Pakistan’s economic woes overshadow election promises

LAHORE: With elections two days away, no major political party has come out with a well spelled-out economic agenda; all are making promises that the electorate does not believe as they do not spell out credible deliverance measures.

In Pakistan, the economy is the major or perhaps the only problem. We have lost our standing as a respectable nation as we are always looking towards outsiders to come to our rescue. As the breathing space is provided by our friends and international institutions, we continue with our old consumptive and public appeasing habits before pleading for further help.

The help does not come in the form of charity but is provided as loans on harsh terms, as beggars are not choosers. There has hardly been an economist in any party who resists the wishes of the masses for providing relief that the economy cannot afford. Nor has there been a finance minister who could bring austerity in the government expenses. They have never been serious in this regard.

The austerity is generally announced in the form of cutting a certain percentage of expenses of government departments, ministries and prime minister’s office. There is no economic prudence. No serious exercise has ever been taken to find out where the expenses could be cut without hurting the work and where there is a need to allocate further funds towards the realization of government objectives.

You cannot cut the education or health budget with the same percentage as you could do with the prime minister’s budget. Moreover, when the parliament approves the expenses for each activity, there should be no huge discretionary fund left at the disposal of the PM or chief minister.

These discretionary funds are released while these leaders visit constituencies they want to win for next elections. All discretionary funds must be stopped and the amount should not be reallocated to other departments when the government is in austerity mode.

In departments like education and health, an extensive exercise should be undertaken to find out the wastages and remove them and utilize the funds thus saved for improving the delivery of services. Emphasis must be given on improving the services in the rural regions of the country. There should be no reduction of funds in the case of education and health in the name of austerity.

Real austerity will come from the high offices. There should be first of all no discretionary funds of the PM, President or CM. The current annual budgets of these offices must be slashed by at least 50 percent. The salaries and perks of bureaucrats must remain at their current level for two years. The petrol expenses of the state must be slashed by 50 percent. Entertainment expenses must be cut by 75 percent. These cuts would not impact the efficiency of the state.

Unfortunately, the parties contesting elections are not discussing these austerity measures to create resources for the social sector. Otherwise, we do not have any resources available for the masses. Moreover, we will have to increase revenues substantially to plug the fiscal deficit. This means further taxes.

The revenues can be increased by taxing the rich more and bringing more sectors under the tax net. Those who will bear this burden are influential and it would require nerves of steel to tax them. The new government, even if it is sincere in providing relief to the masses, would have to purge the corrupt bureaucrats. But then, how many bureaucrats would survive this purge?