IT is often said that every process has at least three versions. How the bosses think it works, how it actually works and how it ought to work. Let us consider just one routine process of how millions of Pakistanis obtain a death certificate. Our discussions with numerous senior bureaucrats revealed a stark disconnect — between the gruelling delays, confusion and endless formalities of the real process, and the neat, sanitised version that exists in the minds of process managers. This article focuses on the guaranteed merciless torment that the surviving family must undergo while struggling against a sadistic bureaucratic obstacle course, merely to get a routine death certificate.

The paragraph below describes the currently practised procedure for securing a death certificate in Pakistan.

a) Begin by completing a complex bilingual (Urdu and English) form (obtained after paying Rs200). It may be safe to say that more than 95 per cent citizens find it impossible to fill this form without seeking outside help; b) provide a hospital-issued death report — if the death occurred in a hospital; c) produce an original burial report from the graveyard; d) if more than one month has passed since the........

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