Election manifestos

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With a month left for general elections to take place in Pakistan, the political parties have started unveiling their election manifestos.

Though the three major parties – Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), and the Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) – have yet to announce their manifestos, the small and regional parties have started releasing their election documents.

The five-party religious alliance – Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) – was the first to announce its election manifesto followed by the Awami National Party (ANP).

The ANP manifesto at the very outset explains that it does not purport to be a detailed programme of action, but only seeks to describe the spirit that motivates the party and the overall principles that will govern its policies.

The document then dwells on a number of issues ranging from provincial autonomy to education and health as well as the rights of the different strata in the society, internal and external policies, environment, and economic and fiscal policies.

Since ANP is largely a regional party with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as the main stronghold, much of the emphasis of the manifesto lies in matters related to the province or the areas where Pushtuns live in sizeable strength like Balochistan and Karachi.

On economic matters, the manifesto speaks in general terms and avoids any reference to the country’s current state of economy but it does criticise the policies of the PTI government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, particularly its economic policies like “huge” borrowings.

The manifesto acknowledges that tax to gross domestic product (GDP) ratio of the country needs to be increased gradually in order to meet the economic challenges faced by the country.

The party vows to strive for raising the GDP ratio to a minimum of 15 percent.

In this regard, it says it would impose taxes that tap the wealth and incomes of the rich rather than burden the less well to do people.

The party promises to increase the direct tax net to 70 percent.

ANP opposes exemptions for any sector in the tax regime and says incomes from agriculture, real estate dealings, defense related businesses, property of defense personnel in cantonments, and incomes from speculative markets etc shall be brought in the tax ambit.

While acknowledging that the debt burden has crippled the economy as debt servicing has become the single largest item of expenditure in the government budget reflecting the combined impact of surge in the volume of domestic and foreign debt, rise in domestic interest rates and depreciation of rupee, the manifesto says the party wants to adhere to fiscal responsibility and debt limitation act.

It says top priority would be given to payment of expensive debts to make the overall burden manageable.

The party says domestic savers and foreign investors would be encouraged to invest in the country; and it would make special efforts to boost the country’s exports and remittances.

The party underlined the need for cementing trade ties with the neighboring countries particularly Afghanistan and emphasized the need for opening at least ten road links with it, raising from the existing two such links at Torkham and Spin Boldak.

The manifesto also called for raising the share of the manufacturing sector in the country’s economy to 30 percent in a decade than the existing 17 percent.

The manifesto called for making the state corporations more efficient, transparent and corruption free but stopped short of calling for privatisation of these white elephants like the Pakistan Steel Mills.

Under a separate header, the manifesto specifically dealt with the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and maintained that the original Kashghar-Gawadar Economic route plans focused on ensuring benefit to the terror affected and underdeveloped districts of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as a priority.

It took credit of being the first to raise concerns when the original plans were changed from the western route to the eastern route under the CPEC project. It complains that after the change of route, nothing tangible has been left for the country’s least developed areas from the CPEC project.

However, it says it would ensure that the mega CPEC substantially benefits the least developed and terrorism affected new districts (former FATA), Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Moreover, cheap potential hydropower projects of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will be included in CPEC in addition to the coal/ thermal projects.

Projects of oil and gas explorations will also be included in the CPEC encompassing installations of new facilities and equipment.

The election manifestos cannot be expected to dwell at length with the economic challenges of the country and could only set outlines for the future plan of action. ANP has a limited appeal restricted to some parts of the country. However, a party which has been in the field for decades is expected to make more strenuous deliberations on the challenges faced by the country particularly on the economic front.

Many of the challenges faced by Pakistan on security, foreign policy, and political fronts can be mitigated if the economy of the country is placed on sound footings.

A good example for Pakistan to study in this regard is Turkey which can take very independent decisions on the security front because of its robust economy. China treaded the same path throughout its history.

Our leaders have largely focused on political rhetoric and have seldom given any attention to the real challenges faced by the country.

While domestic policies as well as imbalance in civil-military ties are major challenges at political fronts to deal with, the existence of these issues does not mean that our leaders ignore the other challenges.

Unfortunately, we have been handling our economy through policies which have long been discarded by other countries. We need to find innovative ways to resurrect economy. How did Turkey, Malaysia, and South Korea achieve economic development in a short span of time? Even Bangladesh is making strides and winning accolades for its economic achievements in recent years.

It neither has motorways nor has metros like us. The dangerously overloaded trains on the eve of Eid are still worrying scenes for the poverty-stricken country but its undiluted focus on strengthening the economic fundamentals – rising exports, increasing foreign remittances and bolstering foreign exchange reserves – promises good dividends from the 7 to 8 percent annual economic growth.

Pakistani leaders need to catch up with the fast changing trend in the region and the world at large.

The writer is a senior journalist based in Islamabad