Policies dictate outcomes

Through the ages, there have always been individuals who have had to ask others for help to sustain themselves. Not inherent in human nature, stretching out a hand to a fellow being is at the cost of self-respect and dignity. The truly needy do it out of compulsion. The able-bodied who do it as a convenient shortcut to livelihood are looked down upon and deemed a social evil.

If begging becomes part of the official parlance at the highest level, one can well imagine how that country is viewed by the world. Shehbaz Sharif, as leader of the opposition, admonished us that “beggars can’t be choosers”.

Having caught on to the theme, today’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif demanded after the 2022 floods that Pakistan should not be forced to go out with a “begging bowl”. He added that visiting countries think that “we have come to beg for money”. He also declared that “the country was not created to live on debts and act like a beggar”.

In a January 2023 report in these pages, the worthy prime minister bemoaned that “it is a matter of shame that a nuclear power has to beg amid its faltering economy.” On a state visit to Dubai in May this year, Shehbaz Sharif claimed that “gone are the days when officials from cash-strapped Pakistan will visit brotherly countries with begging bowls”.

The fact is that, much that it hurts our sensibilities, Pakistan’s status as a beggared nation is an internationally accepted fact. The audacious part is that the sermonizing ones are an extension of all our civil and military ruling dispensations. Their singular contribution has not been nation-building but cementing the begging nom de guerre that has unfortunately come to define Pakistan.

The trickle-down effect of this infamy can be well gauged from a reported 38 million beggars in Pakistan extracting a mind-boggling $42 billion annually, 12 per cent of our total GDP. A recent briefing given to the Senate Committee on Overseas Pakistanis spoke of our export of this ignominious product.

The briefing highlighted the startling fact that organized gangs travelled to Iraq and Saudi Arabia in the guise of pilgrims and resorted to begging there. Saudi authorities complained that 90 per cent of arrested beggars and the majority of the pickpockets within Masjid al-Haram were Pakistanis.

The briefing also highlighted the abysmal skillset, work ethics and attitudes of Pakistani workers mainly in the Gulf region. It was revealed that of all the crimes in the UAE labour force alone, 50 per cent were attributed to Pakistanis.

Shehbaz Sharif’s claim of breaking the begging bowl, our life-saving appendage of choice, remains a quixotic one. His ‘policing’ policies are fomenting an exodus of businesses. Pakistan ranks second on the list of companies opting for Dubai with 4000 of them getting registered there.

Out of these, 3968 got themselves registered in the first six months of this year. Over the last two years, which experts claim have been the worst for our economy, it marks an alarming 71.2 per cent increase in our relocating businesses.

In an official statement, the Pakistan Software Houses Association (PASHA) has condemned the grave consequences of the hastily implemented national firewall. Terming it a “digital siege”, it warned that global clients do not want their proprietary data and privacy to be compromised. This, PASHA said, could lead to exponential losses and a complete meltdown of business operations.

The Pakistan Business Council has dubbed it the “firewall fiasco”. It has also warned that with the nation mired in economic challenges, including the burden of idle power plants, a new crisis has been created in the business sector.

Pakistan’s Overseas Investors Chambers of Commerce and Industry too has voiced its concerns. Multinational companies including Telenor, Shell, Exxon, Lotte, Sanofi, Pfizer and Siemens have announced partial or complete exit from Pakistan over the last two years. This is due to over-regulation, super taxes, difficulties in repatriating profits and instability.

Conversely, a peek into India’s tech sector shows more than 55 regulatory reforms undertaken by the government. This includes abolishing the angel tax levied on foreign investors. As a result, India’s burgeoning tech sector startups raised more than $395 million last week alone apart from the $1.03 billion it generated last month. India’s technology industry is projected to earn $254 billion this year.

Pakistan remains at our eternal crossroads. The writing on the wall is not one of hope, progress and inclusion. It is a foreboding one of despair, alienation and further decline. More alarming is the detachment of our power centres from this reality. It is akin to one trying his hand with absolute nonchalance at Russian roulette, a suicidal game of chance.

Policies dictate outcomes. How can we expect to break the begging bowl by enforcing arbitrary policies, the outcome of which is only economic decline and servitude? With our very survival at stake, why does our power elite fail to comprehend this? The only answer that the mind conjures up is Walter Scott’s telling lament: “Breathes there the man with soul so dead, who never to himself hath said? This is my own, my native land?”

The writer is a freelance contributor. He can be reached at: miradnanaziz@gmail.com