Daily Times

Mian Nawaz Sharif completed a successful visit to China after taking oath of premiership for the third time. The practice of successful visits of China by the rulers is going on for the last many years, rather decades. Our rulers claim that friendship with China is higher than the Himalayas and deeper than the oceans, but such visits did not bring any fruitful change in the Pakistani economy. If we compare Pakistan’s trade with the US and European countries with China, it is crystal clear that the bilateral trade with the western countries is more beneficial for Pakistan than trade with China. China has been dumping cheap and substandard products in Pakistani markets for the last many years, resulting in the closure of our cottage industry.

Strong relations and bilateral trade with neighbours need a strong foreign policy as well as economic activities. Unfortunately, Pakistan lacks both these capabilities. Due to long terms of dictatorship, parliament neither can make foreign policy independently nor has any ability to produce products that boost our economy. Pakistan has good relations only with those countries that can provide it monetary assistance to purchase weapons. On the one hand, the state is busy in acquiring the latest weapons, and on the other, approximately 40 percent of the people of the country are living below the poverty line.

If the state is serious about having friendly relations with neighbouring countries, then Afghanistan, India and Iran should be Pakistan’s best friends. But the present situation is that instead of friendship, Pakistan wants to conquer these countries. In reality, Pakistan’s key to success is friendly relations with Afghanistan and India. If Pakistan stops dreaming of conquering India and Afghanistan, these two countries can generate enough business activities for us to revive our economy. If we allow India to trade with Afghanistan and the Central Asian states through the Wagha border, it will not only boost our economy but also benefit the people. The people of Pakistan will have easy access to the cheaper and quality products of India, getting rid of substandard Chinese items. No doubt, the Nawaz government wants to do this but the military establishment is the biggest hurdle in this move.

Nawaz Sharif has announced the construction of a railway track and motorway from Kashgar to Gwadar. No doubt, these projects are the need of the time to generate economic activity to some extent but these multi-billion dollar projects cannot prove beneficial to the already crippled economy, and ultimately the people of Pakistan will pay the price in the shape of higher taxes. Our rulers do not seem to have any programme to rehabilitate the railway system, which requires a relatively small investment but strong commitment. But our rulers have no such priorities because there is no booty in these old projects as compared to new ones. This can be termed as the lack of vision that rulers do not want to improve the already poor infrastructure. They have no priorities for the social uplift of the people. Education and health are two of the main issues but the government is not ready to address these problems. People are compelled to live in extreme poverty but the rulers are giving a gift of metro bus project to the people of big cities. It is an irony that the development budget of small towns is also spent on big cities.

The continuous energy crisis has crippled the economy as well as the social structure of the country. Initially, the Nawaz government claimed it would overcome the energy crisis in one year; after a month, they said two years, then three, and now the PM has declared in the energy conference that it will take four years.

To attract foreign investment and generate economic activity, there should be a peaceful environment in Pakistan. Investors will not come to Pakistan unless the government controls terrorist activities. Terrorist activities, instead of going down, are increasing day by day. The Nawaz government has remained silent over the recent terrorist activities in which scores of people have died. Government has shown no commitment to countering the terrorist organisations. Besides suicide attacks, these terrorists are also involved in kidnapping for ransom and money extortion in the name of zakat and fitrana. Government is unable to take any strict action against these elements. It should be remembered that recently the police arrested a terrorist in Karachi who belonged to the Laskhar-e-Jhangvi and was the prayer leader of a local mosque.

The Nawaz government is not ready to condemn the terrorist organisations openly, even those who are responsible for some attacks. Punjab has become the hub of terrorist organisations and members of banned religious organisations move freely in Punjab.

Parliament is the proper forum to make a counterterrorism strategy instead of holding useless all-parties conferences. If the Nawaz government is serious about controlling terrorism it should ban militant religious organisations and their activities immediately. It should be remembered that extremism can only be controlled when religion and politics are separated just as they are in every democratic society, where people are free to perform their religious activities and the state has no concern about their creed. The UN Charter of Human Rights has also guaranteed that people are free to perform their religious practices in their respective states. Though Pakistan has signed the UN charter yet its reputation to implement this practice is very bad, as minorities are not safe here.

The writer is a freelance columnist