Welfare Society
The fundamental principles of Islam requires that the State looks after the welfare of its citizens, all of whom are equal before the law, there being supposedly no elite. Those fortunate are forbidden from ostentatious display of wealth. They are admonished to bend over backwards to remain identified with those less fortunate and to share their good fortune. All that is theory, in practice there is no system of welfare in Pakistan, mostly it is lip-service in the public sector, in the private sector there is evidence of it but it is sporadic. As much as democracy as practiced in Pakistan was a sham, so are welfare schemes. State-sponsored welfare schemes were present in the communist system but these fell prey to inefficiency and corruption. Our meagre forays in this field have faced the same misfortune.
Welfare Schemes have to cater for (1) those who have no means of earning a living and (2) the senior citizens of the State. The minimum common agenda (MCA) should be to provide them with the bare necessities of shelter, medical cover and enough money for food, payment of utility bills, etc. For those employed by the State there is a system of sorts. The Defence Services are closest to an optimum caring for those retired, the civil bureaucracy has a system in place but it is not adequate enough. For the private sector, schemes were instituted during late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s regime but they have been overtaken by rampant corruption and gross inefficiency, the Employees Social Security Institution (ESSI), managed separately by the Federal and respective Provincial Governments, and the Employees Old Age Benefit Institution (EOBI) managed by the Federal Government.
