Shaukat Aziz's induction as Prime Minister is hailed by all and sundry in the country. Ofcourse ARD and MMA boycotted his parliamentary election. It was opposition for the sake of opposition. Irrespective of the constitutional process adhered to anything initiated by Musharraf is anathema to the components of the Opposition in the National Assembly.
Their putting up Javed Hashmi of PML-N - a convicted politician was foolish to say the least. Contrary to expectation when the Speaker accepted the nomination, the sponsors were befuddled and demanded Hashmi's production in the Parliament. The Speaker rightly refused enabling the Opposition to save face by not participating in the voting as their candidate would not have secured even 100 votes as against Shaukat's Aziz 191.
No one has any doubts about the honesty, integrity and competence of Shaukat Aziz. The only question being raised is his lack of political experience. It is argued that he may be an able technocrat but lack of political skills would prevent his reaching the goals in democratic environment.
Shaukat Aziz's problem is that the people expect him to cure all the accumulated ills of the country - and there is a plethora - overnight. However, poverty alleviation would be the primary task and he would sink or swim on the success or failure of it. Being a man of banking and finance with five years knowledge of Pakistan's economic problems, he is the right man for the job. But it would need time on his part and patience on the part of the people to wait for results.
He can put in place policies and programmes but would need the cooperation of ministries and government functionaries at various levels to implement the same with honesty and sincerity.
Hitherto Shaukat Aziz's emphasis has been on macro-economics to augment foreign exchange reserves, which has enabled him to strengthen Pak rupee and marginally reduce debt burden.
This necessarily involves remaining on the right side of USA - a policy to which the politicians and particularly MMA is fundamentally opposed because it makes us subservient to the great power.
Shaukat Aziz will, therefore, have to do some tight rope walking to persist with his policies without antagonising the Opposition. Presently he enjoys support of trade, industry and business what we call "classes" who have reaped benefits, but now he will have to concentrate on the uplift of masses which means emphasis on micro-economics, to check inflation and control prices of essential items of daily use.
During the past couple of years creditable progress has been made in the industrial and service sectors, but agriculture production has lagged behind. No doubt it is largely dependent on the vagaries of weather, but some fundamental changes will have to be made in land management to reduce the clout of the feudals to improve the lot of the small growers. Thus far successive governments have failed to make headway in this respect.
It would, therefore, be a great challenge for Shaukat Aziz to achieve a breakthrough. He would have to seek cooperation of the four provinces to agree on fair and equitable distribution of our scarce water resources. ISRA has been sounding warnings of unprecedented draught and scarcity of water we are facing.
It would, therefore, be a feather in his cap if the Prime Minister secures agreement on construction of the proposed Kalabagh and Basha dams.
Apart from the issues referred to above, there would be a gargantuan agenda of reforms to be tackled. Just to name a few (a) Amending Blasphemy and Hudood laws (b) Police and educational reforms (c) Population control (d) Strengthening devolution of power (e) Terrorism (f) Health care and myriad others. Peace talks with India are proceeding at a slow pace. There is no breakdown but no breakthrough either. Shaukat Aziz would be expected to expedite progress. The only solace Shaukat Aziz can look forward to is that the all powerful Musharraf President of the country and the entrenched capable President of Muslim League Shujaat Hussain would be there to aid, abet and guide him in the arduous journey. Above all he would enjoy unstinted support of U.S. administration.
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