Charter of economy

Never in our chequered financial history have we had a trade deficit of $35 billion. Never in our chequered financial history have we had a current account deficit of $15 billion. Never in our chequered financial history have we had a budgetary deficit of Rs2 trillion plus.

Red alert: Pakistan’s gross financing requirement stands at a colossal $26 billion. According to Bloomberg, “Pakistan is depleting its dollar reserves at the fastest pace in Asia and may soon have a buffer that’s smaller than Cambodia, an economy that’s less than a 10th of its size.”

Over the past 48 years, Pakistan’s ‘elite democracy’ has had 10 elections. According to census 2017, there are 30.2 million families in Pakistan, and of these 30.2 million families 1,174 families routinely take part, over and over again, in elections and continue to occupy 1,174 seats in the Senate, National Assembly and provincial assemblies. Pakistan’s elections, in essence, are an intra-elite competition. And the economy is what matters to the other 30.2 million families.

In 2006, Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto signed the Charter of Democracy in order to protect their personal and party interests. Why can’t all the major political parties sit together and agree upon a ‘core economic agenda’? Why can’t all the major political parties sit together and draft a ‘Charter of Economy’? For the sake of 30.2 million families.

We all know that our democracy is ‘exclusive’ and that our economic institutions are ‘extractionary’. Elections in 1970, 1977, 1985, 1988, 1990, 1993, 1997, 2002, 2008 and 2013 have established a ‘narrow elite that has organised society for its own benefit at the expense of the vast mass of people. Political power has been narrowly concentrated, and has been used to create great wealth for those who possess it’. The losers have been the 30.2 million families.

We all know what is wrong with us. All our economic institutions are reverse Robin Hood – rob from the poor and give to the rich. Our budgets are reverse Robin Hood – rob from the poor and give to the rich. Our regulatory agencies are reverse Robin Hood – rob from the poor and give to the rich. Our taxes are reverse Robin Hood – rob from the poor and give to the rich. Yes, the poorest of the poor Pakistanis are being burdened more and more as the government fails to collect taxes from the rich. That is a classic case of ‘reverse Robin Hood’.

In 2008-09, the PM Office swallowed Rs600,000 a day every day of the year. Today, the PM Office costs Pakistani taxpayers Rs2.5 million a day every day of the year. In 2008-09, the cabinet division swallowed Rs4 million a day every day of the year. Today, the cabinet division costs Pakistani taxpayers Rs15 million a day every day of the year. In 2008-09, the President House swallowed Rs1 million a day every day of the year. Today, the President House costs Pakistani taxpayers Rs2.5 million a day every day of the year.

In Japan, a dozen prime ministers have come and gone over the past two decades. But, the charter of economy stayed intact. Can’t the PML-N, PPP and PTI sit together and write-up a ‘Charter of Economy’?

The writer is a columnist based in Islamabad.

Email: farrukh15@hotmail.com Twitter: @saleemfarrukh