Daily Times

It is well said that ‘to be mistaken is a misfortune to be pitied but to know the truth and not to conform one’s actions to it, is a crime which Heaven and Earth condemn’. The nation should come to know the truth – as clear as a glow in the darkness. It should know the impelling need to rise to the occasion shunning petty politics, political affinities, ethnic and cultural biases; the past blunders; the past unwelcome factional fissures, and set on a self-correcting course conforming its actions to the new emerging political and economic realities in order to live in honour and dignity. All the developed nations of the world have faced such difficult situations in their history. They were saved from doom by a continued process of self-correction led by conscientious leaders.

The great masses of the people fall victim to a big lie than to a small one. The masses from the different continents have the same psyche – gullible, innocent and sentimental – carried away by slogans of patriotism, loyalty, attachment to an ideology, cause or dynasty. It is equally applicable to almost all the peoples what Edgar Watson How used to say about the Americans in the beginning of the twentieth century that they “detest all lies except lies spoken in public or printed lies”. The people of Pakistan today have been facing such a dilemma in the face of the relentless onslaught of lies, rumours, conspiracy theories in the social media spreading doom and gloom. Fissiparous, disparaging and invective posts and fake videos are believed in by our social media users as gospel verses. Surely, the men of knowledge, consciousness and conscience do not ignore what Aristotle told humanity more than a score of centuries ago that “repetition does not transform a lie into a truth”.

We, as a nation, have wasted long years to embark on the path to self-correction and dignified way of living. The economic aid and assistance, financial dole-outs from foreign friends had driven us to a path of extravagance, ostentation or profligate habits. We had become addicted to a way of living much beyond our resources. We spent more than what we earned. We mortgaged our honour, dignity and sovereign right to the international lending institutions for loans – loans the biggest part of which never went into building of public welfare projects and structural economic reforms. These were just used to bridge the gap between our sluggishly growing revenues and the fast spiraling administrative expenditures. Foreign loans as such are not a bad thing if these are used in reproductive socio-economic projects and building economic infrastructure. For long years, there has been a gnawing gap between our revenues from exports, foreign remittances and taxes and overhead expenditures on administration and imports. This gap kept growing to the peril of the common people and no serious effort was made to bridge it.

The economic aid and assistance, financial dole-outs from foreign friends had driven us to a path of extravagance, ostentation or profligate habits. We had become addicted to a way of living much beyond our resources

The foreign loans of the country witnessed tremendous increase in the past ten years from 2008-2018. The increase reached the alarming figure of Rs. 30,000 billion. The gap between our exports and imports stood at over $37billion by the end of the financial year 2017-2018. We were bound to pay a huge amount in debt retirement and in interests on loans to avoid defaulting on our obligations. The PTI leaders despite their known aversion to foreign loans had to go to the IMF for a bailout. The leaders who ruled the country in the past decade now mislead the masses unabashedly by throwing all the dirt at the PTI door. Those who lie to their people; mislead their nation; do not muster the courage to accept their mistakes; resort to loot and injudicious management of the public exchequer – all a toxic porridge of misdeeds – are incorrigibly corrupt in their souls and nothing good and sincere could be expected from them.

Prime Minister Imran Khan, in his recent address to the nation, announced to constitute a high-powered commission comprising representatives of the Federal Board of Revenue, State Bank of Pakistan, Federal Investigation Agency and Intelligence Agencies to determine the conditions leading to the rapid accumulation of foreign debts and collect details how and where this huge amount was expended to bring improvement in the life of the common people. No doubt, the country was facing security problems before the advent of the civilian regimes in 2008.

The PPP regime inherited these problems. Some portions of the foreign debts must have gone into the mobilization of the security forces on the fronts against the TTP. But it is also a fact that from 2002 to 2015, huge US financial assistance in military and economic aid along with coalition support funds were also replenishing the national exchequer. The commission, therefore, may not only have the mandate of looking into the accumulation of foreign debts in the past decade, it should also include the years from 2002-2008 in its fact-finding mission. The commission may work parallel to and independent of – the current process of accountability.

To uphold the cannons of fair play, justice and transparency, the commission should be independent of the federal government also and headed by a serving Judge of the Supreme Court invested with all administrative and judicial powers for summoning concerned officials and the relevant records; passing orders or giving directives to any department, visiting places and sites for physical verification of a project etc. The terms of references for the commission could be determined in consultation with the Ministries of Law and Justice, Economic Affairs and Finance, and the Federal institutions and departments dealing with public finances. The findings of the commission should be made public within the shortest possible time after submission. It should not meet the fate of the reports of all the previous fact-finding missions. The people of the country expect a fair and transparent administration from PTI. Failure on this count will plunge them into an abyss of despondency- a despondency being the first sign of a crumbling nation.

The writer was a member of the Foreign Service of Pakistan and he has authored two books