Agenda for Pakistan

Columnist ALI ASHRAF KHAN suggests some initiatives by Pakistan to correct the anomalies in the current situation.

Over a period of more than fifty years Pakistan has suffered on account of a vacuum created in the leadership after the death of the Quaid. Today Pakistan stands at crossroads and it is only a strong and sincere leadership, which can lead the nation by the hand till their feet are sure and they know their way. Easy money is a human failing and this is the path which our leaders adopted one after the other, every leader entering into the shoes of his predecessor to get rid the nation of the quagmire of corruption in which the nation had fallen. Yet, zero plus zero is equal to zero, and in the end result, the country landed in more corruption, more debts and more foreign intervention by the money-lenders.

It is a fact of history that China achieved independence in 1949, two years later than Pakistan. They put a bamboo curtain round their country, which in one way or the other is still there. They brook no interference in the internal affairs, so much so, that any of their leader dies, they do not hold funerals and receive foreign dignitaries and incur unnecessary heavy cost and face administrative problems. When Mao Tse Tung started with his agenda of bringing about a revolution in China, he marched from village to village, established their governments and marched ahead. History gave it the name of Long March. On his way to Peking now Beijing, he had to cross a river, which he swam through with his followers, the event is known in history as the Great Swim. So, China is now on a pedestal where even America wants to seek their friendly hand and President Nixon of the United States had to make a visit to China and call on the great leader Mao Tse Tung.

We have, therefore, to take a chapter out of China’s book and adopt the same economic and political programme for the nation and the country. It was in 1972 when Mr. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto ascended the throne of Pakistan as President and Chief Martial Law Administrator, Premier Chou en Lai of China, second in command to Mao Tse Tung, is reported to have sent him a letter advising him as a sincere brother, to consolidate the dismembered Pakistan by conserving human energy and financial resources and preserve everything which is in Pakistan for the Pakistanis and forget about international politics and internationalism, as a weak country has no place in international politics, this letter was distributed by Mr. Bhutto to the members of his cabinet but the sincere advise of Brother Chou en Lai was ignored and today we reap the harvest, we have sown.

It is, therefore, necessary and the call of the hour is to put a veil around Pakistan. Preserve everything, which is in Pakistan for Pakistanis. Ban import of foreign personnel to work our programmes because these foreigners or imported personnel from foreign financial institutions are more loyal to their masters than to Pakistan. There is no dearth of food in the country and there is no dearth of cultivable land, bring every acre of cultivable land under the plough and then export the surplus food to earn foreign exchange. Pakistan is not short of clothing, after all our industrialists export cotton and textile items, which are 62% of the entire export of Pakistan, and they keep the  profits abroad. Let us first clothe our own people first and then export the surplus. We are not short of cotton and foodgrains; thus we can ensure Roti and Kapra which is the basic need of the masses.

Eradicate illiteracy through a mass literacy programme, no government worth the name has paid any attention to this dire necessity of building of the nation. So a minister is on record to have said that we cannot afford to educate our masses, we have now to prove that not only we can, we do educate our masses and achieve 100 % literacy in record time. This is how nations are built. Health is yet another sector which would need the attention of the rulers behind the veil, 75% of the people in Pakistan live in villages, yet they do not have even potable water much less a dispensary stacked with medicines.

Sixty percent of Pakistan revenue go for debt servicing which is paid by the dumb driven masses of Pakistan and the benefit of which have been earned by the rulers of Pakistan in the form of their salaries, their perks, their tours and other extravaganzas. Let us save this money. In order to do this, we have to ask for a moratorium for a specified number  of years rather than celebrating the success of loans rescheduling, which is going to cost much more than 60% after the year 2003. If we had done all this right on day one Pakistan would have been a much stronger country to face the Kashmir issue squarely rather than carrying out skirmishes on the line of control and celebrating of being one up in shelling.                       

Pakistan Muslim League is seeking an alliance on a one point agenda for restoration of democracy now, that is the revival of National Assembly and Nawaz Sharif government and thereby return to loot and plunder again  which has been the order of the day in Pakistan since the game of musical chairs started. This is the cry of not only Benazir Bhutto but also all the politicians who have been jockeying for a little position in any cabinet irrespective of any programme or policy. Pakistan is reported to have created history in having three ministers in one ministry, in an army of seventy ministers in the cabinet. The joke at that time was that the Prime Minister did not know the name of a minister in her cabinet. Pakistan cannot afford a democracy where the government is of the people by the corrupt and for the elite. There is a  mushroom growth of political parties in the name of religion, history records that more harm has been done to Islam by the believers than non-believers. So the political parties in the name of religion must come out with their programme for the alleviation of poverty of the masses instead of dividing them on sectarian basis. Political parties, which do not have such a programme, should either be banned or they will  die their own death.

Human resource development is yet another avenue which needs the attention of the rulers, right from day one the rulers have been dancing  in the hands of the bureaucrats, probably because their ministers were not as educated as the bureaucrats and so, the entire burden of ruling Pakistan fell on bureaucracy who had their own axe to grind and earn the  notoriety of being the Establishment which made and unmade the governments. Pakistan has got enough of hardworking; sincere manpower provided they are guided to work and the entire problem with our fair country has been to find the guides. But a discerning eye on the top does find such people and puts the right man on the right job at the right time. Machiavellian theory of finding the replacement and firing him must be abandoned. Every functionary must train a number two to himself and that should be the basis of his promotion. This is what is called the human resources development. This will retard brain drain in the country. At the moment every knowledgeable youth and even senior citizens whose services could be better utilized here are trying to find jobs in Europe, America and Australia. This is not so in Singapore, if we adopt the Singapore programme for our country, we may be able to stem  the outflow of the brain drain, which is being replaced by imported personnel who do not owe their allegiance to Pakistan.

After having met the necessities of life indigenously, we have to look abroad for oil imports, Iran, Iraq and Libya are the possible markets to  obtain oil for Pakistan on competitive rates and terms, even then if there is any shortfall that can be met by rationing of petrol. Pakistan should exploit innumerable mineral resources of the country in the field  of gas and coal as well.

It’s time now that we follow the advice rendered by Late Premier Chou en  Lai of China to Late President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and lay a veil around  Pakistan, now is not the time to squander money and be jubilant over the  victory of our players in foreign countries where also they go and lose for money, all such opportunities must be plugged till Pakistan emerges on the map of the world as a small but strong country.