IN the backdrop of extreme polarization that has made governance difficult and unpredictable, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has rightly emphasized the need for a consensus on minimum common agenda, including foreign and economic policies, to steer the country out of troubled waters. Addressing the Prime Minister’s National Innovation Awards ceremony held under the aegis of Prime Minister’s Youth Programme in Islamabad on Monday, he said we have to agree on a national agenda to put Pakistan on a path of development and prosperity.
No doubt, based on his passion for work and development, the Prime Minister has expressed the confidence that Pakistan would come out of this difficult phase but the history of the country bears testimony to the fact that the nation suffered hugely due to lack of continuity in economic policies and programmes. Some good initiatives were launched by almost all the past Governments with potential to address chronic problems of the country but most of them were discarded by their successors because of lack of proper vision and preference for political expediencies. Right from the Kalabagh dam, which stands politicized till date, there were scores of projects, programmes and policies that were either abandoned or put on the backburner because of political malaise. Even the epoch-making initiative of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), under which China started the process of investing over fifty billion dollars in different sectors of Pakistan’s economy, was rendered controversial at the initial phase and the work on various crucial projects slowed down during the four-year tenure of the PTI Government. Similarly, otherwise highly laudable projects of motorways, highways and metro bus launched by PML(N) Government were criticized, ridiculed and their specifications downgraded at the cost of national exchequer and developmental benefits. The decision of the then PPP Government to discard the visionary project of Dr Atta-ur-Rehman for establishment of universities of science and technology with foreign collaboration is also a classic example of sacrificing education and development at the altar of politics. In this background, it is high time that we agree upon a national agenda on economy and foreign affairs so that the country continues its march on the road to progress, prosperity and security irrespective of change of governments in Islamabad. Recent goodwill gestures from China, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Russia and Azerbaijan proved it beyond any doubt that our friends are ready to extend necessary cooperation but much depends on continuity of policies and programmes.
