THERE has been much talk about the government’s crackdown against corruption and steps targeted at ensuring good governance. In this connection, I would like to share an incident involving my late brother.

My brother, who was once visiting our sister in the United Kingdom in 2014, planned a trip to Scotland. He bought a return railway ticket of first class for a given time and date. When he reached the station, he was told that the railway administration had merged trains for Scotland owing to less traffic and that the train on which he had seats had left two hours ahead of its scheduled departure.

He had no option but to catch the next train leaving a few hours later. After waiting for a few hours, he boarded the next train for Scotland. An old lady sitting next to him, when she heard of the ordeal my brother had faced, told him this was against the railway rules and suggested lodging a complaint with the station master.

On reaching his destination, my brother did lodge a complaint with the station master for causing him inconvenience and stress.

After a month, he received a letter of apology from the railway authorities and a full refund in shape of travel vouchers of the full amount valid for use over the next three years.

In Pakistan, the government has launched a crusade against corruption and has now been exposing sugar, wheat, petroleum and medicine mafias by making public high-powered inquiry reports in which each cartel is reported to have pocketed billions of rupees in the last about two years.

Nobody has suggested in the inquiry reports how to compensate the public that has been cheated by the manipulation of sugar, flour, petroleum and medicine prices. There is nothing about what measures have been suggested to compensate the people who were made to pay high prices owing to profiteering and hoarding by the mafias.

Doesn’t the consumer, who was cheated, deserve a refund from the government?

It is a litmus test for the government. Organised cheating of masses should not go scot-free. The wheel of nature will ultimately grind all and sundry.

Ali Ashraf Khan

Karachi

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2021