The roadmap to growth

As we move towards a possible election early next year, the political discourse continues to hover around the old issue of corruption, overwhelmed by debates on who is more corrupt than the other.

And while there are legitimate reasons for this focus, the real issues of the country lie elsewhere. They lie in the fact that almost 50 per cent of our children are stunted and many will not develop sufficient IQs to make any kind of mark in their academic or social life. There are other harrowing figures: one out of 20 children and 63 out of every 1,000 children born in the country will die before they attain the age of five.

The maternal mortality rate is as shocking as are other figures indicating the state of the people in the country. If we think in terms of the lives our citizens lead, these issues are of greater significance than the illegal actions of politicians. Yes, corruption should be punished under the law; but it should not be the sole political agenda on which we base our ideas.

The PTI has played a major role in labelling all its opponents as corrupt, and during its tenure in power it focused more on bringing cases against them. While some corruption cases may be genuine, others were based on insufficient evidence or a simple error in the management of business. And now this is true for the PTI which has multiple cases against it. Again, some of these may be genuine while the rest lacks sufficient evidence to back the claims made against the party.

We need to expand the scope of dialogue and think about how we can rescue people from the perpetual misery in which they live. Anyone who has visited a government hospital will understand at least some of this misery. The issue needs to be discussed far more openly and intensely in political circles. This is critical as we have a youth bulge which will add more young people into the 220 million that make up Pakistan. For these young people, as they reach their teens and beyond, we need to find education, employment, and opportunity.

At the moment, we can offer them very little, and this is why we see the figures which prove that in 2022, more Pakistanis left the country legally than ever before. Of course, more would go if the option was open to them.

This is sad. Pakistan has resources and talent. Pakistanis who have reached top positions as academics, scientists, doctors or in other fields around the world prove that this is true. We must ask why this excellence cannot be delivered at home to the people of the country. Some of these persons have attempted to return to their home country and work within it, but for many this has proved impossible.

We saw in the past how highly qualified professors were dismissed from public- and private-sector universities on a whim, sometimes based on the views that they put forward. In other cases, the lack of stability in businesses has driven investors away.

We need to bring more of our accomplished Pakistanis back to the country. Many would say this is an impossible task. The reality also is that many younger Pakistanis in particular do choose to return and serve their country as best they can. We also feel that from within the country, some excellent work has been achieved by bureaucrats who have set up model schools in their districts or other persons who have achieved similar feats in other areas. Even now, there are graduates from top universities who voluntarily run soup kitchens or make other collective efforts to help their less privileged compatriots.

But it is also true that a vast majority of the rich live in a bubble of luxury and are either oblivious or indifferent to the state of their fellow citizens. There are still those who deny poverty exists in the country. Yet, these same people willingly spend around Rs5,000 on a single meal at a posh restaurant, not recognizing that this sum equals the monthly earnings of a typical labourer. The minimum wage set at over Rs30,000 in Punjab has never genuinely been met, and the situation is the same in other provinces as well.

The bubble has to be burst. We need our elite to give more. This should obviously come in the form of taxes, with land taxation coming as an area of priority. It is completely unjust that citizens who live on salaries or own small businesses are taxed at high rates, putting larger amounts into the national exchequer than the truly privileged. Indirect taxation is of course another major burden forcing every person who purchases even the smallest article to pay tax on this transaction.

Change needs to be widespread if it is to be meaningful. The way to achieve this is not easy, but we have to overcome this challenge. We have been governed poorly for far too many years. Indeed, many historians argue that bad governance began virtually with the inception of Pakistan. To overcome this is a mammoth task. We need experts who can advise our governments, and we have to be sure that our government will follow these experts’ advice.

An elected government is essential to the country and its people, but it must be a government which is also thinking constantly of the people and their needs. The motorways, underpasses and commuter buses we see are useful to people but the most basic need is to provide people with growth opportunities and work.

For this, the first step should be taken from the school level, ensuring that every student has the opportunity to learn material which is relevant and useful. Countries which have made progress have done so largely by educating their people and making them more capable of mastering tasks that can help their country. It is quite obvious that we have fallen far, far behind. We cannot wait any longer to catch up. Indeed, some wonder if we can catch up at all. But there is no other alternative than to do so and to put in place policies which can achieve this. This can preferably be done after discussion and debate at a wide variety of forums ranging from universities to assemblies and every other location where people gather and meet to talk and discuss what has become a nation filled with multiple crises.

We all know what these crises are. Solving them will not be easy. But to do so, we must ensure the willing participation of as many citizens as possible so that they feel a part of the country that has never included them in its working or given them a sense of belonging. And while more people have become disillusioned with their government, it is important for the Pakistani nation to work together if it is to achieve any of its goals.

The writer is a freelance columnist and former newspaper editor. She can be reached at: kamilahyat@hotmail.com