Daily Times

Angela Merkel shocked the entire world by becoming the Chancellor of unified Germany. has a lot of inspirations for Pakistan and particularly leadership of ruling PML-N.

Setting aside the dissimilarity of governance systems between Germany and Pakistan, political mayhem, civil-military relations and recent judicial tension, if the basic vision and framework of economic policies are worked out as Angela Merkel put them into play, the PML-N government and its leadership may come up with a new persona as game-changer.

I It was not an easy win for Angela Merkel as Chancellor. On the one hand western democracies had been electing new faces to get rid of political unrest. One the other hand, she had been suffering a scathing criticism for her ’Open Door’ policies regarding refugees. New waves of terrorism, influx of immigrants, worldwide financial crunch and looming threats of war were worrying points for her and her party Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

When all hell broke loose, she satisfied the agitated public through positive economic indicators and sustainable financial situations. Throughout her tenure, the masses enjoyed stable growth and monetary situation, low inflation, employment surge and budgetary surplus. Her economic vision and pragmatic execution basically made the turnaround defying all turbulence in the political landscape.

Her economic vision and pragmatic execution basically made the turnaround defying all turbulence in the political landscape

Experts believe that if people cherish financial solidity, worse troubles are managed and addressed in a befitting manner. According to the 2017report of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Germany’s economic growth is projected to remain solid, and the unemployment rate to fall further. “Low unemployment and higher government spending will underpin private consumption. Exports are benefiting from strong demand in Asia and the United States. Strong revenue growth is projected to keep the government budget in surplus. Lower taxes on second earners would reduce barriers for women’s access to more attractive jobs and careers, allowing skilled labour supply to expand in a tight labour market,” report reveals.

It further discloses that strong integration in global value chains (including by outsourcing labour-intensive tasks, and strengthened sales in distant dynamic markets, notably Asia), depreciation of the Euro and wage restraint have made Germany’s manufacturers very competitive. It says that poverty remains low. “High household saving, low business investment, and budget consolidation have all contributed to the large current account surplus. Reforms to remove barriers to entry in services and boost public infrastructure would strengthen investment and reduce the large current account surplus,” it concludes.

No doubt PML-N government is embroiled in a political turmoil, judicial tussle, corruption-charges, ouster of Nawaz Sharif and other debacles, but let me say that Pakistan’ limping economic outlook has nothing to do with political crisis and civil-military uneasiness. If the PML-N leadership bothered to fix economic meltdown throughout its tenure, it would have a whopping public power and strong parliamentary role to challenge any undemocratic lobbies.

For more than 4 years, net public debt transcended to Rs18.28 trillion making a rise about 35%. This is not my assessment, but a report of the Finance Ministry shared with parliamentarians in the National Assembly.

Meanwhile, the foreign debt registered an increase of 28 percent. Owing to lop-sided policies, the government received $35 billion in new loans. Asian Development Bank (ADB) forecasts that consumer inflation in Pakistan is expected to accelerate to 4.0 percent in the 2017 fiscal year on a rebound in oil prices, higher domestic demand, and expanded government borrowing from the central bank. So much so the trade deficit spiked to 42 percent year-on-year to an all-time high of $30 billion in the first 11 months of the current fiscal year with falling exports and a sharp rise in the import bill.

The bleak economic situation is not the result of the hardships described by the PML-N government due to highhandedness of establishment, judiciary, PTI’s commotion and terrorism. Rather the economic brunt is being borne by those economic wizards who are close aide to the Sharif’s.

If follows the saying let bygones be bygones, it is high time for PML-N to reform economic policies before it is too late. In an order to thrash out the new narrative on the issue, some think tanks including ‘Soch’ headed by senior politician Muhammad Mehdi and participated by Punjab University Vice Chancellor Dr Zaffar Moeen Nisar and Professor Dr Amjad Abbas Magsi besides other scholars made an initiative by holding a round-table talk. PML-N needs to rope in all such think tanks seeking their thought-provoking ideas to improve the financial status of the country.

Apart from this, there is a lot of inspiration that can be derived from German chancellor Angela Merkel seeking her political vision. She made the people believe that the new face and new experiment may land them into uncertain situation that could not be suitable for their future.

Ralf Welt, managing director of Dicomm Advisors, a political consultancy firm based in Berlin explained her doctrine saying people trusted her political philosophy as they were not in a mood to test a new chancellor.

Though her migrant policy hits some snags and led to the emergence of a far-right, anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD), she has been able to keep damages to a minimum. I believe that PML-N has still some cards to play. If it hammers out a new policy that suits the new situation, it may make people sit and take notice as Angela Merkel did.

The writer is a senior journalist working for China Radio International Online and various national & international newspapers. He is alumni of ICFJ and award-winner of China friendly Netizen 2017. He pitches articles on diplomacy, security, economy and foreign affairs and governance. He may be reached at yaseerkhan@hotmail.com or @yasirkhan

Published in Daily Times, October 5^th 2017.