Pakistanis complain constantly - and often legitimately. Consumers complain about poor quality products sold at unreasonable prices. Shopkeepers complain about unbearable business costs, unstable policies and excessive taxation. Government officials complain that citizens evade taxes, violate laws and resist regulation. Citizens complain about corruption, inefficiency and humiliation in public offices. Everyone appears frustrated. Everyone appears wronged. Yet the most uncomfortable question remains: if everyone is suffering, who exactly is creating this misery?

That is Pakistan's great irony. We have gradually become a society where almost everyone sees themselves as the victim of a broken system while simultaneously participating in its reproduction! Corruption is condemned publicly yet justified privately. Dishonesty is criticised morally and rhetorically yet practised pragmatically. Rules are demanded from others but considered optional for oneself. In this strange moral contradiction, the nation resembles a house where every resident complains about........

© The Express Tribune