On Sunday our Interior Minister directed the FIA in Pakistan to take measures to curb corruption across all departments. Good call mister! Here’s the thing though. How are you going to stop the undersized yet significant evil taking place at the grassroots level? After all, that is where it all starts and the fever of letting wrong escape in return for some sort of riches spreads and grows thereon like wildfire.

It just so happens that on the same day a renowned Pakistani TV news channel repeatedly showed footage of a great ‘revelation’ uncovered by one of its reporters detailing policemen in different areas of Karachi accepting bribes from commuters who had actually been deployed for security purposes. However what this reporter wasn’t able to show was the frequent desperation of our so called ‘crime-fighting cops’ particularly during the night when they have an obvious hunch that all traveling males in society are hiding something ‘somewhere.’ So while their not-so ‘doughnut and coffee’ like time passes at a completely random and concealed checkpoint, after every few counts they stop naive yet dodgy-looking males whether in a car, or on a motorbike or even on foot. What happens next can only be shown through dark photos like the one above. Talk, frisking, talk, some more closer and tighter frisking, car search, on the side close talk, money, happy causal talk, and finally the ‘caught’ get to go home. In this whole process a many number of times each day, there’s a one in a million chance of truly apprehending a bona fide terror planner. Drop the formula because it is not worth it.

I could amuse my audience by snapping my fingers to the Peggy Sue song while talking about the ‘work’ of Transportation Security Administration across all American airports which is now one of the biggest jokes on FOX News who is broadcasting photographs taken by a Denver Post journalist at an airport with TSA officials and passengers in ‘highly compromising’ positions. Even America’s own Saturday Night Live has literally disgraced the ‘minimally invasive’ procedures. But of course, I hail from Pakistan and yes the problem here at home is way more important than being concerned about foolish activities else where in the world.

Just recently a colleague of mine was pulled over near our work place for having tinted windows on his car and the very first question a cop asked him was “Are you hiding a girl there, young boy?” Come on, there must be better lines than that in this day and age. Stop spreading the fever because these aren’t your past, present or future ‘home-grown terrorists’ and come up with a more efficient and less time-consuming solution.

Photo and text by Hasaan Haider, a Multimedia Content Producer at Dawn.com

The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group.