Daily Times

The Pakistani nation should have a greater and more meaningful say in deciding the future of the country as it is the biggest stakeholder. The country is an amazing market for expanding current businesses with enormous potential for budding entrepreneurs. We need to focus on and revolutionise policy-making towards two main sectors, hard and soft infrastructure. The term “soft infrastructure” essentially means a structural overhauling of state institutions and emanations in terms of reorganisation and motivation among the employees. New leadership is needed to lead the organisation, bring about positive change and extract the best possible outcome.

Being a successful leader is an ardent feat because one can only do so when they have extraordinary leadership characteristics and qualities. There are many characteristics of leaders, but here, we need an authentic, responsible and competent leader who knows that they can be the harbinger of a positive change. The election or appointment of a sound leader is an important question. This can only be accomplished when governors are elected through a conscientious, impartial voting procedure. Numerous competent, accomplished and dedicated individuals can make a difference and expertly handle the long series of crises, as well as effectively cause an organisational revolution. But, bringing them on board for such a task is difficult because of the political conflicts and differences.

Bringing competent, accomplished and dedicated individuals on board is difficult because of the political conflicts involved.

The former government has given an irreparable loss to this nation by appointing inept financial ministers who miserably failed and made a farce of our economy. There used to be many representatives of different cartels in the federal cabinet. They were and are the biggest threat to this nation and country. They are the ones not letting the institutions work properly because these cartels are keeping an eye on most government institutions. The ones to be privatized were bought right away. Cartels have already (regularly) bought the shares of many government institutions. In fact, they work like the mafia and have their representatives in bureaucratic establishments.

Needless to say, this does not mean that we do not have competent people in our country but that we have to look for honest and competent people who can deliver and perform by achieving the given targets with no conflicts of interest. The influence and power of cartels and mafias have become stronger and larger than the state. They need to be cut down in their sizes. There is debate on many forums about whether to have honesty or competence. I say that we need both, but the question here is the survival of Pakistan. We are not in a position where we try honest, incompetent persons to get experience at the cost of the nation. We need responsible leaders who know how to handle crises at different levels of the state and the crises in government-owned organizations. We lack every kind of leader and leadership here.

Pakistan Army is currently the only institution in the country that is very disciplined, and organized and has developed its leaders for all future roles. They start the training, coaching and development of the leader right from the recruitment of the officers. The potential of the officers, which are the leaders of different ranks, is being observed and monitored at every stage and level. There are many platforms within Army, where proper training is given and leaders are being developed for different tasks at every level. National Defense University (NDU), Staff College Quetta and many other schools and colleges for the specialised training for the leaders of all ranks in Army are being operated in different parts of the country. I am happy that they are continuously training and developing their leaders for particular jobs. They may not be vocal but as an institution, have realized and pondered on the mistakes made by dictators in the past. Now, they have decided that they would not impose martial law in the country. Their role is to save the country and avoid participation in political affairs. To handle the political affairs and participate in politics, a new constitutional role should be determined for them for policy input in the country.

Many a time, I have heard government officials, services personnel and judicial officers claiming that they are neutral. I smirk at them: everyone is political. Everyone listens to politics, discusses politics, argues about politics, and criticises politics whether it is a national issue or a global issue. Thus, no one is neutral. Every person in this world has some political affiliations and everyone is biased. You may belong to whatever sector or segment of the society (judiciary, bureaucracy, military services, private job), on the day of the election, most people vote. That is what is political about us and that is what makes us biased. There is no harm in being political or biased, but we have to understand that when it comes to fair play, we should keep our biases aside and prioritise our country. It is a matter of integrity, character and honour of any person. Whenever given a chance to make a difference and leave an impact for all times to come, he should be the first one to step forward.

The writer is a litigation, corporate and human rights lawyer, a political activist and former Vice-Chairman (SAARC Young Entrepreneur Forum).