According to a Business Recorder exclusive, the 10-year industrial policy (2005-2015) initiated by the then Minister for Industries and Production (MoIP), Jehangir Tarin, remains in a draft form. While consultative work has been undertaken to formulate the policy at a cost to the exchequer as consultants were hired to undertake the necessary research, yet work has almost been abandoned. A visible tendency within our political elite is to trash all work undertaken by opposition members irrespective of the value of the work. This is extremely unfortunate. An example of a political leader and his party actually benefiting from taking ownership of a policy initiated by the opposition is the peace process that the British government initiated under John Major with the Irish Republican Army - a process that he could not complete after he lost the elections. His successor, Tony Blair, took full ownership of the process and is credited with ushering in an era of peace in Ireland. In marked contrast, Pervez Elahi's noteworthy programme of getting beggar children off the streets of major Punjab cities was very successful but abandoned by Shahbaz Sharif when he became the chief minister. This programme consisted of any member of the public ringing up the relevant department upon seeing a beggar child who would then be picked up and taken to a shelter. In the event that the child agreed to go with his/her guardian when they came to collect him/her the child would be returned with the warning that if caught begging again the child would be taken away permanently. Those children who did not wish to return to their guardians were sent to either a school or a vocational training centre at state expense. It was rare to see a beggar child in Lahore those days; however, today beggar children are again a part of the landscape of our major cities.
There is an additional complication in implementing policies in Pakistan that, at times, is attributed to its opposition in parliament or by relevant stakeholders. For instance, the privatisation process is opposed by entrenched pressure groups like the unions or by lack of funds for example implementation of the textile policy. What has been a source of serious concern in recent days is the failure of the government to implement the National Action Plan (NAP) and one of the reasons cited for this is opposition by religious parties, including one party that is a member of the government's coalition.
Thus given the years of the 10-year policy one may be tempted to argue that the reason for abandoning the work may be attributed to the fact that it was initiated by a minister who is currently in opposition. The government supporters further point out that the years of the policy have already lapsed and hence there is a need to formulate a policy for 2016-26. True but one would hope that the work undertaken for the 2005-15 maybe incorporated if it is still relevant. Given that our industrial base has not significantly shifted during the past ten years the relevance of the draft policy would be sizeable.
However, in the case of the government abandoning the industrial policy there are two additional mitigating factors which require attention. First and foremost, the frequent changes in senior bureaucracy. Such actions disable our ministries from carrying out a long-term research project like formulating a ten-year policy. In the case of MoIP Minister Ghulam Murtaza Jatoi acknowledged that there are frequent changes in senior bureaucrats. Secondly, Jatoi is also on record as having stated that his own control over his Ministry is negligible and that he is not consulted prior to a change in senior bureaucracy within MoIP. In this case one wonders why he continues to hang onto the portfolio and one can only hope that he takes the moral high ground by resigning.
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