WE are in the midst of a general election due on 8 February 2024. Pakistan faces an economic quagmire which threatens state sovereignty and national security. What is required is a complete restructuring of economic policies and the civil or uniformed bureaucracy that has been at helm. The state revenues and coffers must increase and this cannot occur, until emphasis shifts to regenerative economic activity, instead of real estate, where the black money is parked. No state can develop unless it develops its human resources by investing in education, health and research in science and technology.
Agriculture, once the backbone of our economy, is now facing a crisis. Yields per acre are declining and agricultural green acreage is shrinking, falling prey to the greed of a few involved in land development projects. The unchecked rise in population has exacerbated these issues. Inflation and the rising prices of homegrown basic food essentials, resulting from shortages, have forced the country to import food items that it was once self-sufficient in. Rise in poverty and unemployment has contributed to discontent and increase in those living below the poverty line, making millions suspectable to exploitation by alien forces involved in terrorism and anti-state activities. The State must understand gravity of the crisis. This places a lot of responsibilities on political parties and other stakeholders to realize the enormity and gravity of challenges Pakistan faces.
For any change to take place, it is imperative that the state employs best qualified individuals, strictly on merit, instead of appointing political cronies or retired former state employees to meet challenges that Pakistan faces and keep stride with technological advancement. It is indeed criminal to ignore the qualified youth in a country facing unemployment. Individuals, who are beneficiary of pension from the state, must not be eligible to be rehired in any SOE. How can this be justified in a country, where a few individuals are simultaneously beneficiaries of pension and a salary from national exchequer, whilst more qualified younger remain unemployed. In any case we live in a world where specialists should be preferred instead of so called “Jack of all trades”. The brain drain is further aggravated by such policies. These individuals being rehabilitated were part of the system which is responsible for the mess that Pakistan is in today, and cannot be part of the solution.
No political party has as yet come out publicly with plans and blueprint on how they plan to salvage the economy, nor has anyone acknowledged that the present elitist culture must be abandoned. The World Bank Country Director Najy Benthassine has expressed concerns about economic development and model, which benefits the elite, resulting in rapid increase in poverty, environmental changes and decline in all socio-economic indicators. He suggests major policy changes with emphasis on structural reforms. The Economic Model that Pakistan has been pursuing and adopted for past decades, must be changed to achieve financial stability, ensuring better distribution, promoting generation of alternate energy sources, instead of expensive options. Investment in development of basic human resources through education and research, with an infrastructure capable to achieve this has been limited by cost of debt servicing, elitist culture and providing subsidies to a select few in the paid bureaucracy, both civil and uniformed.
Instead of the IMF or World Bank issuing such warnings and advices it should have been political elite, electorate and powerful establishment that has been at helm. They need to awaken and understand that status quo can no longer be sustainable. A country like Bangladesh, which was once part of Pakistan, has managed to achieve economic self-sustenance and development in human resources etc., after they shed economic model and took steps to restore civilian supremacy and meritocracy. In the 60s, Ayub Khan, the then President, considered these Bengalis a drag on Pakistan and instructed his Law Minister, former CJ Munir, to convey this message to a prominent parliamentarian of former East Pakistan. This is acknowledged by CJ Munir in his book “From Jinnah to Zia”.
Lofty promises like doubling salaries of state and public sector employees or giving lakhs of homes, may sound good, but cannot be achieved with empty state coffers. Unless and until the State widens its tax net by bringing all those who earn above a certain threshold, Pakistan will never be able to get out of the Debt Trap and the economic quagmire, it is engulfed with. The status quo cannot persist. The state can either give subsidies to the most deprived or the most affluent, including its paid elite simultaneously. When hundreds of thousands of acres of land belonging to poor Haris is forcefully occupied, facilitated by either provincial governments or other powerful stakeholders, then it makes a mockery of the lofty electoral promises of providing subsidized housing for the poor. The only tangible solution would be to return back the land, where these poor lived and tilled the land for decades which was forcefully taken from them. This policy of “running with hares and hunting with hounds” must be shed in totality.
The very purpose for creation of Pakistan was to have a “modern welfare state”, with self-rule through their elected representatives and equal rights and opportunities for all citizens, irrespective of their cast, creed, faith or sex. India has embarked on steps to bring 67 cantonments, a legacy of Colonial Raj within jurisdiction of elected civilian state governments. There is no concept of ruling families in a democracy or in Islam. All political parties must clearly and unequivocally submit plans to bring all those sectors, which have enjoyed subsidies, such as retail/wholesale, tobacco industry, sugar/fertilizer cartels, or foundations involved in commercial enterprises etc., within tax net. Widespread smuggling taking place across our western borders cannot occur without connivance of those recruited by the state to curb smuggling. The state policies for energy sector must be overhauled and change. There should be Zero Tolerance for any Conflicts of Interest by the elected or paid elite.
—The writer is contributing columnist, based in Lahore.
Email: [email protected]
views expressed are writer’s own.
