The idea, then, is to look at the life and career of Tasneem Siddiqui, who took the road that is less travelled by bureaucrats. Pakistan has not had many senior bureaucrats who, like Tasneem, would refuse to be seduced by the trappings of power and pomp and honestly serve the people. Since my wife Sadiqa was associated with the then National Institute of Public Administration (NIPA), there was an opportunity to interact with entire groups of senior bureaucrats and build lasting relationships with a few of them. The last time we met was some weeks ago, when Dr Badar Siddiqui was visiting after a long, Covid-dictated interval. If you have any sense of numbers, try to comprehend the observation in the judgment that the allotment of plots on subsidised rates had cost the public exchequer around Rs1 trillion in losses.

Source: The Nation February 06, 2022 00:50 UTC