Meaningless future

Pakistan’s plea to friendly countries for a delay in repayment of its upcoming financial dues is in danger of eventually becoming meaningless. Seen another way, it is merely a repeat of Pakistan’s tragic past that has witnessed successive governments keep the country barely afloat, without putting in motion a long overdue set of reforms to lift its future.

Just weeks after Pakistan unveiled its annual budget, a popular rejection of that exercise demonstrates a widening gap between official thinking versus the mainstream.

As Pakistan battles the fallout from excessive internal polarization tied to half-baked policies, the country’s entry to the long-missed road to stability remains doubtful.

Months after the riots of May last year prompted a broad crackdown on the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) led by former prime minister Imran Khan, there’s a missing link on another key front. The failure of Pakistan’s ruling structure led by the PML-N to stabilize Pakistan, even with backing from powerful quarters, has deepened the malaise.

To make matters worse, the emphasis on the proverbial ‘pie in the sky’ types of initiatives in the name of national development has added to the ruling structure’s mounting failures. Outlandish plans such as the PML-N’s Punjab government planning to build a glass-covered train in the future from Islamabad to Murree as low-income Pakistanis battle increasing hunger are nothing short of reckless. It is a repeat of past tragedies such as building motorways with the promise of ushering in prosperity through increased industrialization and overall economic progress.

Well over two decades after the first such motorway from Islamabad to Lahore was opened, the record of Pakistan’s failures speaks for itself. As high-speed motorists enjoy the motorway – the only luxurious link that allows them to drive with cruise control -- the adjoining areas smack of something far more worrisome. The visible Eucalyptus trees along the motorway, hurriedly planted to fast-track a tree cover have triggered another turmoil. Horticultural experts lament the excessive capacity of Eucalyptus to suck sub-ground water at a rapid pace, vividly illustrating a gap all around.

This is one of the many glaring examples of a failure to take timely and sensible action as Pakistan grapples with the terrible challenge of climate change. Ironically, even with the arrival of the latest spell of monsoon rainfall that may well wreak havoc in parts of Pakistan, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government is yet to name a minister of climate change to champion a cause that will have a deep impact upon the country’s future.

Meanwhile, on another tragic front, this year’s choice by the Punjab government to break its promise of procuring the wheat crop from farmers at a promised rate has spelt a huge disaster for Pakistan’s agricultural economy. The provincial government’s abrupt step back from that commitment has caused a near- to medium-term setback for the agricultural sector, adding to the turmoil surrounding Pakistan’s overall economy.

The worst damage caused by a crash in the price of this year’s wheat crop is indeed the risk of tighter economic conditions for farmers across Pakistan – a largely wheat-consuming country. Meanwhile, a second key danger remains the dangerous possibility of farmers reaping lower-than-expected yields for their next crops, as many cash-strapped ones scale back on spending for key inputs notably seeds, fertilizers and pesticides.

With a dangerous disaster all around, the Sharif government may still pat itself on the back in the coming days, after concluding a $7 billion loan from the IMF for the next three years. And yet, a bailout from the Washington-based lender will just keep Pakistan afloat unless the ruling structure acts quickly and decisively on two vital fronts.

On the one hand, Pakistan’s present rulers must accept a broad rejection of their economic policies that have saddled the mainstream population with fresh financial stress while politically powerful individuals and lobbies remain immune. This is nothing short of a continuing hypocrisy that must not have any place as Pakistan copes with the worst economic stress in the nation’s history.

On the other hand, cuts in wasteful expenditure must go far beyond mere symbolism. Across Pakistan’s ruling institutions, there is plenty of excessive fat that needs to be cut urgently while resources must be immediately deployed for those in need. With anywhere up to 40 per cent of Pakistan’s population living in poverty, there must not be any allowance for wastage on a range of fronts from loss-making government-owned companies to largesse for the rulers.

A failure to lay the ground for a long-delayed journey towards a new future will only imperil Pakistan’s destiny. With or without the country’s present-day rulers leading towards a long overdue change, Pakistan deserves to make a transition for the better for the sake of its central stakeholders -- the people of Pakistan.

The writer is an Islamabad-based journalist who writes on political and economic affairs. He can be reached at: farhanbokhari@gmail.com