In my memory, after 1971, last year was the most depressing in Pakistan's 69-year history because the human tragedies, cases of massive corruption in state offices, gross administrative neglect, and the consequent failures it led to, manifested the near-failure of the state irrespective of the denials of this harsh reality by the PML-N regime.
The most baffling of these denials was the refusal of the Prime Minister's (PM) lawyers to provide the money-trail of the huge investments abroad (exposed by the Panama Leaks) of the PM and his family members although in its last hearing of the petitions against them the Supreme Court (SC) concluded that the onus of providing the money-trail was on the PM and his family members.
In this ongoing case, NAB, FIA, FBR, SBP and SECP admitted their incapacity for probing the Panama Leaks and tracing the money-trails involved therein, which exposed the slide in the state's commitment to preventing crime and catching high-profile criminals, its latest example being the belated and overly soft accountability of the ex-Finance Secretary of Balochistan.
In the context of state administration, instead of taking corrective action, the PML-N regime covered-up cases of corruption, refused to make public facts (e.g. about the LNG import agreement and the Neelum-Jehlum and Nandipur power projects), and at times, burned the record of the contracts it awarded for over-priced development projects.
Justice Baqar Najfi's report on the Model Town tragedy was not released, and the report on the Quetta carnage by an inquiry commission led by Justice Qazi Faez Isa was criticised instead of initiation of action against those responsible for neglect of security arrangements in a terror-prone Baluchistan, and devising systems and disciplines to avoid such tragedies.
The PML-N also loaded Pakistan with debt that is unrepayable without building a repayment capacity by adopting rational austerity, taking steps to reverse the slide in exports, encouraging investment in import substitution projects, and restructuring State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) for their early privatisation; none of these objectives was pursued credibly.
Austerity in current expenditure remained invisible as reflected by the monarchical life style of the ministers and top brass of the bureaucracy - their protocols and security arrangements, foreign visits, and expenses. The Prime Minister set a record of foreign visits in Pakistan's history though they yielded little in terms of economic or diplomatic benefits.
During his foreign visits in 2016, the PM didn't raise the Kulbhushan Yadav affair and terrorism by Yadav-led RAW network though, after his arrest in March, Yadav confirmed this terrorist network in Pakistan. Till year-end, Sartaj Aziz insisted that "we have just statements" no "water-tight" proofs of Yadav's involvement in terrorism in Pakistan, and the PM remained silent on India's threat to deprive Pakistan of its share of Indus River water.
As for building the repayment capacity, the current policy is to borrow afresh for repaying the maturing debt as reflected by the fact that, according to SBP's quarterly review for the July-September period, bulk of the state revenue was utilised for debt servicing. Impliedly, fresh borrowing defying yet again the Fiscal Responsibility & Debt Limitation Act is imminent.
Throughout PML-N's current term, exports went down forcing ever-higher external borrowing to maintain exchange reserves at a level that prevented a rapid slide in the Rupee's exchange rate - a policy that can't succeed for long because, with exports continuously on a slide, debt repayment will keep expanding the trade and current account deficits.
Exports went down mainly because to plug the fiscal deficit, energy and power tariffs weren't reduced despite a huge drop in oil rice, and while the global economy became overly-competitive, export sector was burdened with more indirect taxes (some included in the energy and power tariffs) to plug the burgeoning fiscal deficit, courtesy wasteful current expenditure.
An example of the level of concern over the economy-crippling energy sector was World Bank's (WB) cancellation of a $100 million approved loan for replacing leaking pipelines, line joints, and tampered gas meters in Sindh, including Karachi, to cut the high unaccounted for gas losses. The reason the WB cited was "SSGC's lack of interest in the project".
Privatising loss-making SOEs, particularly PIA and PSM, that keep escalating the fiscal deficit and force reckless taxation measures that over-tax the honest taxpayers, remained a dream. While PSM remained shut, PIA set a new record in mismanagement, and consequent towering debt of both made them ever-more unattractive for private investors.
Besides gross maladministration courtesy cronyism, not paying salaries of low-ranking state employees for months - true of almost every state-provided service, especially health, primary education, and municipal services - worsened this mess because street protests by their employees disrupted economic activity and thus darkened the overall economic scenario.
The reckless resort to imposing fresh indirect taxes and frequently increasing their rates portrayed an un-pluggable resource gap rooted in resource waste. Precisely when Pakistan badly needed FDI inflows to plug this gap, this profile of taxation discouraged FDI because, besides security guarantee, foreign investors seek a stable taxation regime and truly independent regulatory administration.
As if the controversies created by government's overall conduct weren't enough, regulatory bodies including Nepra, Ogra, PTA, and PPRA whose independence is imperative for protecting investor-consumer interests and providing a level-playing field to all stakeholders, were placed under direct control of the ministries whose oversight was these regulators' responsibility.
Ironically, according to Senator Mushahidullah Khan, the transfer of regulatory bodies from the cabinet division to the ministries implied that the PM won't have any direct control over them, and according to Law Minister Zahid Hamid there was "nothing out of the ordinary in shifting regulatory authorities from the cabinet division to their line ministries".
During its current term, while the PML-N neglected badly needed upgrading and expansion of the country's physical infrastructure it touted the CPEC as the 'game-changer' in this context and now it is calling it as the 'fate-changer' although, except Punjab its route remains controversial in other provinces; finally China opted to settle this issue directly with Pakistan's provincial governments.
Can this conduct popularise democracy because whenever people seek accountability of the in-power regime for its clearly visible misconduct, failures, and corruption, the in-power regime label's it as an attempt to "derail" democracy? That's the standard response of both PPP and PML-N - parties that ruled Pakistan, courtesy the pact called "The Charter of Democracy".
Neither party delivered on its rosy promises - proof: the state causing an uninterrupted slide in Pakistan's ranking on every global indicator of governance. Do we realise that this state of affairs cannot continue? It is time for order change; the longer it is delayed dearer will be the cost of rehabilitating Pakistan.
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