Daily Times

The nation has pinned many hopes on the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan that he would reorient the foreign and security policy of the country, rehabilitate the economy, fix the loss accumulating public sector enterprises, increase exports and cut imports and expenditures, provide employment and housing to the underprivileged, improve the communication infrastructure, healthcare and education, reform bureaucracy and police, put in place a transparent accountability system, reduce the unwieldy size of the federal government and promote austerity from top to the lowest rung, create an investment friendly conditions in the country. These are daunting challenges and require all-out efforts to grapple with.

The federal government is sluggishly moving to perform these Herculean tasks. Though task forces were formed to take stock of the depth of the problems in these governmental structures and make implementable suggestions, no effort as yet has translated into a substantive improvement in any field for the people to see except for certain high-profile arrests in corruption cases and some positive changes in few economic indicators – reduction in the current account deficit, increase in exports and decrease in imports – that, too, are doubtfully unsustainable. The slow pace in taking corrective measures has caused concerns among the supporters of the ruling party and provided a lethal weapon to the opposition to take the government to task.

Admittedly, Pakistan is one of the most ungovernable countries in this part of the world and the people inhabiting it leave everything to the government to solve while seeking heaven in their palms. For decades now no government tried seriously to diagnose and treat the disease which was poisoning the governance. They contented themselves with remedying the symptoms shying away from any major surgery to remove malignant lumps. We produced less and over indulged in consumption; we did not increase revenue prospects and resorted to borrowing and begging to the peril of our honour and dignity. No loan comes without strings. The natural consequence was what we are having handful of it today.

Leaders are supposed to lead in reorienting the direction of their nations and driving home the understanding how long and sustained collective toil is required in setting a country on the path to stable economic development and prosperity. Unlike politicians, a leader educates his nation and carries it along in his quest to reorient the direction of the vital policies of the country. Prime Minister Imran Khan has all the qualities of a leader. He is honest, simple and compassionate with an iron will and enormous courage. He will achieve his dream of making Pakistan a prosperous country if he puts his priorities in right perspective and appoints right people for right jobs.

The foreign and security policy of the country needs reorientation. We have not been behaving like a dignified nation. No nation with a begging bowl in hand can have influence in this Hobbesian world

The people of Pakistan would give him time to set the country on the right path provided he remains in constant dialogue with them and launches some good supportive programs including income generating small projects to mitigate the hardships of the population living under the poverty line and those with low incomes in healthcare, education, utilities while overhauling the economy. He has to plug loopholes in tax collection, enhance the exports, reduce imports, curtail overhead expenditure rightsizing the structures of governance and fix up the loss incurring public sector enterprises once for all rightsizing them or privatizing them with assets and liabilities.

There should be no compromise on eradication of corruption from the society which is afflicted from the top to the bottom. The bureaucracy in the secretariat, divisional and district administrations, treasury, health, education, auxiliary branches of works and services, local bodies and police in the provinces have become subservient to the minions of the ruling parties, and ruthless plunderers to the masses. The high ranking thieves steal from the exchequer of the country while the second and third ranking monsters pick pockets of the people and swindle the budgets of the public service departments. Contractors of all civil and engineering works pay heavy commissions, municipal and town committees make monthly payments, medical superintendents, educational officers, Food officers, engineers pay heavy amounts for their transfers and postings and also grease the palms of the politicians and their minions in their jurisdictions.

Police is the root cause of or the active abettor in – many crimes including robbery, abduction for ransom, killing or gravely injuring (full fry or half fry) in fake police encounters, torturing in police stations and registration of false cases, street crimes, drug sales, gambling and unauthorized car parking in metropolis cities. This is not the exhaustive list of the crimes committed or patronized by police. This is exactly what is happening in Sindh and Balochistan. The Anti-Corruption Establishments have proved totally ineffective to stem the growing menace of corruption. There is no fear of accountability or the proverbial long arms of law. The Thana culture flourishes by leaps and pounds and remains, as usual, a lethal weapon in the hands of wadera – unfortunately being the local politician too -to subdue any public cry. He is real arbiter of gain or loss, honour or dishonor. Police behaves as his concubine.

The foreign and security policy of the country needs reorientation. We have not been behaving like a dignified nation. No nation with a begging bowl in hand can have influence in this Hobbesian world. Religion and spiritual affinity do not play any effective role in interstate relations. Economic interests and strategic impulses drive foreign policies of nation states. We have the military power. We need to have economic power if we want to regain our influence in the region and beyond. We have a vibrant young population and we need to invest in their capacity building. We have had enough of being subservient to the affluent Arab states seeking – as some of our self-serving politician shamelessly did -their iqamas, doing business and buying plazas and palaces there. We need to free our foreign policy from all religious and spiritual considerations seeking relationship with other nation states on secular, economic and strategic basis.

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