Majyd Aziz
The Asian Development
Bank’s Strategy 2020, which is its long-term strategic framework, has adopted
inclusive economic growth as one of the strategic agendas to achieve its vision
of an Asia and Pacific region free from poverty. Inclusive growth in ADB’s
Strategy 2020 is about economic growth with equality of opportunity. High,
efficient, and sustained growth; social inclusion to ensure equal access to
opportunities; and social safety nets to protect the most vulnerable and
deprived are the three critical policy pillars supported by good governance and
institutions for an inclusive growth strategy that aims at high and sustained
growth while ensuring that all members of the society benefit from growth. (Asian Development
Bank. Key Indicators for Asia and the Pacific 2011: Framework of Inclusive
Growth Indicators, special supplement.)
Successive Pakistani governments have, either in their manifestos
or in actual policymaking, always parroted the mantra of alleviation of poverty, breaking the proverbial begging
bowl, announcing unsustainable social safety nets, and hyping various measures
to reduce unemployment. It is so comical when government Ministers as well as
an array of advisors and political hanger-ons, with scant knowledge about the dynamics
of economics and global fiscal thinking, routinely start singing their rallying
songs about the march to economic prosperity. What is agonizingly disconcerting
is that the political leadership very casually lose track of their avowed destination
and meander into another course. This, primarily, is because of half-baked
ideas and projects as well as the sad fact that corrupt elements very
convincingly hijack the desired vision and policies. The dependence on those
who are not attuned to the positive thinking of the policymakers or intellectuals
is a well-established root cause that has left high and dry many workable
policies, initiatives and projects.
Every
installation of a new government, whether through the yet to be fully developed
democratic process or whether through the barrel of the gun, brings about some
kindling hope that deliverance is just a matter of months away. Citizens wait
with baited breath for resolution of their problems, even though the government
in place is still wobbly and trying to find its bearings. Woody Guthrie once
said that “Everyone talks about the weather
but nobody does anything about it”. Same is the case with Pakistan’s
economy. After more than six decades, economy is in the oratory of the leaders
but then why is it that things seldom work and the economy is dangling over a
quagmire? Are the fundamentals soundly in place or is there this quaint sense of
despondency that precludes attainment of objectives in letter and spirit.
There are clear
cut aspects of this situation and these must be understood to structure an
answer to the deficiencies and shortcomings. There are three basic reasons that
have not been seriously addressed over the past many decades and these have
manifested into a cheerless syndrome. The sad fact is that inspite of all serious
or populist efforts and inspite of countless opportunities to provide quality
in life, there is still an obvious environment of disconnect between those in
the corridors of power and the general populace. Then there is this feeling of
resignation among citizens that their lot will not improve and so they disregard
or ignore to take advantage of whatever opportunities come their way and thus the
much-needed impetus is missing. The other essential reason is that successive
governments, prodded by people who exert influence, do not initiate or pursue
measures to shield the citizens, especially the marginalized and disenfranchised, from the onslaught of inflation,
either domestically generated or externally influenced, through sustainable,
transparent, and egalitarian social safety nets. During the past decades, there
have been some initiatives such as Benazir Income Support Program, Yellow Cab
Scheme, Benazir Bhutto Shaheed Youth Development Program, Sasti Roti Scheme, etc
that were target-oriented, intended to yield immediate benefits, and ensuring
some long-term developmental progress. However, while these projects managed to
bring some change in the lives of the target groups, most of these projects
fizzled out due to mismanagement, corruption, non-transparency, and lack of
political goodwill.
The ideal
combination of assuring, affording, and more significantly, sustaining the
programs and initiatives should usher in dynamic developmental dimensions by
reducing the vulnerabilities of marginalized citizens, effectively ensuring formidable
government-people connectivity, and endeavoring to provide meaningful and
beneficial opportunities for all. Notwithstanding this preferred idealism, it
has to be understood that the colonial mindset is still rampant in nearly every
tier of government and those who wield power and influence have ensured that a Raj like aura hovers over them. Good
governance has generally been very nonchalantly sacrificed at the altar of the high
and mighty. The Dalai Lama very rightly said that “since early age, I have thought
that power in few people's hands is always dangerous." In today’s Pakistan, with citizens availing the opportunity to elect
their democratic representatives from the union council level to Parliament,
there should have been a paradigm shift in the lives of these denizens. It is
still a pathetic scene in the Assemblies and Senate to hear the elected
representatives carping and crying lack of physical and social infrastructure
and employment opportunities for their constituents. This litany is morosely highlighted
each time the Parliamentarians get a chance to speak.
Government schools are turned into stables or drawing rooms of those
who wield power in the area, schools are either without furniture or teachers
or in many cases minus both, and schools are churning out useless graduates who
pass out with scant hopes of advancement. Government hospitals provide shoddy
medicines usually procured through non-transparent means or through a tendering
process that compels the institution to purchase from the cheapest supplier.
Since many hospitals lack life-saving drugs, the family members of poor
patients have to source these on their own or watch their loved ones suffer and
die in agony. Hospitals have doctors who go on strikes, beat up patients and
law-enforcers, and run their own private clinics while still on-duty and still
on-call in the hospitals. Each passing day the shortages of electricity, gas,
and water get worse and expensive while governmental agencies run out of funds
to even fill up a pothole on a busy avenue. Justice is still blind, still
delayed, and still a rarity.
There is certainly
no comfort for the 190 million people when every global economic and social
index depicts a downward trend for their nation. There is certainly no solution
in sight to control and eliminate anti-people elements from roaming around
brazenly and indulging in deadly criminal activities. There is certainly no rationalization
for the juvenile attitude, display of insouciance, and ridiculous utterances of
politicians on a daily basis. People-care is never on their agenda. It is
always self-interest. This, then, is the time someone reminded Pakistan’s
political and non-political leaders of the 1992 campaign slogan of President
Bill Clinton, “It’s the economy, stupid”.
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