THIS week is the final run up to the general elections to elect the new federal and provincial governments in the country. As the country nears the date of polling on the 8th of February all major political parties such as the PTI, PMLN, PPP and others have announced their manifestos with pomp and show promising the moon to their voters.
All the grandiose plans and promises of all the major political parties have been met with a lot of doubt and skepticism by economic experts political analysts and finance managers. Most experts are of the opinion that the promised plans of the political parties are extremely doubtful to be fulfilled considering the extremely grave economic conditions and the absence of any plans to raise the required capital in order to deliver on the promises in the election manifestos.
Political parties are now closing their election campaigns with tall claims, hollow promises and unrealistic claims with no substance at all. The offer of free electricity, cheap housing, employment and other benefits sounds too good to be true in the face of the ground realities faced by the nation today. Political parties are just making hollow promises without telling their supporters where the money is going to come from to fulfill their promises, with the present state of the economy providing large scale relief to the electorate sounds like a pipe dream in the complete absence of a realistic campaign to raise revenue without imposing crippling new taxes. It is now pretty obvious that Pakistan will enter into another IMF loan program in April after the expiry of the present arrangement and this is likely to restrict freedom of movement for the Pakistani economic managers and with no progress in the economic growth the future economic scenario appears to be rather bleak.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) pledges 1 crore jobs and a 20-30% reduction in electricity bills in its ‘Pakistan ko Nawaz Do’ manifesto. Meanwhile, the Pakistan People’s Party vows to double salaries, provide free electricity up to 300 units, and offer jobs to the youth. PTI leader Gohar Khan, addressing a press conference in Islamabad, announced the manifesto titled ‘Shandaar Pakistan, Shandaar Mustaqbil aur Kharaab Maazi sey chutkara’ (Great Pakistan, great future, and freedom from bad past. Addressing economic matters, Gohar Khan pledged to raise the tax bracket and implement changes to the tax system. In a bid to support farmers, he announced subsidies to help them recover from economic challenges. He added that if his party came into power, it would also provide social security for all people. All election promises are very grand and attractive but no party has yet explained the method or the resources for making good on their election promises.
All political parties rushing headlong into elections to grab power have been tried and tested in the past and are known to have done nothing to steer the country out of economic woes, poverty and unemployment. No party has ever made a serious effort to reform the economy, increase revenue end corruption and provide some relief to the toiling masses. Most leaders have done nothing except making false and hollow promises before election and regime after regime has little to show except paying lip service to their voters. All previous governments have only provided more and more benefits to the elite class, they have introduced amnesties for habitual tax evaders and the white collared criminals have been allowed to engage in loot and plunder. The next elected Govt. will face an uphill task and they will not survive without a serious campaign to nab the tax evaders, bring all earning members of the society in the tax net and increase the govt. revenue for development and relief to the poor segments of society. The new govt. will have to target the powerful and influential groups with a lot of political clout and powers. The land mafia, the sugar barons and the insidious controllers of the stock market will have to be tamed and controlled. Any new reform will remain meaningless unless backed by a vigorous push to forcefully stamp out wasteful expenditure. Pakistan’s hugely bloated public sector has become a massive liability to a nation of more than 240 million people, all at the cost of national welfare. Across this segment, it is hard to find even a single government-owned company that is running truly in profit. All the white elephants bleeding our economy like PIA, Steel Mill and all loss making Govt. entities must be nationalized immediately.Dozens of Govt. institutions are now totally dysfunctional and are a great burden on an already weak economy, Inflation today is running at 40 percent and in the run up to the elections the major political parties should spell out their program for controlling inflation, price spiral and providing employment to the army of unemployed youth of the nation just hollow promises mean nothing. The pipe dream of hollow election promises will remain just a dream unless the political leaders are prepared to catch the bull by the horn and bravely face the harsh economic realities. The unfortunate people of Pakistan are now in the vicious grip of political parties who have been in power a number of times before but have nothing to show in terms of any decent performance and this experience negates any hopes for the future. Political party’s manifestos should include solid action plans for industrialisation, power generation, and economic improvement, emphasising the importance of addressing these foundational issues.
—The writer is Professor of History, based in Islamabad.
Email: tariq.aqil@headstart.edu.pk
views expressed are writer’s own.
