Blame everybody else

Prime Minister Imran Khan made another speech to announce the much hyped ‘historic relief package’ of Rs120 billion for the poor of this country. There is no doubt that the prime minister is seriously concerned about the rising inflation in the country. And he wants to help the struggling working people with this relief package.

The PTI government is busy taking credit for this ‘historic relief package’ and wants to be appreciated for showing such generous kindness and empathy. But the relief provided to struggling families to buy ghee, flour and sugar might not be enough to mitigate this tsunami of price hike. On the one hand, the government is trying to help the poor to survive in these difficult times but on the other hand it continues to increase the prices of basic commodities and energy.

In the last three months, the prices of goods and utilities have gone up. Everything people consume to survive has become expensive. The government has failed to provide the much-needed relief to the working class and the poor. Even sections of the middle class are finding it hard to maintain their standard of living.

I wanted to thank Prime Minister Imran Khan for announcing this relief package. I have no doubt as to his intentions. But I doubt that the measures announced in his speech will help the poor mitigate the tsunami of price hikes announced by the government.

My doubt is based on two main reasons. One, the PTI government is not ready to accept the fact that its neoliberal policies have failed to arrest the rising inflation and to increase the incomes of ordinary Pakistanis.

Two, there is a huge gap between intentions and policies. Just a day after the PM’s speech, the petrol prices went up once again. The price of petrol has increased by Rs35.13 in the current fiscal year after the latest hike of Rs8.03 per litre. The price of electricity is going up almost every month.

The devalued rupee and rising energy prices are directly contributing to the rising inflation and cost of living. The government is not ready to follow all its good intentions and empathy with concrete actions, measures and policies to address issues like poverty, unemployment, hunger and price hikes.

It is good to have noble intentions, but practical measures and steps must be followed to actually make a difference. The government may have good intentions, but it lacks actions and policies to put these intentions into practical work.

Just take one example from the PM’s speech where intention was followed by actions and measures that produced wonderful results. The PM spoke about the increase in the profits of several industrial sectors. He gave examples of engineering that witnessed an increase of 350 percent in their profits, textile 163 percent, cars 131 percent, cement 113 percent, oil and gas 75 percent.

These industrial sectors and some others earned record profits because the government provided incentives for these industries. The government provided the corporate sector resources to increase their profits. So, the corporate sector didn’t make record profits just on the basis of good intention but on the basis of practical measures, actions and help. The government offered them cheap loans, provided them energy on low prices; it also announced a big bailout package for industries. So, they fully utilised these incentives to increase their profit.

These profits were made at the expense of workers and consumers. The industrialists did not share this profit with workers, who did not get any real increase in their wages. Their lives and incomes didn’t improve despite the hard work.

Prime Minister Imran Khan helplessly appealed to industrialists and ‘seths’ to increase the wages of their workers and share profits. Dear prime minister, such appeals are not going to work. Take practical measures and introduce policies to distribute the wealth more fairly in society.

A welfare state cannot be established on such appeals and good intentions. The very concept of a modern welfare state is based on sharing wealth fairly. When the ruling class and big business share their wealth with society to uplift the poor and provide them education, health, housing and other necessities of life.

The ruling party however continues to blame everybody else for the failures of its government. With its strategy to blame others for its mistakes and failures, it is bound to fail to review its own actions, measures and policies.

The PM in his speech too blamed the rising inflation on the prices of commodities in the international market. It is true that international commodities prices have risen sharply in the last few months. But putting the blame entirely on rising commodities prices is not quite right. For instance, in the first couple of months of 2020 inflation was record high in Pakistan while commodities prices were relatively stable. What then caused the high inflation in Pakistan in the first two years of the PTI government?

The answer is the government’s economic policies – leading to the rise in energy prices, devaluation of the rupee and the rising cost of production and living. Pakistan’s economy was in crisis even before the Covid-19 pandemic struck it.

The sharp fall in GDP growth was the result of the economic policies implemented by the PTI government, and the government is not ready to analyse the negative impacts of its economic policies. It is not ready to change the

direction of these economic policies to address the problems faced by the working masses.

The government’s strategy is simple: blame everything that went wrong or out of control on the previous governments and mafias. The most simple and easy solution to all the economic and social problems is to blame everybody else.

The problem with this strategy is that it works well for a while but in the long run it loses its appeal. Many people were buying into this argument in the government’s first year in power. Prime Minister Imran Khan’s speech was a desperate attempt to sell this narrative.

The writer is a freelance journalist.