Aawaz-e-Dost

Media manager, hobbyist photographer, literature and movie buff and a part-time troll.

[Aawaz-e-Dost @Aaj_Pakistan]

@KlasraRauf روف کلاسرا جس ذہنی پستی کو پہنچ گیا ہے اب وہاں سے واپسی ناممکن ہے

[Aawaz-e-Dost @Aaj_Pakistan]

@ChHashmatDeen @reportpemra @PTAofficialpk @NCCIAOFFICIAL یہ کیا بے ہودگی ہے

[Aawaz-e-Dost @Aaj_Pakistan]

@iamthedrifter Don't ask difficult questions.

[Aawaz-e-Dost @Aaj_Pakistan]

@javeednusrat Suddenly, you feel pangs of conscience.

[Aawaz-e-Dost @Aaj_Pakistan]

@rick_n @Reuters Just take a look at the stories that your Pakistan reporting team did in the last year or so.

[Aawaz-e-Dost @Aaj_Pakistan]

@QaziShahid786 Don't worry janab, this is a very common accusation that every expat Pakistani faces.

[Aawaz-e-Dost @Aaj_Pakistan]

@Al_Babar @moeedahmed Iqbal did not say that. May be Iqbal qulfi wala said that.

[Aawaz-e-Dost @Aaj_Pakistan]

@UmerInamPk خاتون نے کالم پانج سال پہلے لکھ دیا

[Aawaz-e-Dost @Aaj_Pakistan]

@sarataseer Indian version of the spelling Bhat is a better option.

[Aawaz-e-Dost @Aaj_Pakistan]

@tariqmateen اسرائیل نے جیدے کے دماغ میں ایک خاص چپ لگائی ہوئی اسی لئے وہ اس طرح کی چولیں مارتا ہے

[Aawaz-e-Dost @Aaj_Pakistan]

Having worked closely with top level bureaucrats I can vouch for every word of this post by Nadeem Haque.

[Nadeem Haque @nadeemhaque]

A Typical DMG Career: The Quiet Ladder

Young Ahmed clears the CSS exam and enters the Civil Services Academy in Lahore. For two years he lives inside a pressure cooker of lectures, drills, and endless networking. His batch quickly forms tight “tribes” — lifelong alliances that will decide postings, favours and promotions for decades. This tribe or family will stay in power for the next 30+ years

After the academy he spends three hard years in the field as Assistant Commissioner: revenue courts, law-and-order crises, angry crowds and politicians. The district teaches him how Pakistan actually runs.

By his mid-thirties the system rewards the sharp ones. Eighty percent of ambitious officers secure scholarships to Harvard, Oxford, LSE or similar. Ahmed returns with a foreign degree, polished English and a valuable international contact book. He is now fully westernized and indirectly wired to take debt and follow western consultants

Back home he hunts “project” postings. Many move to donor-funded programmes — World Bank, ADB, FCDO, USAID — either on deputation or full secondment. The salary is better, the work cleaner, the reports international. No matter if more debt is required. Not his problem. Besides the consultants give him clean advice that he learnt at Harvard etc

By now he has also secured a spacious GOR house in Lahore that, with the right connections, he will not vacate for the next thirty or forty years.

A few years later he angles for an overseas slot: Commercial or Economic Counsellor in an embassy, or a position at the WTO or some other such agency.

After three to five rewarding years abroad he returns as Joint or Additional Secretary. With luck he reaches full Secretary rank, controlling large budgets and key policies.

In these golden years he quietly but aggressively cultivates donor representatives. Conferences, study tours and quiet dinners build the bridge.

When retirement arrives — or even early retirement — consulting contracts, advisory roles and well-paid door-opener positions appear. Donors need exactly these men: insiders who know every file, every approval route and every decision-maker.

What should we expect? A highly internationalised bureaucracy whose career incentives are shaped as much by foreign aid ecosystems as by national interest.

Who do they ultimately serve? The Government of Pakistan on paper; the revolving door of donors and multilateral organisations in practice.

Conflict of interest? Significant and largely unaddressed.

This is why experts like Stefan Dercon remain in high demand. For a few hundred million pounds over the years, Britain and other donors have built deep influence inside Pakistan’s elite bureaucracy. The system is not “owned,” but it is skilfully rented.

[Aawaz-e-Dost @Aaj_Pakistan]

@muhammadaz53583 @tayyabarajah You have not heard of a thing called apostrophe? You belong to the same flock.

[Aawaz-e-Dost @Aaj_Pakistan]

@Parizaad_reborn اس کارڈ پر لکھی بات کا نسوانی حقوق سے کیا تعلق ہے

[China pulse 🇨🇳 @Eng_china5]

UNUSUAL
An Indian official visited a place of worship, and because the temple had no air‑conditioning, he brought his own AC units, used them privately during the visit, and then took them back with him when he left — without donating them to the worshippers who visit the temple just like he does.

[Aawaz-e-Dost @Aaj_Pakistan]

@Asadrchaudhry پٹواری بھی اب چیخ رہے ہیں۔

[Aawaz-e-Dost @Aaj_Pakistan]

@BalochNadir5 کیسے کیسے چول اس قوم پر مسلط ہیں۔ وڈا آیا مبلغ۔

[Aawaz-e-Dost @Aaj_Pakistan]

@cyalm Abay BC, say it out loud that the poor are being fucked without a lubricant.

[Aawaz-e-Dost @Aaj_Pakistan]

@FatimaPTI_IK @_Mansoor_Ali یہ بے غیرت، بے شرم انسان ہے۔

[Aawaz-e-Dost @Aaj_Pakistan]

اس بے غیرت کی منافقت دیکھیں، کبھی تعریفیں کبھی پتھر دل۔ ابے ڈھکن کسی طرف تو کھڑا رہ۔

[Mubashir Zaidi @xadeejourno]

اتنی پتھر دل حکومت صرف پاکستان میں ہی ہو سکتی ہے جس کو عوام کا ذرا سا بھی خیال نہیں ہے
#PetrolDieselPrice