Daily Times

LAHORE: Former State Bank of Pakistan governor Dr Ishrat Hussain has said that all of Pakistan is still suffering from the systematic undermining of state institutions of the 1970s.

He expressed his trust on the youth of Pakistan by saying that only the youth can bring the real change in the country.

He was addressing a panel discussion on the book Governing The Ungovernable on Wednesday, held under the auspices of Information Technology University’s Centre for Governance & Policy.

ITU Vice Chancellor Dr Umar Saif said that Dr Ishrat Hussain’s book gives all the empirical data and theoretical basis to lead and implement reforms in Pakistan. He said that from his experience of working in the trenches on issues of reform, the reform was not about money as “PITB only uses 0.03 percent of the budget of Pakistan, but its impact on almost every sector speaks volumes. All the possible planning has been done in Pakistan and it was needed to implement it”, he added.

Dr Ishrat Hussain underlined the critical importance of the youth in this debate.

“You are the real drivers of change in Pakistan,” Dr Hussain said. “If the youth of the country take their civic responsibility seriously then Pakistan can be transformed. You have the vote; use it wisely and Pakistan will progressively change for the better,” he said, noting that the high rate of attrition in urban constituencies during elections shows that the urban youth are beginning to understand the electoral process.

“The educated urban middle class youth is key to change in Pakistan,” he argued.

Talking about the long term nature of the conversation, Dr Hussain said, “Reform is not an overnight agenda and takes decades to accomplish, but we need to start somewhere.” He gave the examples of how Pakistan got industrialised in the 1960s, the development of the agriculture sector, and even Pakistan International Airlines, which was a beacon for other airlines in its hay days, to underscore that it is not that Pakistan was never a model of development but that in the last 25 years, things have dramatically derailed. All institutions, especially the civil service, have been systematically undermined from the ‘70s and we are suffering from its effects now,” he opined. However, he said that while the book does not make for a cheerful read, it does show the strength of Pakistan and there is need to harness those positives. Pointing to Dr Umar Saif, Dr Hussain said, “Look at Umar Saif. He is a great example of selfless public service and I wish we could clone him for the federal, KPK, Sindh and Balochistan governments as then Pakistan would get much ahead. Let us hope that in the upcoming elections, Pakistanis vote in large numbers and take control of their own density.”

Federal Investigation Agency former director Tariq Khosa said that there was a need for radical reform in the law and order sector in Pakistan. He delineated certain points which Dr Hussain had pointed out as critical in his book, including depoliticising the police and security of tenure. Tariq Khosa emphasised that the police needed to change its nature to improve law and order. “We need to move away from the constabulary model of policing to the community model,” he added. He also stressed the need to stop patronising all kinds of terrorist organisations.

Published in Daily Times, May 3^rd 2018.