PRIME Minister Imran Khan, on Thursday, while chairing meetings and addressing ceremonies, issued directives with potential to provide genuine relief to the people through good governance and improvement of civic facilities. He asked the Chief Secretaries to pay special attention to the eradication of Patwari and corruption culture and introduction of digitization in land transfer and other issues; formulation of master plan of Karachi and review of master plans of other cities of the country; facilitation of investors in housing sector; establishment of border markets on Pak-Afghan and Pak-Iran borders; transparent utilization of mineral resources of Balochistan and increase spending on education.
There is no doubt that the Government is facing financial crunch and, therefore, it was not in a position to give meaningful monetary or economic relief to the masses but the directives issued by the Prime Minister clearly show that governance can surely be improved without incurring any significant expenditure. All the issues that the Prime Minister has taken up for discussion during his daily engagements are causing difficulties to the people with demands for reforms in these areas. Crimes, sense of insecurity and rampant corruption can be taken care of if Thana (police station) and Patwari culture are eliminated for which slogans were also raised in the past but with limited success. PTI too pledged to reform police but the goal seems to have been abandoned as police is as politicized today as it was before and grievances of the people against the force remain unattended. However, people would heave a sigh of relief if the present Government, under directives of the Prime Minister, succeeds in eradication of Patwari and corruption culture. PML(N) Government initiated a comprehensive exercise for digitization of land record and to minimize the role of Patwari, which is root of corruption in revenue department. The record has largely been computerized but its due benefits are not accruing because of continued involvement of Patwari in the maintenance of the record and issuance of the documents to citizens. In fact, citizens complain that rates of corruption have increased and they have to spend more as compared to past for getting any land transaction done.
Therefore, provinces should join their heads and evolve a highly transparent system of land record and procedures for related transactions. As for revision of master plans of various cities, the exercise is overdue but the pace of revision is sluggish as witnessed in the case of Islamabad and as a result there is no letup in haphazard growth of the capital. Civic bodies have vested interests in maintaining the status quo and this calls for time-bound progress on revision of master plans, which should reflect ground realities and problems of the people. Master plans, among other things, should also deal with issues like traffic congestion, upgradation of sewage and drainage system, solid waste management and water security. Urban forestry can provide answer to many problems facing our towns and cities including growing environmental degradation. The Government might have done the preparatory work on establishment of border markets but in the absence of relevant details, one is constrained to apprehend that these would serve no other purpose than become legalized Bara markets.
There is need to consider all pros and cons in advance so that the national economy does not suffer for the sake of trading opportunities to a few people. The Prime Minister has acknowledged that his Government neglected the education sector as it did not receive required funding during the last two years due to paucity of resources. The intention of the premier to spend recovered looted money on education is not plausible as it would mean uncertain and inadequate resources. Instead, the authorities should mull over proposals how to implement the oft-repeated commitment to spend 4% of the GDP on education. As the subject of education has been devolved to provinces, the federal government ought to allocate funds for establishment of international standard institutions of higher education as well as scientific research whereas provinces can take care of primary, secondary and college education. The Prime Minister has reasons to deplore that the country has failed to introduce local scientists and became a mere copying entity instead of making its own patents but the question arises what the Government proposes to rectify the situation. There is definite need to ensure transparent utilization of mineral resources of Balochistan, which, according to conservative estimates, has minerals worth over one trillion dollars but our handling of the issue is evident from what happened on Reko Diq front.
