Daily Times

In a country of over 204 million people, about 10,000 individuals, prominent in business or profession or holding key positions in state institutions, think they know each and everything and can fix the multiple, complex problems faced by Pakistan, either single-handedly or by forming WhatsApp groups. So, we see minute-to-minute discussions on various groups on social media, containing infinite proposals for a prosperous Pakistan. Then there are the actions of those who have unbridled judicial power, exercised in the name of “public interest litigation”, who create an atmosphere of uncertainty rendering the state further dysfunctional.

Actions in good faith by private and public figures in the name of changing “the fate of the nation” are largely misdirected — ignoring the need to build existing institutions and instead creating one’s own “derh eent ki alag masjid” [literally means separate mosque of one and a half bricks but implying individualistic initiatives].

Hungry for self-projection and publicity, our self-styled wizards are even not ready to read the first 100-day plan by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), what to speak of proving with reason and logic that it cannot fix the country’s major problems. The rejection of this document by Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League — Nawaz (PML-N) is understandable for political reasons, but the so-called experts also did not bother to anaylse it dispassionately. This is the real malady of Pakistan. Democracy requires participation and public debate but ours represents either an authoritarian or individualistic approach.

Due to failure of the state functionaries to perform their duties for which they are paid (though meagerly), we have gaps everywhere. The political parties in power since 2008 in the centre and provinces criminally violated this constitutional command. Busy in mudslinging and condemning each other, not one has presented emergent measures to fix economic issues like public debt of 72 percent of GDP that is Rs 24.5 trillion as of June 30.

Self-acclaimed wizards want to “takeover” all functions of state, from building dams to reforming education/health systems. These zealots do not believe in proper homework, research, alternatives and learn from those who have delivered successful models elsewhere. Loathing politics, they dub elected members/public servants “useless people”. They are keen to seek donations for dams, schools and hospitals etc, but demonstrate apathy when it comes to making an effort to ask the government to improve public/social services. The document, 100-Day Economic Agenda for the Incoming Government, launched by Pakistan Business Council (PBC) on July 9, 2018, also reflects the thinking of the same class of self-styled experts, who believe: “we know the best!”

Neither PBC nor any political party has bothered to benefit from the excellent work of eminent economist, Dr Nadeem Ul Haque, Looking Back: How Pakistan Became an Asian Tiger by 2050 — a book that offers a roadmap for a prosperous Pakistan. Our policymakers, politicians and businessmen are averse to scholarly work — thus even top universities work in isolation. The best pastime of “WhatsApp geniuses” is presenting and/or debating shallow and obscure proposals without pondering on how these can work in an outdated, legislative, administrative and judicial system. Nobody in the mainstream and social media talks about dismantling VIP culture of protocols, free plots and unprecedented perquisites etc. The essence of democracy is equality and rule of law and not mere elections with clichés. However, we are more interested in these, rather than establishing open and responsible governments at all levels — federal, provincial and local. Therefore, all political parties have presented “impressive” and fancy-worded manifestos on paper but none has presented plans and strategy to achieve the stated goals.

Democracy requires participation and public debate but ours represents either an authoritarian or individualistic approach

To transform Pakistan into an Asian Tiger, as elaborated by Dr. Nadeem, we need to restructure all state institutions — the future of democracy depends on breaking the monopoly of bureaucrats on financial matters. The next government in its first 100 days must work for a competitive private sector, efficiency and productivity. These can help increasing exports to the level of 25 percent of the GDP — in 2017-18 exports were only $23.2 billion (just 7.7 percent of GDP) against imports of $60.9 billion. Emphasis should be on rapid economic growth — tax is just its byproduct; the higher the growth, the higher the tax. Irrational taxes — which hurts the weaker sections of society — have created an ugly fiscal mess.

Pakistan is one of those very fortunate countries of the world having an abundance of resources and a climate that is fit for simply any activity throughout the year. But thanks to the donors’ agenda of regressive taxation and the incompetence of our economic managers, our dependence on imports has increased manifold, whereas even conventional exports have declined, let alone any value-added products manufactured through innovation and by high-tech industries. Modern economies are knowledge-based, and the future is for those who can develop them as quickly as possible. No political party has even touched this point in its manifesto.

For technological transfers, rapid industrial growth and employment generation, local and foreign direct investment is desirable. Even if we overcome energy shortages and improve infrastructure, foreign investors will not come to Pakistan due to the absence of rule of law and lack of transparency. Investors prefer a place that characterises stability, consistency and requisite infrastructure facilities — we lack all these.

To create two million jobs annually, we need the economy to grow at the rate of at least 7 percent per annum over a decade. This challenge can be a great opportunity for economic progress. Majority of job seekers are young people, who are our greatest asset — imparting education and skills to them and creating matching jobs is the real challenge.  This can be met successfully by assignment of taxes for productive investment and employment generation — our real engines of growth. This perspective is conspicuous by its absence in manifestos of the three main vote-securing political parties, PML-N, PPP and PTI.

Devising an efficient model for high growth requires an analytical study of all the irritants prevailing in all institutions and laws. Comprehensive structural reforms are the key to making Pakistan a success story in the wake of Chinese economic initiatives in this region, but all the parties have failed to even mention this in their manifestos. During its first 100 hundred days, the new government should invite experts from all fields to analyse the existing negative statutory, regulatory and administrative frameworks and suggest solutions for promoting growth, creation of jobs, fiscal stabilisation and retiring expensive debts.

The writer is Advocate Supreme Court and Adjunct Faculty at LUMS. Email: ikram@huzaimaikram.com; Twitter: @drikramulhaq

Published in Daily Times, July 15^th 2018.