Segmentation of society is a requirement: PML-N MNA & Parliamentary Secretary Finance, Rana Afzal Khan

Rana Afzal Khan is the PML-N MNA from NA-82 Faisalabad. A former NED-educated engineer who has worked for leading energy and construction firms, including MNCs in Saudi Arabia, Rana came back to Pakistan in the year 1987 with the sole intention of joining politics.
After starting his political career from the Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Rana joined the PML-N where it took him seven years to get the ticket (1990-97). In his own words, he is converting Islamia college Faisalabad from the worst college to a college of reputation, he has sat on the syndicate of engineering university Lahore and University of Agriculture, Faisalabad and is currently pursuing a new project to bring a sports complex to Faisalabad, for which he has already gotten 30 acres of land earmarked at the periphery of the city.
In this interview with BR Research, Rana talks about governance model challenges, the Swiss bank account story, the lack of transparency in budget making process, and the troubles that keep him awake at night. Below are the edited excerpts.
BR Research: Let's start with one of the hottest topics these days, the Swiss account balance. The government says the number is about $200 billion. But considering that that's about three-fourth of the size of Pakistan's GDP, how realistic is that number; or is it a political number?
Rana Afzal: You have to understand the whole picture. It's not politicians who have been corrupt. Bureaucracy too has been the source of consistent corruption in Pakistan, whether in the form of plots or any other things. For instance, I can assure you that the amount of bribe given to the taxman is often more than five times the actual tax paid.
In fact the race to corruption between politicians and the bureaucrats is akin to the race between the tortoise and the rabbit. The politicians who are corrupt come and go, but eventually the bureaucrats stay. Plus, the amount also includes the monies of the corrupt among the business community, thanks in part to the huge loan defaults or tax avoidance, or bribery.
So, it is these ill-gotten monies that have been eventually finding their way to the safe havens outside Pakistan throughout the last 65 years of the country's history. And therefore, it would be incorrect to say that $200 billion is an outrageous number. If you spread it across the last 60 odd years, it will come down to $500-or $1 billion a year growing to $200 billion.
You should also keep in mind that the number has come directly from the mouth of a Swiss minister a couple of years ago, who said that Swiss banks could have more than $200 billion in accounts held by Pakistani nationals.
BRR: How does the future for money launders look like then?
RA: A welcome change has come from the international compulsions on terrorism. Money laundering was discussed in the 2010 G8 Conference from the point of view of terrorism. After the conference, it was pronounced that "the era of secret funds is over". After that the laws have been changed, and Switzerland along with other tax heavens had been told categorically to shed secrecy and share information.
It was decided that Switzerland will make bilateral agreements with countries to disclose to each other the details of monies belonging to each others' nationals. The first country to sign the bilateral agreement was the USA, and it will be some time when all other countries do it.
BRR: Sticking to the theme, there have been so many exemptions and concessions that have simply been doled out to the civil and military bureaucracies under the second schedule. How do we correct that wrong and rationalise the magnetisation system?
RA: You are right, these problems do exist. But you have to pick and chose the challenges. I think at this stage, the priority for the government should be the rooting out of corruption and inefficiency. I agree that there should not be tax free perks; there should be no discrimination against the ordinary Pakistani. But survival and preservation of democracy is the first challenge for any elected government in Pakistan. In military terminology, "you have to live to fight another day".
BRR: What your thoughts on how to bring improvements in the discos?
RA: There are no two thoughts about the fact that discos should be privatised; privatisation has to be the way forward. But let me tell a story.
We were 11 MNAs from Faisalabad and we were invited by the Prime Minister for a breakfast meeting to update him of the problems of our areas. So somebody said we have drinking water problem, other spoke of the Faisalabad airport and electricity, etcetera. When my turn came, I said "Sir the existing governance model is flawed; we cannot run a country with this governance model."
"I said in two minutes I will explain the problem to you with an example; I said there is a gentleman, a decent person who works hard, has a lot of pain for Pakistan, and wants to develop the country. The first time I meet him he was secretary livestock and had just come from Paris where he was involved with the Pakistani consulate in a certain capacity. Six months later, I find that he is secretary of health; four months later, I find that he is secretary energy, and as I talk to you he is the secretary finance and maybe given another charge."
"So I said sir--the governance model that is based on the assumption of Mr-knows-it-all has hit fatal blows to the country--the world is now led by professionals--and unless we bring a change in our system of governance, this country will not progress for another 65 years."
You see if you want a goat revolution in Pakistan, the relevant secretary in the livestock departments should know the goat and other animals from inside, which is why I have proposed that secretaries of technical departments should be selected through search committees for a 3 years' contract just like we select the vice chancellors.
So to answer your question, discos need well selected boards comprising stakeholders and professionals.
BRR: What is the thing that haunts you; what is the single one point agenda that you will pitch to develop the industry?
RA: After energy and extremism I feel very strongly about vocational and technical education. I am on the board of Danish school authority, Punjab Education Foundation, etc. In late 90s, I helped the NFC Institute of Technology, Faisalabad to become an educational institution, got it the land, funds and affiliation of UET LAHORE, and now it qualifies to be given a university status soon. I have been on the syndicate of UET, Lahore and I sat on the syndicate of Faisalabad Agriculture University for seven years. The latter had 155 PhDs; today it has over 530 PhDs, and is now one of the top 100 agricultural universities in the world.
On vocational and technical education, let me give you an example from Punjab. About 12 lac students sit for matriculation every year, of which about 8 lac pass in the first attempt whereas about 1 lac pass in the supplementary. About 3 to 3.5 lac is the drop out or fail every year, whereas the whole infrastructure in technical and vocational training institutions can only absorb 1.5 lac in Punjab.
If you want to bring a change then those 1.5 lac children have to be given vocational and technical education. The challenge is so big if you can develop an institution that can absorb 1,000 students a year, which is expensive, then you need 150 institutions across Punjab alone.
BRR: Imran Khan has been talking about the one system of education. What are your views on that?
RA: I strongly disagree with that blinkered view.
Look, about 12 lac students take matriculation exam in Punjab every year. Compare that with 32,000 students, who took O-levels across Pakistan. So what would be the ratio for these so-called elite schools students across the country; less than two percent; Mind you, the bulk of your engineers, doctors and leaders in all fields come from ordinary schools run by government and by the private schools adopting Pakistani model.
So I ask you, when two percent of students are educated in different standards of education; does that mean that you have two standards of education; I don't think so. These international standard schools are important particularly when we have a sizeable overseas Pakistani community.
BRR: Rana Sahab two percent may be a small number but the counter argument goes that it is that very two percent that creates schisms in the society, because then that's where the economic rents, the political or social status, end being concentrated?
RA: Look you have to understand that you are a part of international community. And, therefore, there are requirements of different segments of society. How can you justify that that two percent education system is closed down? Many countries have private education that is not paid from taxpayers' money.
BRR: Why isn't the government serious about the census?
RA: We do understand that census is the most important for correct planning and distribution of resources amongst provinces. Even the local government elections are held up because of census. Certain provinces feel their share of federal funding may get reduced and are thus not very keen about the census. And this politics is also hurting local body elections; it is also hurting the real divisions of resources.
But, let me admit, the government is a government by crisis. You have the crisis of terrorism; crisis of energy and economy and the resource constraints; then there are floods, and the ongoing political immaturity on the streets. The political crisis is in fact very unfortunate because the parties should have respected the people's mandate; the PTI and PAT should have realised that this country is going through a crisis; and there is no time for politicking. Census needs to be prioritised and this should be preceded by the revamping of ECP by the new NA Committee.
BRR: Provincial budgetary documents are a mess; transparency seems to be a lost concept there. What do you think can be done about it?
RA: I have to admit political maturity is yet not complete. The committees in the provincial assemblies are not powerful. In fact not funded and ignored. By design, the governments in provinces prefer to keep development monies in block allocations and to spend them during the year according to their discretion. This is not how things should go. Everything should be budgeted and pre-planned, and that is where the bureaucracy does not work hard enough all year round for the next year.
After so many years in politics and dealing with government departments, I have now learnt if I have, for example, to get an elementary school elevated to a high school, I should start working now for the next budget. I should get its estimates made, get their recommendations through to the provincial capitals, so by the time the budget making starts, my proposal is complete and it sails through.
This hard work has to be year around-I as a politician should not be the one pushing for these things in the constituencies, the local government should be in place and the education department should be finding the requirement and doing the hard work. Lower levels of governance need to be improved and their employees need to be both trained better and monitored better.
Governance reforms are both urgent and challenging because the thing is that our government machinery is rusted. It a very difficult job to take a 50-year-old rusted broken bicycle, hoping that if you could oil it and fix it, then you could race it with a new bicycle. That is just not possible.