The International Monetary Fund predicts that Pakistan could increase its GDP by 5 to 6.5 per cent over five years if it addresses corruption and entrenched governance failures. This projection raises deeper questions: why do institutions that begin their mandate with solemn oaths so often abandon the commitments they declare? How does a public servant who stands before the Constitution and invokes the name of Allah so easily slip into patronage, favour, and private gain? Why do we craft elaborate promises only to watch them fade within systems that reward the very behaviours they condemn? Let us get to the bottom line.

Every minister, legislator, judge, and civil servant in Pakistan begins their official life with the same ritual, “In the name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful. I do solemnly swear that I will bear true faith and allegiance to Pakistan.” This opening, in an oath, is not a mere formality. It is designed to locate public service within a sacred moral order. In a country where faith shapes everyday reasoning, the invocation of Allah is not incidental. It is meant to remind the office holder that their conduct is subject not only to constitutional scrutiny but to divine accountability.

Yet something happens the moment the oath ends. The religious gravity of the moment dissolves as soon as the official steps into an office where patronage networks, political pressure, and established routines sit waiting. The oath continues to exist on paper, but its moral force does not travel into the spaces where decisions are made. This is not because the words lack meaning. It is because our institutional cultures override the very ideals we proclaim.

Consider the promise that appears in nearly every oath, “I will........

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