Rizwan Ghani
RECENT policy announcements by the government are bound to fail. The report of mega corruption in Rs 67.8bn Peshawar BRT project is already an embarrassment for it. Unless PTI government changes its course Imran and his cabinet could end up facing similar corruption charges. Cases in point could be price hike of sugar, flour, gas and electricity (surcharge, IPPs, circular debt, new tenders), more than half million Hajj package, housing project and so on. Without going into details of media reports about government’s housing project, the best way to complete the project is to get approval from Parliament. In this way, there will be no political and legal fallouts and governments of the day will continue housing project. It took 4½ years to build 29,000 house in America as part of 1933 New Deal. Government can propose approval of Rs400bn for the housing loans with an interest rate 8 percent and the loan could be distributed through House Building Finance Corporations as per the approved criteria including linking of loan installments with stages of house construction.
The most important benefit of using local money, labour and material in the project will be that it will generate business for 18 allied industries which in turn will create millions of jobs, expand size of the economy and increase tax revenues. Since rupee has already been devalued so government is in a better position to freeze prices for two years. If Imran can give the country a corruption free environment, the project will be successful. Any other approach will be at the cost of our jobs, economy, more foreign debt and undermining of national interest. In term of mafia and cartels, it is democratic responsibility of our government to protect the weak against the strong. Our judiciary and media should also play their role to support the government in this case. With Chief Justice latest resolve to uphold the law and public interest, it is hoped that the culprits involved in increase of commodity and utilities prices will be held accountable to end such predatory practices in future.
In last ten years, our governments have failed to build education institutions, healthcare setups and train technicians. PM after PM has offered unskilled menial jobs including yellow cab taxis to our youths. Imran too has offered cows and buffalos as source of livelihood, education loans, scholarships under different schemes to our poor and youth. These are at best adhoc arrangements which leave students under long-term debts and the governments itself cannot sustain social safety networks in the long run. Government should therefore replace such temporary measures with education and skill development. It would be lot better if government give short term technical training on war footing in all fields including healthcare, education, computers, big data, networking, 5G, ecommerce, AI, webpage and APP designing. In agriculture sector small value addition factory units can be established in neighborhoods for preserving fruit, vegetables, crops, dairy products, meat and poultry. It will help public earn more money, have more disposable income, get jobs which will help government reduce number of people on state welfare, boost domestic consumption based economy, and collect more taxes to clear national debt.
Furthermore, if our federal and provincial governments really want to help youth then they should standardize all education, make it free at all levels and provide free healthcare. No country can progress in the long run if it makes money from its own children. Germany is providing free higher education to its youth (www.daad.de/en). The country’s exports crossed $1.5trillion in 2018 alone. Privatisation will not revive our economy. It has failed in UK. The country has come to realise that privatisation of railway, energy and financial sector has been counterproductive. It has increased utility prices, cost of living, unemployment and poverty. The private businesses of our PMs are expanding may it be universities, hospitals, airlines or steel mills but when it comes to similar national businesses somehow our leaders support privatisation. And the same failing business becomes profitable as soon as they are privatised. It is about time our leaders improve state owned enterprises including railway, PIA, health, education, agriculture and manufacturing sectors. It is also hoped that all mega projects will be approved in Parliament after sharing complete details with the public. Lack of transparency will weaken government’s position and as a result every mega project offered by this government will be turned into a corruption opportunity by vested stakes at the cost of Pakistan’s economy, jobs and national interests.
—The writer is senior political analyst based in Islamabad.
