Daily Times

During the 1992 Cricket world cup, Imran Khan openly and profoundly displayed his newly embraced passion of ‘mind power’, and the symbolic representation of himself and his team, as the cornered tigers. One can also frequently see him in the world cup matches point to his brain as a gesture, to reiterate the power of the mind, to his comrades.

The metaphysics of belief and faith is important and the evidence on the success of Khan’s rhetoric was that Pakistan won the 1992 Cricket World cup. Unfortunately, Governance is not a one day match or a cricket tournament but an accumulative and progressive path.

Inflation, price hikes, poor GDP growth rate, and Rupee Devaluation, the Pakistan Tehreek I Insaf (PTI) led government is missing the macro projections and results, at the cost of micro changes and improvements.Neither the Finance Minister nor any other Minister, can consolidate citizens solely on belief and faith. An empty stomach only understands the language of Food.

Cricket, a mechanical and repetitive sport of two opponents playing against each other, with a 15 member squad on each side, by no means stand any merits of comparison and analogical reasoning with Governance.

The comparison of a cricket team and parliamentary members is weak, as for the former the demand is performance and for the latter, for better or for worse, is a fixed interim time of five years as members of the national assembly

First, the only opponent in Governance and ‘Politik’, is past record and the need to outperform it better in the future. Unlike Cricket, the results are not dependent on the fitness and tantrums of 15 talented cricket stars but the health, wealth and security of millions of citizens.

The comparison of a cricket team and parliamentary members is also strongly weak, as for the former the demand is performance and for the latter, for better or for worse, is a fixed interim time of five years as members of the national assembly.

The visibility and merit of a bowler and batsman can be tested in two overs, if not one. In case of Pakistani politicians, it is the other way around. It is not the team that tests the player, it is the MNA player who is testing the team and company.It is the MNA (the monopoly withholder of a regional constituency) that tests, determines, and swaps between different parties, and so far the PTI innings is struggling.

Lastly in cricket, the method of headhunting and talent acquisition is simple, search and select the best on merit. In Pakistani democracy, it isthe feudal landlords and industrialists as members of the National Assembly in the Parliament, with their monopoly of almost every province and region of Pakistan.

Successfully running a house, business, school, hospital and even a State, demands efficient and effective administrative skills, however the analogical argument of a state and charitable hospital is vague and absurd due to fundamental differences in nature.

A charitable hospital has to be a nonprofit organization, as for the State and its stakeholders, all that matters is ‘profit’. Adam Smith, a pioneer of political economy, writes in Wealth of Nations.

“There is no art which one government sooner learns of another than that of draining money from the pockets of the people.”

Imran Khan, during the conception and construction of ShaukatKhanum Memorial Hospital (SKMH), did phenomenal in his donations campaign in Pakistan and the international world. His efforts of reaching schools, streets, business community, and celebrities were commendable.

Today, PM Khan’s leadership and charisma is inviting head representatives and people of other nations to invest, travel, and experience Pakistan, in a similar fashion but with a fundamental difference, when it comes to wealth of nations, charity is delusional and only profit matters.

The nature of a successful state is sustainability, self-reliance and progression. PM Khan’s greatest possible misunderstanding in such a poor comparison is the synonymity of trust and tax. In the past, people of Pakistan and the world gave money, as donations for SKMH because they trusted the cause and Khan’s ability to deliver. If people still trust him, and I believe they do, why they still are not paying income tax properly? And how true is the dream of Pakistanis believing in the conversions of black money to white?

Citizens’ trust on government with tax, is an outcome and consequence of effective governance, not the cause. In other words the reason that stops and hinders people to pay tax is not trust, it is greed. It’s the sin of greed that is the cause of tax evasion, not trust in the government. This is the causation and correlation fallacy.

Pakistan, neither a cricket team nor a charitable hospital, now is at the mercy of PM Khan and the PTI led government. The necessity of reforms and the requirement of divergent thinking is exponentially growing. After the Finance Minister levied a 6.45 Percent indirect tax on a basic commodity of petrol, it should be clear the PTI led government is currently clueless on how to make Pakistan profitable.

The Writer is a Lecturer and Trainer with accumulated academic experience from US, Turkey, and Germany