initiative of holding the after-care investors’ conference with the belief that some candid talk and prodding by the CM might remove the misgivings of the investors besides brining them out of the state of constant despair and despondency.
Commenting on this situation, poet, writer and research scholar Syed Jawad Shamsi says that investment by the national investors in big or medium-scale projects is not an improbability. There are only two things needed in this regard over and above the motive and consideration of profit and that is the passion for serving the compatriots. This is not a rarity, says Shamsi. The world has seen the rise of public welfare-oriented investment theories and practices in recent times, according to this research scholar.
These issues and their root causes were recently discussed and debated at another thinking forum which I don’t yet like to label as a think tank given the ‘delicate composition’ of the last session comprising Citizen Commission for Human Development’s (CCHD’s) Executive Director, Farah Azeem Khan, famous human rights veteran Apa (elderly noble lady) Mehnaz Rafi, MPAs Saadia Salahuddin and Uzma Bokhari and one of the young females from Daultana family. CCHD has conducted a number of discussions with the objective of evolving policy priorities and recommendations for the governments and of course, for ‘human development’. Focus has been mainly on the threadbare study and analysis of provinces’ performance, post-18th Amendment, especially in the areas of Local Government, Women Development and Health. The most deplorable thing that came out of all these discussions was the revelation that most of the government departments that were approached time and again for their input, showed complete indifference (my guess is it is not mere indifference but contempt for those living below the ‘honourable existence line’). I think Farrah erred in this matter by not having recourse to the ‘Right to Information’ law or to the sneakers from my class, I mean media. Whatever, some valuable revelations did come to the fore during this quest can be summed up in this manner: ‘Governance still appears to be under the spell of personality cult or personality worship, things being handled on personal whims of executives or chief executives; system could not be evolved so far despite our country having gone independent 67 years ago; the long-established departments of Organization and Method (O & M) and Ways and Means are on the death row and last but not the least, Policy Vacillation is the order of the day. Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif’s aides, however, claim that the PM is very particular about doing away with this whimsical governance factor as he seriously wants to replace personality cult with a system. If that materialises, it would be a yet bigger-and more delightful- news for the inhabitants of this land than any inter-state corridor.
(mianrehman1gmail.com)