The government plans to “ensure policy predicament, continuity and effective implementation to revive the economy”. Mere plans alone cannot and will not revive an ailing economy, unless the state does not provide incentives and comes down hard on the bureaucratic red tape hurdles that have become a hallmark of our civil services, tasked with regulating and facilitating growth of our industry. Even if this involves purging the bureaucracy, so be it, because the future of our country is at stake. It is not just the flight of capital that haunts Pakistan, but also the brain-drain.
Employment in state and public sector should only be on merit and not to rehabilitate a few, who receive pensions and cradle to grave health benefits etc. The economy cannot revive if the wheels of industry and commerce are halted by extremist religious parties, with their frequent “dharnas” and protests, to show their street power. They have become an anathema for this country. MAJ warned us about this, but his advice fell on deaf ears and today we are reaping the harvest.
State sovereignty and collective national interests and security of Pakistan, are far more important than the political, commercial interests and profiteering of a few. Pakistan today is at crossroads, facing existential threats, staring us in the face. It is time for action. Unless major structural changes are enforced immediately on a war footing, encouraging investment in the productive industrial sector, instead of the real estate land development, neither exports will increase, nor will imports decline and neither can the budget deficit be controlled.
Smuggling must stop. Agricultural produce of basic essential food items has declined, because total acreage of fertile land has decreased. The Conflicts of Interest of a few at helm has deprived millions, who survived working in the agriculture sector. Land on the periphery of every major city and town which produced fresh vegetables and fruit for citizens has been given to the elite at subsidized rates, and instead farm houses have emerged, with palatial houses etc., and hardly any agriculture yield. Fertile state land, including that which can be made productive, should only be allotted to those who till the land and survive on its yield and earnings.
To begin, all major land development plans, which involve converting agricultural land to concrete jungles must be reversed and heavy taxation penalties imposed on conversion of green pastures for any purpose, to make this uneconomical. Unfortunately, the vested interests of a few powerful groups within the political and paid elite are allowed to prevail, the economy cannot and will not revive. How can any Economic Plan work, if industries build on land allotted by provincial government are allowed to be demolished and replaced with shopping plazas and malls?
—The writer is contributing columnist, based in Lahore.
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