A dire need for calm

Many of us had hoped that the general election earlier this year would bring to the country some kind of stability and calm. This has not happened. Instead, a continued flow of rumours and conjecture fills the air. It comes through social media, particularly X (previously known as Twitter), despite the apparent ban placed on it by the authorities.

The propagation takes many forms: that there will very soon be a new government put in place by external powers; that there will be a new election in the weeks and months to come; that the head of a particular party will dissolve his government to make way for these elections; that there would be reconciliation between the warring political parties and the creation of a national government. We have no way of knowing what is true and what is simply the creation of imagination and ideas. But we do know that all of this creates greater uncertainty and a greater feeling of instability within the country.

The sudden creation of new programmes in Punjab by its new chief minister adds to the conjecture that she knows what may be coming next. But of course, it is impossible to predict events in Pakistan. All we can say for now is that the uncertainty does not help the country at all. It hurts badly in so many ways that it is difficult to say where we are headed and how we will move forward.

In the first place, the most important aspect of all, the economy, cannot find a stable footing unless there is some degree of calm and a feeling of settled progress in the country. We badly need the economy to rediscover the drive it once had to at least some degree so that we can attempt to pay off at least a part of the debt that will essentially be paid off by our children and grandchildren.

The debt is huge and so far no plan has been announced to put Pakistan on a better footing in this respect. Yes, talks with the IMF continue, but from this ‘lender of last resort’ as it is known we cannot hope for much. As economist Dr Atif Mian has said, speaking to audiences in Pakistan through the various forums which welcome him, Pakistan needs an entirely new system if it is to make any kind of economic progress. This should ideally include, according to Dr Mian and also other economists, a system which promotes education and healthcare to stabilize the basic needs of people as well as greater empowerment for women so that more can move into the labour force.

The argument goes that strengthening the youth of the country in a nation which has a huge number of people aged up to 30 making up the bulk of its population of well over 230 million is crucial. So is empowering women so that they can play a part in building the economy and moving it forward. Economists point out that Bangladesh made huge progress by using the force of its women to build the economy and also move in other areas so that people could benefit. Pakistan can learn something from a country which also sees political instability and is essentially run by one party, with only limited protests over the continued power of Sheikh Hasina Wajid for many years. This is not good democratic practice but it does show that when good governance comes even with such dubious measures, it can bring rewards to the country.

Pakistan needs to work much harder on building its people as the real tier of stability and security in the country and a national security strategy must understand that security can only be found if people are given power and the welfare that can help them attain better lives and better objectives. To do so it first of all needs to build programmes which can enable people to find jobs and increase earnings within households which are in a terrible state as inflation continues to eat away at incomes even of the salaried middle class. To do so, we need to increase our exports and see why Pakistan is not achieving the same level of exports in areas such as textiles as neighbouring countries.

We also need to change the direction of policy as far as investment and development is concerned. Simply depending on the purchase of land and plots in various schemes will help no one in the future, especially as land is not taxed at all. These schemes are essentially a waste of money and have led to one scam after the other. At the same time, they have taken away agricultural land from farmers who could use it for a far better purpose.

In what is still a mainly agricultural country, even if this has changed gradually over the years, more needs to be done to invest in agriculture and ensure that farmers gain the rewards that they deserve. At present, there have been protests in Punjab and Sindh over the failure of the government to collect cut wheat from farmers, notably small farmers. The issue, it appears, lies with the decision taken by the caretaker government to import wheat in large volume and thereby deprive its own people of earnings that should have gone into pockets of households across the country.

This is something that needs to be taken up as a national theme in agriculture. There is no reason why we should not be growing enough wheat to meet our needs and to feed our own people. Imports should not be necessary. In other areas too, we need to look at the issue of land reforms and also of developing talent in fields where jobs will move in the future. This includes that vital area of technology but also other areas as the world changes and moves into a new age in social media and digital space dominating much of what goes on.

Pakistan must then learn to move with the times and can achieve this only if it can stabilize the nation, end the new spread of terrorism we are seeing and develop better ties with neighbours on all sides of its border so that we can move forward and create a future for our people and the generations ahead of them.

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