Understanding the missing links: Through a 42-year odyssey of its unflinching struggle, the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) has undoubtedly become a defining political tradition of the masses of Pakistan. This tradition is committed to Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's vision of a progressive society.
It is attached to Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto's mission of democratic struggle. And it is now inspired by the reconciliatory wisdom of President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to create a progressive, prosperous and pluralist Pakistan.
It is, perhaps, a question of historical irony or political inevitability that whenever the PPP comes to power, it picks up the pieces left behind by authoritarian regimes and builds it back from the ashes. From Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1972, to Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto in 1988 and 1993, and then President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani in 2008, power returns to the PPP with Himalayan challenges at domestic, international and economic fronts.
In 2008, the PPP-led Coalition Government resumed office with four critical challenges at hand: a) democratization of the State; b) de-Talibanization of the society; c) restoring the cohesion of the Federation and; d) macroeconomic stabilisation of the country. How the People's Government has fared in tackling these major challenges must be seen against the peculiar socio-political, economic and geo-strategic circumstances in which it found itself at the start of its tenure in March 2008. There are complex links that need to be identified and understood in order to objectively assess how far the People's Government has come in pulling Pakistan back from yet another dangerous precipice.
Picking up the pieces
The Great Economic Depression, which started in 2008 and culminated in 2009, shook the global economies, and an unprecedented recession affected all the nations of the world. However, the prudent policies adopted by the People's Government minimised the effects of this economic downturn, thereby mitigating its implications for the common man.
Today, the stock exchange is performing relatively better than the crisis situation of 2007 and early 2008. The supply of basic food items is much better than the situation inherited by the Government two years ago. There is no shortage of essential food items. Wheat stocks are in excess and more than our requirement. We had bumper rice crop. Problem exists in the sugar area, which is being resolved by importing requisite quantity of sugar. And after 19 years, a unanimous National Finance Commission (NFC) Award has been announced by the People's Government, which is a milestone for inter-provincial harmony in the country.
Cognisant of the limitations of the growth strategy followed in the past, which has invariably produced boom-bust cycles, and has invariably been followed at various intervals by a balance of payments crisis, the People's Government has embarked on a fundamental change of the development paradigm.
A new economic growth strategy is embodied in the Government's Nine-Point Plan, which seeks to foster sustainable and more equitable growth by means of structural improvements in the productive sectors of Pakistan's economy. The nine areas that have been identified for serious and sustained policy intervention include:
-- Macroeconomic stabilisation
-- Social protection
-- Agriculture
-- Energy
-- Improving industrial competitiveness
-- Infrastructure development through innovative use of Public-Private Partnership (PPP) models
-- Increasing the depth of Capital Markets Human capital
-- Administrative and Governance reform
Strengthening the federation
When the Peoples Government assumed power after the February 2008 election, Pakistan was politically divided; the Constitution was malformed; basic human rights were violated and wronged; the Federation was fractured; and the society was being bled by extremist religious violence. To confront these challenges of the past, and to build an open and democratic future in Pakistan was an uphill task.
In the last two years, the People's Government has addressed and redressed these existential challenges faced by the nation with the help of the process of political reconciliation, and following the principles of pluralist politics.
"Success of the Nation, as we new century, shall be based upon its level of exports, hard currency reserves, its per capita GNP, and the creative genius of its citizens".
MACROECONOMIC STABILIZATION
-- Democracy brings sustainable and equitable economic growth
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