‘KINDLY adjust’ is a peculiarly South Asian expression. It means tolerating inconvenience or accommodating what is not quite right. While courteous, it captures the relationship between citizens and the institutions that govern them. When electricity disappears, arrange a generator. When water is scarce or unsafe, call a tanker and install a filter. When schools, hospitals, roads or air disappoint, pay privately, reroute, stay indoors or stretch the household budget. In other words: kindly adjust.

Pakistanis have become exceptionally good at adjusting. What we proudly call resilience is often the ability of citizens to compensate privately for the failure of public institutions. Those with money buy electricity, water, education, healthcare, security and protection. The middle class stretches to follow; the poor endure or leave for work abroad.

But there are limits to adjustment. The recent deaths of newborn babies in a fire at Islamabad’s premier government hospital brought this home with unbearable force. When something as fundamental as the safety of infants in a public hospital cannot be assured, institutional failure is no longer an inconvenience. It becomes a matter of life and death.

Pakistan’s problem is that........

© Dawn