Soon after the assassination of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, the co-chairman of PPP Bilawal Zardari Bhutto, while addressing a public gathering, said that his mother always thought that "Democracy is the best revenge". What she meant was best known to her, but the PPP probably misunderstood this phrase. Let us see if the party really understood what the Mohtarma said through the events that took place in Pakistan since the present coalition government, led by the PPP, started functioning.
We see frequent reports in the media related to financial irregularities, rampant corruption and complete violation of legal or moral authority in public sector corporations and government departments alike. The Ministry of Finance has revealed that the government exchequer is incurring a financial burden of over rupees 350 billion annually to keep these loss-making, government-managed institutions alive. No remedial action has been suggested so far.
In fact, efforts are on the rise to further increase these losses by appointing inefficient, non-qualified and corrupt people through the auction of these positions. Just to mention one recent case, no sane authority would dare to appoint a non-graduate person to head an organisation that is highly technical and of national importance and is listed on the Pakistani and London Stock Exchanges, with current market capitalisation of over 700 billion rupees.
A timely remedial action to control or reduce corruption would have saved at least 900 billion rupees during the tenure of this democratic government. The Hajj scam came to light recently. The Pakistani Ambassador in Saudi Arabia levelled allegations against senior Officers of the Ministry of Religious Affairs, including the minister that Rs 25,000 per Hajji was pocketed by these officials. The top governing officials remained silent, as the matter will be forgotten soon amongst other corruption scandals.
The role of the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) in the cases of the sugar and wheat crisis has been criticised severely. Corruption allegations are visible. But no remedial action is in sight. The land scam of the National Insurance Corporation of Pakistan (NICPL) witnessed several institutional weaknesses in the appointment of its high officers, the use of their lawful authority and the silence of the Ministry of Commerce in the decision-making power of the government's appointed board of directors, resulting in billions of rupees of fraud. These loot and plunder cases has tarnished the nation's image.
The government has recently inducted thousands of ex-employees, belonging to the ruling party that were laid off fifteen years ago mainly on party loyalty at the expense of public exchequer. Its adverse financial impact upon the performance of these SME's was not evaluated. This reflects the indifferent attitude of the government towards national economic issues. This has angered the business community, investors and civil society members, especially when the country is facing severe unemployment issues. Senior positions are filled on a discretion basis by the ruling elite and merit hiring has been abandoned since long. Qualified and experienced people are striving hard, through legal or illegal ways to migrate abroad due to non-availability of positions locally.
The government unilaterally decided to abandon the construction of the Kalabagh Dam without debating this issue in the National Assembly. Instead, it resorted to Rental Power Plants despite severe opposition from within the country. Asian Development Bank also opposed and confirmed that the power would be expensive compared with the existing IPPs. Yet, the government went ahead with these projects. This signals corruption in these deals.
Circular debts of the energy sector, amounting to billions of rupees are still pending for final resolution. No serious efforts have been made to resolve this issue. Consequently, several energy companies are under severe financial crisis.
Continuous targeted killings, demand for Bhatta and ransom money for kidnapping has become routine business in Karachi that is hub of economic activities. It remains a major concern among the business community. Frequent business closures due to these reasons costs almost 2.5 billion rupees daily to the national economy. Despite warnings and promises, the issues remained unresolved.
The federal and provincial governments feel proud to announce public holidays frequently without any reason, thereby closing down economic activities. This is resulting in loss of production, loss to the national exchequer and shortage of goods. Affording these holidays remains arguable among the business and civil society.
The practice of performing "Hajj" and "Umras" by official dignitaries, with an entourage of relatives and friends at public expense, purchase of the most modern, huge luxurious cars for ministers, the aimless trips to foreign countries, along with huge delegations, cannot be justified under the current economic downturn. Lavish lunches and dinners to the party members by the top ruling officials reflect irresponsible behaviour towards national issues.
The size of the government is very large, with over a hundred ministers, state ministers and advisors. This is the most expensive government in the history of Pakistan. A nation that is striving for economic independence has to do something different. It has to have a smaller sized cabinet that is affordable. It has to set an example for the common man, by practising austerity in all areas of spending so that additional funds are available for better civic facilities to improve the life of the common man.
Private investment has decreased sharply due to increasing risk and uncertainty arising from the war on terror and suicide attacks in major cities. Ongoing political instability, shortages of electricity, power and other infrastructure and increasing cost of doing business due to bad governance and corruption, has added further miseries for the business community, resulting in flight of capital, economic slow down and down.
The government has been unable to impose any meaningful taxation in the neglected area of agriculture sector to broaden the tax base instead it is struggling to impose RGST, an indirect tax to collect additional money to meet one of the conditionality of the IMF funding. It is a regressive form of tax and may substantially impact the common man.
The recent floods have added fuel to the fire. The government's inability to handle the crisis became more visible and demonstrated the intellectual incapacity of the government's senior ministers and advisors. The elected officials remain indifferent towards the issues facing the nation.
It is being argued time and again that the "democracy" will be in danger if the present coalition government loses power either through a vote of no confidence or intervention by a third force. "Democracy" will only survive if the present government remains in power at whatever cost, even though rampant corruption continues and state institutions remain non functional. This shows itself a negative attitude towards democracy.
Democracy does not mean that the elected governments do not react to the loot and plunder going on in the Public Sector Enterprises. It does not seem to be government's business to trade or sell consumer products or to carry on other business activities unless it wishes to protect the national interest in carrying on these activities. These enterprises seem to be under government control in order to provide opportunities for corruption, loot and plunder for the ruling associates. No planning exists to hand over these units to the private sector.
What democracy means to the common man is not a rocket science that is not understood by the government of today or other political forces in the country. Most of the problems relates to the quality of education, health facilities, availability of clean water, provision of electricity, gas and sewerage facilities. Provision of these facilities does not seem to be so difficult and requires a positive change in the mindset. The government has hardly allocated any sizeable amount on these issues due to huge corruption.
The country is being managed so far without any anti-corruption laws in place, resulting in a free for all. The National Accountability Bureau is non-functional and is expected to remain so during the present tenure of the government. There is either good governance or bad governance but now there seems to be no-governance in Pakistan.
The recent public statement of the federal Ministers against the Punjab government and the neglect of issues relating to Balochistan is weakening the federation. No direction has been issued to these ministers to concentrate on their governance rather than criticising the provincial governments.
In the minds of the ignorant, the above chain of events reflects that there is no governance. The institutions have collapsed and are completely non-functional. There is no seriousness to resolve the outstanding political and economic issues facing the nation. Everyone in the government or state-owned corporations is busy in making illegal wealth overnight, as if the ruling Junta is taking long outstanding revenge from the nation. This is all happening under the guise of so called "Democracy". Therefore, it is for the ignorance to understand, if revenge is being taken from the nation through the so-called "democracy".
The writer is Chartered Management Accountant UK and is LLM. (Commercial Law) from Northumbria University UK