It is a big question as to how the national institutions and the parliament can play active role to implement the rule of law and improve the governance. The people of Pakistan are worried as our beloved country is passing through worst crisis and nation is witnessing political polarisation and bad governance. The parliament is failing to deliver and it may go in the history as a rubber stamp with hardly any initiative taken for the betterment of a common man. The state is “in the state of utter confusion” and country is directionless without adequate required policies. People need hope whereas the national future has been mortgaged before the IMF. Many present ministers are of the view that the govt is helpless before mighty IMF and the West including FATF. The individual interests have taken over the national interests in our present system. The country is being run on day-to-day basis without any solid long-term policies.
The state is utterly failing to
protect the rights of a common man. The miseries of people are increasing by
every passing day. A common man has been expecting some relief since long but
every successive govt failed to deliver. Now, the price-hike has crushed the
public even more and their cries can be heard in the streets of every city.
The present ruling party had
unrealistically raised the hopes of the voters which could not be fulfilled due
to a deteriorating economy. The people have seen the drop scene of their high
hopes. Political polarisation is at its peak and the Parliament House looks
like a wrestling ring. Now, our female parliamentarians have also jumped in
this ring. We hear the sounds of slaps and abuses instead of voice of a common
man. Let us seize the culture of indecency followed both by govt and opposition
in the parliament. I think we need to demonstrate political maturity with a
pragmatic and result-oriented approach in the parliament.
This continued confusion,
ineffective parliament and non-serious govt may bring some serious setbacks to
the country. Hence, we all have to think about how to set a doable path to
steer the nation out of crisis with national unity. The economy is sliding down
with no sign of recovery; foreign policy is suffering because of our
international isolation; IMF and FATF hounds are pushing us to be defaulter and
both Afghan and Pak Taliban (once called the children of Pakistan) have joined
hands and their nefarious activities against Pakistan duly engineered by India
and the West through Afghan soil. The removal of fence at Pak-Afghan border
shows the intent of Afghan Taliban and the TTP. While we are facing numerous
internal and external challenges, the govt seems to be confused and it is not
coming up with an economic recovery plan and foreign policy to overcome these
potential setbacks. The government must act wisely, should bring its proposed
plans before the parliament and ask for collective national wisdom on the
proposed national policies. The failure of our successive policies can be well
judged from the data given below as we have not acted to correct our various
public domains. The data reflects poor governance and poor management of state
affairs.
Our rupee has fallen to 187 to a
dollar during the present regime and it is likely to slide more after the
mini-budget while price-hike will rise further. Unemployment rate has gone up
to 5pc. Underemployment is also growing and return of Pak workers from abroad
has further increased unemployment.
Growth rate went down from 5.8pc
in 2018 to 0.5pc in 2020. Govt must watch to avoid fudged figures as this kind
of fake statistical data will be harmful for future estimates. Our population
has increased from 212.2 million to 225.18 million and there has been no policy
to control it. Also while the population is increasing the resources are
shrinking, hence we need to create a balance. We all need to worry as total
foreign debt has risen from $61 billion to $116.3 billion. I am not adding our
liabilities that have risen because of various bonds in the international
market used to raise loans through the private banks. We have local debt in
rupees increased from Rs24.95 trillion in 2018 to Rs39.9 trillion in 2021. This
is our great economy. But, the govt still claims that there is no inflation.
The printing of currency is one of the biggest sources of inflation. The
poverty rate has increased from 4.4pc in 2018 to 39.2pc. It is highly
undesirable increase as we are leading other countries in South Asia in poverty
rate. Bangladesh has become the role model of economic growth and its textile
industries have grabbed the world market. It will be shocking for the public to
know that investment and expertise have flown from Pakistan to Bangladesh as
the investors find Bangladesh more investor-friendly as compared to Pakistan.
Similarly, the large-scale investment has flown to Sri Lanka also.
In 2019, infant mortality rate in
Pakistan was at about 55.7 deaths per 1,000 live births due to malnutrition and
it is increasing continuously. What else could be expected in a country with
39.2pc poverty rate. The funds committed for development are on the decrease
and hence the development will go slow in coming years.
The above data reflects our
non-professional and incompetent approach to handle our national affairs. I
have mentioned only few areas of public domain. You will see similar
frustrating negative data in other public and private sectors as well.
Will the govt make a study to
identify its mistakes and control the deteriorating situation not repeating the
mistakes which are creating negative statistical trends?
In fact, some of the economic and
administrative indicators show inabilities of our past and present govts. We
need to think seriously if the present system is itself a problem or we are
incompetent to give good governance to our country. We must also study some
other viable way of governance.
It is unfortunate that our
authorities and political pandits either do not understand the meaning of a
borrowed economy or they prefer to adopt the easy path of loaning to run the
governmental and national affairs which has caused deep crises.
The state of confusion is
widespread due to incompetency, inability, non-nationalistic approach,
non-serious attitude, no accountability and immature attitude of govt and
opposition in the parliament.
Nations do not survive with lip
service as we need practical steps to give relief to the common man. We are
very good in blame game which is equally applicable on leaders of both govt and
opposition.
There have been a number of joint
sessions. But during the present term of parliamentarians, these sessions gave
no benefit to a common man in terms of law or policies except TA/DA for the
parliamentarians and benefits to FATF & IMF. These joint sessions ended by
passing some pre-written resolutions manipulated behind the scene, whereas the
parliamentarians were not free to express their views.
The joint session is for some
selected parliamentarians to speak as per the set agenda and rest of the
parliamentarians are there just to sit and listen in violation of all
democratic norms. Such non-mandatory resolutions end up in creation of ill
perception of the parliament among the public.
A question arises why the defined
democratic norms are not being observed in the parliament and who is
responsible as it has muted its voice on major national issues. I hope the
parliament will come out of the muted mode and do something for the rule of law
and for the better governance.
The Article was published in The News on January 9, 2022. Link to the original article is https://e.thenews.com.pk/detail?id=43941
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