Daily Times

When the prime minister is unwell, democracy is in danger of being derailed. Curing an illness has many remedies. In the middle of a grave personal and political crisis that has apparently impacted the prime minister’s health to the extent that he had to go overseas to get treatment, reportedly, retail therapy overtook allopathic therapy. Bentley, Savile Row and Rolex, it seems, are more effective cures for the ‘maladies’ the prime minister is ‘suffering’ from than injectable antibiotics. One could say that if he was in London and had time to kill a little bit of shopping is permissible. One could also say that shopping at a few branded stores is part and parcel in a family outing. And one could also say that all said and done the prime minister is but human. Having said that, the prime minister is also a leader; the prime minister is also under the scandal of having millions of pounds stowed away in London, the very place he was found shopping at billion-dollar brands; and the fact that the prime minister’s communiqué before leaving Pakistan had painted a health picture that did not match a robust selfie-posing touristic shopper at
the Bond Street.

These pictures may be just a minor reflection of what our leaders do with their time and our money, but it is a major reflection of why they fail to govern the country as per their commitments and manifesto. On most development fronts the country has been in a downslide. Economic, institutional and human development have all taken a beating in the last decade. Pakistan stands out as the least developed country in South Asia barring Afghanistan. Even if we consider India and China as exceptional cases, most other neighbours who were way behind Pakistan have overtaken our country on most indexes of development. The most embarrassing example for us has been that of Bangladesh. While Bangladesh was part of Pakistan it was growing at a rate of three percent, and in 2015, its growth rate has doubled to 6.5 percent. Pakistan, on the other hand, was growing at a rate of six percent in 2006, and has now come down to 4.2 percent according to the official figures, but some analysts say that figures given to the IMF place it at 3.3 percent. This is not just an economic comparison but also a comparison of governance, focus, priorities, performance and most of all of leadership.

The economic development model adopted by our finance managers led by Ishaq Dar is based on borrowing, which is a proven model of economic failure in the world. The established mantra is that it is never aid but trade that builds economies. Exports have made economies like China and India the emerging superpowers that they are today. On the other hand, we have faced declining exports in the last four years, as exports barely touched $24 billion in 2014-15. Bangladesh has surpassed us with exports of $34 billion and without being a cotton-economy has become the 11th major exporter of textiles in the world. Textile industry that was supposed to be the backbone of our economy is suffering from spinal dislocation.

Perhaps the biggest casualty of this abysmal governance is state institutions and public enterprises. From the PIA to Pakistan Steel Mills to PTV, all are in a state of disarray. They are either bankrupt or dysfunctional. On the other hand, institutions like the police, National Accountability Bureau, Election Commission of Pakistan and PEMRA have become national embarrassments. The reason is simple. They are treated as lavish dole outs for loyalists. This dole out is now considered normal. Rules of recruitment are bent; perks are amassed; performance is dismissed and subsidies are given to fill the pockets of greedy appointees, who knowing that their term may be limited, treat the position as loot sale. The annual cost to the taxpayer to keep these institutions running is Rs. 500 billion, more than the entire public sector development budget. Thus the tone set at the top by these professionally unfit people pervades right down the ranks to the point that these institutions are reduced to junk that nobody will buy except a few ‘friends’, who end up making billions out of the deals.

The third component of this style of leadership is to suppress human development. An aware, educated and healthy human mind is dangerous. Thus Pakistan, in the entire South Asia, spends the lowest on education, health, infant and maternal mortality. Pakistan is ranked 147 of 180 countries in the world on the Human Development Index, lower than China, India, Sri Lanka and Bhutan. Bangladesh has moved to the 142nd position, having reduced poverty by 10 percent last year, while poverty in Pakistan has increased by three percent, according to this index. Thus the formula is foolproof. Keep them uneducated, poor and unhealthy to the extent that they neither have the sense nor the time to question and break this vicious cycle of suppression. The recent banning of the movie Maalik is a clear example of how afraid the government is of making people aware of these injustices and how dictatorial is their behaviour under the guise of democracy.

Events that would cause uproar in parliaments, unrest in media and upheaval in the public go almost unnoticed in this country. Any other prime minister wearing a 4.6 million dollars Louis Monet watch, while 60 percent of Pakistanis cannot get a decent meal a day would be considered a hugely vulgar display of wealth. The daily expense allocated for prime minister’s secretariat and house is Rs. 2.306 million, which would be considered horrific in any developing country. The cost of protecting the prime minister’s family is Rs. 365.28 million per annum, which merely covers the expense of policing the family. Such extravagances would make Americans and British gather outside the White House and 10 Downing Street with placards, but when it comes to questioning the inhabitants of the ‘Raiwind Palace’, and daring to go anywhere near the ‘no-go’ areas of the Sharif family, it gives the yes-prime-minister ministers a chance to say how ‘indecent’ is this line of questioning.

Thus the interpretation of democracy is that an elected prime minister, no matter which electoral system he has come from, has to be preserved for five years, no matter what corruption and destruction of the institutions he commits. The interpretation of democracy is that national or provincial assembly is the best forum to delay, dodge and bulldoze bills of non-favour and bills for favour. The interpretation of democracy is that when accountability is demanded simply dismiss it by making it legally impossible and politically improbable. The interpretation of democracy is that make such an uproar about the ‘derailing of the system’ that your loyalists in the parliament and your appointed heads of key state institutions join you in this chorus of ‘save democracy’ until you acquire the status of a ‘holier-than-law’ leader. It is this very smearing of the spirit of democracy that needs to be cleared in the minds of the masses for them to make the leadership of this country truly accountable to the people of Pakistan.

The writer is a columnist and analyst and can be reached at andleeb.abbas1@gmail.com