The reticent and rushed passing of self-serving legislation by lawmakers is not an unknown trend in the country. In a most recent case, through a set of three laws, the MPAs of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa granted themselves and their spouses official passports for life, along with unlimited access to VIP airport lounges, club memberships at extremely subsidised rates, and ready gun licences.
That such self-seeking steps come from a political party that built its brand on the promise to eradicate the noxious VIP culture and elitism defining the lives of our government officials and lawmakers, is most disillusioning. The legislation was pushed through against the backdrop of the PTI’s decades-old anti-corruption rallying and its much-touted drive for justice and equality.
And while, after drawing widespread flak and scrutiny on social media, the KP Chief Minister has given directives to withdraw controversial clauses of the act and amend them in accordance with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Powers, Privileges and Immunities) Act 1988, the bigger question remains: why was legislation that defied the party’s flagship slogans introduced by the PTI government in the first place?
That such self-seeking steps come from a political party that built its brand on the promise to eradicate the noxious VIP culture and elitism defining the lives of our government officials and lawmakers, is most disillusioning
KP’s legislators might have followed the example set in Islamabad, but why was there the need to follow suit, when the PTI never tires of castigating other political parties for their overtly ostentatious VIP culture and unbridled government expenditure all the time? Within the federal government, full-term parliamentarians are already entitled to their official passports for life, and a bill to broaden this privilege further is very likely forcing its way through the Senate.
Only last week, a Senate panel approved a bill seeking to allow the issuance of blue passports to former parliamentarians, their spouses, and children under the age of 28 years. The Members of Parliament Salaries and Allowances (Amendment) Bill, 2026, was introduced as a private member’s bill and approved by the Senate Standing Committee on Interior. The bill currently awaits approval from the federal cabinet and both houses of parliament.
The very concept of lifetime immunity or privileges provided by the state is alarming, as it is tantamount to walking on a red carpet with the basic rights of the masses callously pushed under it; an exclusivity that cannot be enjoyed without further siphoning off from the people.
Why lawmakers and officials elected to serve the electorate should be granted lifetime official privileges that continue even when they are not in office, and why their progeny, by virtue of proximity and kinship, should be given similar leverages, is most offensive to the moral mind. As one observer remarked on X, “the Pakistani state exists to be mined for class and status mobility, especially by petit bourgeois and nouveau riche segments.”
A blue passport is an official travel document meant to be issued to designated public officials and other authorised individuals for government or state-related travel and should only be meant for sitting members of the National Assembly and Senate. An official travel document being held by dependent children of former parliamentarians, who usually have no government role themselves, can also create reputational concerns for the Pakistani official passport, as state-related travel becomes a political privilege being passed down through families, rather than an administrative necessity.
How these elite perks and privileges are part of corrupt practices and systems that propagate the elitist lifestyles of the moneyed and the powerful, is evident in country reports released by international rights organisations every now and then.
This month, the International Federation for Human Rights and the HRCP issued a joint report titled Under the Bench: Mapping corruption risks in Pakistan’s justice system. The 32-page report highlights widespread corruption that has become so unchecked that it may now amount to “systemic, even grand, corruption”, with serious consequences for the protection of basic rights.
What is worse is the lack of legal protection for whistle-blowers that intimidates and discourages people from exposing corruption that is no longer limited to a percentage of dishonest officials, but has become part of the way systems work in Pakistan. While the report primarily talks in the context of our weak justice system, the fact that the same rot runs across all institutions is no secret. With such a state of affairs, the rent-seeking extravagances of our leaders and political class add to the culture of impunity that defines our day-to-day affairs.
Repeated assessment reports by the IMF also point to the same corruption that it says is behind an economic crisis, “driven by state capture.” The reports, time and again, state that Pakistan loses at least 6% of its GDP to corruption, while prompting calls for corruption reforms that need “political will, not technical tinkering.”
“The systemic hijacking of the state apparatus, markets, and public policy by the powerful oligarchy of politicians and feudal lords is institutionalized rent-seeking that drains an estimated $17.4 billion of the country's GDP annually through preferential subsidies, tax exemptions, and lucrative state contracts.”
The Governance and Corruption Diagnostic Assessment further presents a grim picture of a system marked by dysfunctional institutions that are unable to enforce the rule of law and safeguard public resources. With Pakistan consistently ranking near the bottom of global governance indicators among nations, reports warn that without dismantling the structures of “elite privilege”, the country’s economic stagnation will persist.
Between 2015 and 2024, the country’s score on control of corruption remained stagnant, placing it among the worst performers worldwide and within its neighbourhood.
At the heart of the IMF findings is the concept of “state capture”, where, according to the fund, corruption becomes the norm and, in fact, the primary means of governance. The Pakistani state apparatus is frequently used to enrich specific groups at the expense of the broader public, and elite privilege drains billions of dollars from the economy annually, as public policy is manipulated to benefit a narrow circle of political and other elites.
However, the most despairing part is when institutions meant to check corruption are themselves incapacitated by allegations of wrongdoing. The IMF reports, hence, point out credibility challenges marring bodies responsible for investigating corruption in the country.