The budget debate has had an inauspicious start with leader of the opposition Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan admitting that the decision to drown out Dr Hafeez Sheikh's budget speech was "too hard". His focus inexplicably was not on the budget, the economic treatise of the government that would determine the quality of life of Pakistanis, but on his old harangues: poor governance for which President Asif Ali Zardari was held responsible.
This is extremely unfortunate and is a negation of basic democratic norms and principles which require the members of the opposition, with aspirations of forming a government in future, to not only responsibly critique the budget document but also present an alternate set of policies that have the capacity to deal with the economic problems facing the country today.
Reports indicate that this softening of the PML (N) stance is directly related to Punjab government's growing concern that the provincial budget to be presented on June 10 may be subjected to the same rowdyism as displayed by the PML (N) in the National Assembly. The PML (N) may deny this charge. However, the fact that there have been assurances to this effect by die-hard anti-PML (N) PPP members led by former Law Minister Babar Awan flanked by the equally virulent Raja Riaz leads one to conclude that yet another deal has been struck.
This time too the deal is at the cost of the people and in support of the politicians or, in other words, rapprochement where political interests are synonymous has once again been allowed to rule the day. Those who may turn to the Senate for a more informed debate on the budget would be disappointed as well as the elections of the leader of the opposition was the sole topic under discussion in that august house.
Ishaq Dar, who has held the portfolio for finance a number of times, appeared more incensed with the modalities behind the decision of the Chairman Senate to appoint JUI (F) Secretary General Maulana Ghafoor Haideri as the new opposition leader rather than concerned about leading an informed debate on the budget document.
As matters appear today, the Pakistani economy is suffering from myriad problems ranging from poor growth (in marked contrast to other economies in the region), to an appallingly low tax to Gross Domestic Product ratio (around 9.1 percent - even lower than last year's 9.2 percent), leading to a burgeoning budget deficit. To fill the growing resource expenditure gap the government during the last three years opted to steadily increase reliance on foreign assistance. However, pledges made by multilaterals and bilaterals are not being disbursed due to failure to implement reforms as per the aid conditionalities. This compelled the government to increase borrowing from the domestic banking sector that, in turn, is crowding out private sector credit and dampening growth further.
Then, of course, there are non-economic factors that have been impacting negatively on our economy, notable amongst which is the ongoing war on terror that has led to suicide attacks in our major cities accounting for a drying up of foreign investment. And within this macro picture is the common man witnessing an erosion of the value of each rupee he earns on a monthly basis due to rising utility bills, high transport costs and is forced to struggle to keep his job with massive loadshedding being held responsible for a marked decline in productivity as well as raising unemployment levels to boot.
The PPP government has politically isolated the PML (N) given the fact that almost all other major parties in the two houses are part of the coalition. In this context, the onus of presenting a well-informed opposition that provides checks and balances to the government's ill-advised and ill-timed policies - whether due to mala fide intent or reflecting incompetence - rests with the PML (N). This fundamental responsibility has not been discharged by the PML (N) post-budget.