Pakistan has been governed by successive governments since its independence. During all these years, country's image has remained tainted with corruption, nepotism, financial mismanagement and bad governance. No serious attention was ever paid to resolve long outstanding national issues that kept piling up. The pace of economic growth did not match to the rising population; therefore, the nation could not get any improvement in its living standards.
The country has drifted backward economically, socially and morally. Now we have become impatient with the present system of governance. Dictatorial governments performed well on economic fronts, but took away people's basic democratic rights. If elected political governments pursued democracy and liberalised basic constitutional rights, it was at the cost of massive corruption that morally damaged society.
The impact of huge corruption within all walks of life denied economic benefits to the masses. Successive governments scrapped on-going development projects initiated by previous governments and introduced new to enhance their corruption motives that resulted in colossal losses to national exchequer. As a nation, we are becoming impatient every day because no government performed better than the previous one. Thus we are not sure which form of government system suits us.
As all large political parties are in power, there seems to be no effective opposition in the current political governance. Therefore, in the absence of check and balances, corruption is touching its peak levels in all areas of governance. Each party blames the other for massive corruption. There seems to be a race among them to accumulate wealth in the shortest period of time as the opportunity may never come back. The massive corruption in the cases of Rental Power Plants is an example that was never witnessed before in the history of Pakistan. Billions of rupees were advanced to these plants that never produced a single unit of electricity. The state-managed enterprises are all headed by people that are relatives, cronies or party loyalists. Most of senior jobs in these institutions are being "sold" at exorbitant prices without ensuring candidates' suitability. These enterprises have become almost bankrupt due to massive corruption and siphoning off funds through illegal means. It has been revealed recently that Prime Minister's office was involved to some extent in the Hajj Scam last year as disclosed by the previous religious minister.
Pakistan Railways have collapsed financially. It has become inoperative suddenly unless billions of rupees are injected into this project. A rehabilitation programme has been approved by the cabinet to salvage this institution at public expense in addition to the existing loans of over 62 billion rupees that Pakistan Railways owes to foreign and domestic lenders. The minister for Railways was grossly negligent in remaining aware of its financial health and maintaining silence till its collapse. His threat to resign was only for additional public funding that may provide opportunities for further corruption. He should have resigned long ago on the issue of poor operations, rampant corruption and gross negligence in its governance. It is said that this institution has been intentionally made a failed and bankrupt institution for extending illegal economic gains to road transport mafia. Even if financial assistance is extended to this enterprise now, it would remain always a public liability in the absence of preventive measures that should ensure good and honest governance.
Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) is another example that has become a failed institution. That has collapsed due to gross corruption, nepotism and worst governance. The senior management who are cronies and friends of the important government personalities has ruined this institution both operationally and financially. The institution is alive due to sovereign guarantees only. The loans are piling up without any hope of its repayment. PIA has reduced its flying activities due to difficulty in fuel purchase, unsatisfactory safety records, strikes and corruption and indifferent attitude of the staff towards passengers. This has created an emergency like situation in air travelling within Pakistan.
Pakistan Steel Mill was profitable and liquid just four years ago. It has now become a sick unit. Gross corruption and mismanagement have been a major factor in disappearing liquidity from this institution. Banks have bailed this enterprise out against sovereign guarantees on government advice. It seems that public exchequer would have to bear its losses at tax payer's expense.
These are only few examples of corruption that are stated here. Other organisations and government departments are also involved in corrupt practices. There is hardly any holly cow left. Despite several promises made by the Prime Minister to restructure SMEs, no preventive and curatives measures have been taken so far. Government's profound inability to act and non seriousness to improve these enterprises indicates that the government is not interested in improving economic uplift of the country.
With unemployment so heavy, the present law and order situation leading to kidnappings, snatching of vehicles and valuables, while muggings and killings have become order of the day. A glaring lack of seriousness to tackle this issue is directly discouraging new investment and encouraging flight of capital and relocation of manufacturing facilities to safe places outside Pakistan. Severe shortages of gas, electricity and water have started slowing down industrial wheels. This would further result in widening budgetary gap due to lower tax collections due to lower profitability.
The government's greater reliance on heavy borrowings from local and overseas sources has surpassed all the previous records. About USD 14.8 billion alone has been borrowed from overseas sources. The government has violated Fiscal Responsibility and Debt Limitation Act that prescribes maximum limit of government's annual borrowings. In addition, sovereign guarantees are also being issued for SMEs without taking any measures to improve their performance. There is a likelihood that if government and its SMEs financial performance remains poor, the banking system in Pakistan may face severe liquidity pressures as happened with Greece and Italy recently. An alarming rise in non-performing loans of rupees 629 billion and over 600 billion rupees exposure to petroleum sector would further add to the miseries of the banking sector. Despite heavy lending to government and its enterprises, circular debt of petroleum companies of RS 300 billions still remains unpaid. There seems to be no legal or constitutional check and balance within the current system of governance that should stop further lending to the government.
It is being feared that the country is at the verge of financial collapse that would ultimately destabilise the government. There is a need for a change; a change that is meaningful and is meant to improve the country's economy at a faster pace. It should also meet the people's aspirations. If the change does not come sooner, people will make their way for it. The nation is becoming impatient because the main political parties have remained silent for a long time to pressurise the government for changing the status quo.
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