Daily Times

The exceptionally pro-capitalist (2012-13) budget with large-scale tax exemptions and benefits for the rich is a deceptive trap for the working classes whose blood, sweat and tears will be squeezed even more with the burgeoning crisis of Pakistani capitalism. Lately, the masses have lost interest in the budget presentation ritual. This distrust towards the asseverations of ruling politicians and bureaucrats over time is not without a cause. Annual budgets have become a farcical exercise. Hardly a week passes without exorbitant price hikes and other draconian economic measures that keep on inflicting insult upon injury on the oppressed masses. Statistics are manipulated, engineered and are played with by the elites to further their sinister exploitation and intrigues to plunder more. Mushtaq Ahmed Yousafi, a former bureaucrat and a renowned humorist, once said, “There are three sorts of lies; a lie, a white lie and official statistics.” Facts are presented in such a strange manner that it distorts the stark realities of society, confuses the populace and presents a hyped up picture of a bleak situation.

Leaving aside the meaningless and perpetual television debates, the reality of the budget and its ramifications can only be understood by examining the socioeconomic doctrines and politics of those who make and tailor it. In the last analysis, every policy is made to protect and enhance the interests of the ruling classes. In Pakistan’s chequered history, it was only after the revolutionary upheaval of 1968-69 and the induction of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government that most radical reforms were introduced. In the budget of 1972-3, presented by Dr Mubashar Hassan, health and education were nationalised and allocated a record 42.3 percent of budgetary spending. However, without obliteration of capitalism, the economy did not have the capacity to sustain such radical reforms. Ever since then, budgetary allocations for these sectors have not gone above five percent. In the last few years, these sectors in Pakistan are amongst the least allocated budgetary spending in the world. The present budget is exactly contrary to Z A Bhutto’s philosophy and the socialist origins of the PPP.

The largest chunk of the total expenditure goes to debt servicing. Although the original amounts of the imperialist loans have been repaid, yet such is the crushing coercion that with the high rates of usury, foreign debt keeps piling up. The next big allocation goes to military spending. The major part of that is again reverted to imperialist military-industrial complexes that sell gadgets of human destruction at astronomical prices to the poorest of the countries whose ruling elites get hefty kickbacks for facilitating these business deals. This means that with less than 10 percent of the revenues remaining for everything else, there is no chance for any real social development. With the plunder of the state, the social and physical infrastructural development is at the mercy of the World Bank, the IMF, the Asian Development Bank, and other imperialist institutions. Hence, further exacerbation of foreign debt, which will again have to be paid with yet more loans and an even greater interest rate. The vicious cycle becomes an ever-rising spiral.

The devastating impact of a world crisis of capitalism has resulted in rapid disinvestment, contraction of markets and deepening of recession. Pakistan’s exports are falling, leading to an unprecedented trade deficit. Along with this, the current account, fiscal and budget deficits have sharply increased. Forex reserves can suddenly crash. The outcry about taxing the rich is a rhetorical hoax. Policies like liberalisation, restructuring and tax incentives are to prop up rates of profit as a sole incentive for investors. Liberalisation is the policy for capitalists to extract gargantuan profits and transfer them anywhere they like. Restructuring means conversion of permanent employment into contract labour and relinquishing of health, education, union and other rights of the proletariat. Lately to enhance their profits, imperialist corporations have switched to capital-intensive investment rather than labour-intensive, as was the case a decade ago. This would mean a retrenchment of workers from privatised institutions and very little, if any, generation of jobs in the new investment, if at all it comes. Paradoxically, leaders of all mainstream political leaders and economic experts are parroting this mantra of direct foreign investment as a recipe for growth and development. This means, under capitalism, every regime, civilian or military, will have to embark on these policies. The so-called national bourgeoisie is historically belated, technologically dependent, comprador in character and financially depleted. It is so debilitated that it has become essential for it to steal electricity, gas, bank loans, plunder the state and evade taxes to sustain its rates of profit. The largest private entrepreneur in Pakistan is the Fauji Foundation, a subsidiary of the army. Most politicians, generals and those at the helm of power in any capitalist regime are from these classes or their mercenaries. A state and system created to protect the interests of the ruling classes can in no way infringe upon their exploitation and plunder.

Hence, the burden of this economic catastrophe has to be borne by the toiling masses. This austerity regime will only aggravate an economic catastrophe. Indirect taxation, relentless price hikes, redundancies, poverty and misery is the only destiny of the working classes under capitalism. Symbolic wage increases cannot match runaway inflation. With a rapid depreciation of the rupee, its value has reduced more than half in four years. As every passing day further deteriorates the living conditions of the masses, every tomorrow becomes an ever-greater horror, ravaging the lives of the people of this sad country. But the oppressed masses will not accept this tragic destiny, contrived by a cruel and callous minority at the top. For their emancipation, it is necessary to obliterate blood sucking free market economics and replace it with a planned economy, aimed at the fulfilment of human needs. The Pakistani proletariat has glorious revolutionary traditions. A seething revolt is roiling like lava just beneath the surface. Once they recrudesce into a revolution, they shall create their own destiny.

The writer is the editor of Asian Marxist Review and International Secretary of Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign. He can be reached at ptudc@hotmail.com