's Pakistan, he can literally get away with murder. Even if our notoriously inefficient police make an arrest, chances are that the suspect will be released by our courts. Everything is open to negotiation, everything is up for grabs.

Successive governments have attempted to impose sales tax across the country, but each time, traders have successfully agitated to get delays and exemptions. This government has been firmer than its predecessors, but there are still huge gaps and loopholes in the system. Electric meter inspectors who attempt to collect dues from the tribal areas are often beaten up, and so far, Wapda, the utility company, has been unable to recover a penny from these armed and dangerous worthies. Not coincidentally, these same tribals are involved in smuggling, gunrunning and drug trafficking on a massive scale. They pay no taxes, and yet remain immune from any legal action.

But to be fair to them, they are not alone in being exempt from prosecution for law-breaking. Every fortune in Pakistan has been made by cutting corners; many opulent (and vulgar) houses and shopping plazas across the country have been financed through some racket or the other. Homes with half a dozen air-conditioners pay a fraction of their energy bill by cutting a deal with the meter readers; large and profitable businesses pay off officials on a monthly basis to reduce duties, taxes and all kinds of other levies. But they do not pass on their legitimate and illegitimate profits to shareholders, preferring instead to fiddle the books to siphon off the proceeds into offshore accounts.

To a considerable extent, officialdom is responsible for this state of affairs: a factory owner in Karachi told me that his industry is subject to the inspection of fourteen different federal and provincial agencies, each of whom demands a set amount which, if it isn't paid, can lead to extortionist fines and even closure. Most industrialists find it easier and cheaper to pay up, charging these bribes to the cost of doing business in Pakistan. Those few businessmen who buck the system and insist on paying their legal dues find their competitiveness being eroded through higher costs.

The state's own inability to enforce its writ leads it to squeeze those who do pay and are subsidising those who don't. Thus, electricity rates keep gong up because of the extraordinarily high rate of line losses and outright power theft; despite the army's heavy involvement in WAPDA at every level, this white elephant continues to haemorrhage money and megawatts. Similarly, because of massive tax evasion, fixed-income earners who cannot avoid this burden find themselves having to pay more every year to underwrite the state's bloated expenditure.

When people see others getting away with all kinds of scams around them, they start feeling like suckers being taken for a ride by a system that is stacked against the honest individual. So it is hard to blame them for taking short-cuts when they can. When multimillionaires flaunt their dubious fortunes - usually built on defaulted loans and evaded duties and taxes - the ordinary mortal feels justified in diddling the state out of whatever he can.

Respect for the rule of law can only come when it is uniformly applied. In Pakistan, only fools and ordinary citizens obey the law; the privileged are above it. About fifteen years ago, a friend told me a story that illustrates the general contempt for rules: he had stopped at a red light and the car behind him started honking incessantly. When the light turned green, he proceeded, only to be blocked by the noisy driver who accelerated violently to overtake him. He got out and proceeded to abuse my friend who lowered his window to ask what the problem was. "Why did you stop at the lights, you so and so?" the aggressive driver demanded. My friend pointed out that the light was red. "Are you a government chamcha that you stop at red lights?" was the next question.

One major reason why we are where we are is that the rich and the powerful openly break the law without a second thought, and their children follow their parents' example. President Bush's daughters have been fined for under-age drinking; if memory serves, Ms Cherie Blair, wife of the British prime minister, was fined when she forgot to buy a train ticket; and several members of the British royal family have been charged with speeding. But if a general's or a senior official's son is caught for a crime, not only will he be let off, but the arresting cop will be lucky to keep his job. After a while, demoralized policemen will no longer stick their necks out by apprehending the well-connected.

If the rule of law is to be enforced and the writ of the state is to have any meaning, two things will have to happen. Firstly, laws need to be rationalized and simplified; next, they have to be uniformly applied without exception. Both steps need political will that is currently not in great evidence. The ill-trained, underpaid and demoralized bureaucracy as well as the venal and inefficient lower courts are simply not capable of implementing any meaningful reforms; nor are the Pakistani elites very likely to follow rules made for the rabble. And since this government (or any foreseeable one for that matter) shows no inclination to use its considerable authority to take on powerful vested interests, nothing is likely to change.

Around forty years ago, Ayub Khan, another military ruler, introduced the Family Laws Ordinance, a very liberal piece of legislation for its time. He took on the religious lobby and pushed this pro-women law through. Since then, successive rulers, both military an civilian, have capitulated before vested interests. But if things don't change, we will continue being held hostage by any two-bit outfit with a grouse.