Article No. 1 - UNDERSTANDING ERROR
Written for The News
Everything political or geo political impacts everything economic, which in turn has an impact on pretty much everything else. To err is human and to institutionalize the erroneous governance is Pakistan’s national leadership like, political and non-political both. There appears one consistent policy, which is to NOT have a consistent policy, specially an economic policy. There is a glorious history of abundant and at times fatal errors in the space of political economy in Pakistan. This series of columns will attempt to highlight errors past and present and to somehow shed light on how these errors can be avoided, specially the unforced ones.
With or without Osama, War on Terror as we know now is an elusive, expensive and uphill task;War on Error however shouldn’t be one. A logical conclusion hence – should be – that terror cannot be addressed without addressing first the ‘error’ that precedes it. Economically deprived and those stricken by the inequities of a struggling society will continue to fuel the fires of radical and extreme behaviors. And such behaviors will continue to have human and economic cost attached that the country can ill afford. One grave and repeatedly made error is failing to position national economic interests before the national security concerns. Simple logic being that if the former is not sorted, it will continue to weaken the latter, one doesn’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure this out.
The hallmark of all the political and military regimes has been that they say one thing and do quite the other. In the run up to the national budget session the President met with leading businessmen and emphasized the need for a Charter of Economy, commendable but unfortunately rhetorical. It is the lack of will and not the lack of ideas that is hampering the trust of business leadership in the government. It is well known what happened to the last popular charter which was supposed to redefine the political space of the country.
Politically motivated senseless rhetoric, which at times is downright belligerent and lacking character, is what all the strategy and promises and political charters shared over 3 years ago have boiled down to. Leadership cannot get easier, irresponsible or delusional; get dressed, get media managers active, arrange protocol and land up at any TV channel, go on air on any current affairs TV show in the evening and share rhetoric, lots of it.
Leadership today appears to be erring as badly as the leaderships of the past. Promising what it can’t deliver and rolling out economic plans it knows will never work. Chaotic mismanagement and the decay that besets the country today did not happen overnight, nor will it go away as quickly. One well meaning economic wiz said something which aptly projects the right picture, “Despite the economic downturn, the world is trying to move forward with innovative momentum and pace, amazingly our country is galloping, but only in the opposite direction.”
For years Karachi, the current economic and the former federal capital of the country, has been a target of inexplicable and un-investigate-able targeted killings and terrorist attacks. As if the turmoil and insecurity that reins post such inexplicable events is not enough to jeopardize the functioning of the national business center; reckless and less thought-out statements also add an embarrassing air. Statements like “attackers were dressed up like Start Wars characters” or “Karachi needs massive de-weapon-ization”, by the interior minister don’t bode well with those doing business in the city and certainly sends jitters across to those planning to travel to Karachi, specially for business.
According to the erstwhile finance minster the average growth in the agriculture sector stood at a meager 2.1 percent over the last 10 years. Surely there could and can be better and more robust growth in this vital space should better strategies are adopted. Errors are avoided. Shrinking employment opportunities did not get much attention during the budget speeches and uproars. There should have been some alarm bells on this subject alone. Employment opportunities are limited owing to the limiting activities in the economic space and thus should have be one of the focal concerns, it wasn’t. According to the Planning Commission, the economy needs to produce 1.5 million jobs a year for the next 3 years, it is currently producing about 0.2 million. What will become of this ominous buildup of the unemployed and the unemployable work force? No one seems to have a plan or strategy to address this.
Confronted with a perpetual threat of dissention in the coalition ranks and faced with challenges like the massive budgetary deficit, the un-ending war on terror and its unpaid/controversial bills; the government appears to have limiting options. It is however being forecasted that it might just get away with another deficit budget. The kind of self invoked predicaments the leadership finds itself mired in today, one wonders how it will ever deliver a policy that will bring some relief for Pakistan and its people.
ENDS
