Pakistan's Political and Economic Problems

???? Can Pakistan Overcome Political and Economic Problems?

????? ???????????????????????????????????Dr. Hasan Askari Rizvi

??????? Pakistan is currently facing serious problems in the political and economic domains that have adversely affected the common people. The key political players and state institutions can control these problems by changing their current approach to the affairs of the state and society. They need to opt for political sharing and political accommodation within the framework of democracy and the constitution.

??? Given Pakistan’s political and economic challenges the policy of excluding any major political party from the political process through administrative and judicial powers will add to Pakistan’s problems in 2024. It will also adversely affect the credibility of the forthcoming elections both in the domestic and international contexts. Pakistan needs political reconciliation, accommodation, tolerance, and political harmony for ensuring political coherence, stability, and political consistency. If the current trends of mutual distrust, acute confrontation and a prejudiced use of state machinery persist, Pakistan is unlikely to muster enough capacity to cope effectively the current political and economic challenges.

The prevailing disillusionment in society can diminish by introducing reforms that change the nature of current politics and provide relief to common people. Pakistan needs political harmony and the democratic culture that emphasizes constitutionalism, the rule of law and mutual respect among the completing political leaders and parties. Political leaders should not treat their rivals as “enemies” and they should assign precedence to civilian politics with fair, free and equal opportunity electoral process. Only such politics can ensure good governance, political continuity, and predictability about the future direction of politics.?

The commercial and business ethos should not overwhelm politics. The mixing of politics with commercialism changes the goal of politics from public service to making material gains, and the profit motive dominates it. Politics tends to become a commercial activity and a considerable number of political players spend money in politics to make more money. Corruption, misuse of state power and resources, and nepotism become rampant. As personal gains depend on staying in power, politics turns into a brute struggle for power among the rich and affluent sections of the population. The people from middle or lower socio-economic backgrounds find it hard to rise in politics except by riding on the bandwagon of the powerful and wealthy political bosses which invariably breeds the culture of sycophancy. This type of politics ignores honesty, merit, and human welfare. Such leaders often undertake welfare work to make personal material gains because unless the rulers spend state money on high expenditure projects, they cannot siphon off money for them and their selected followers. Those staying away from such unethical politics face difficulties in their career.????????????? ?

Pakistan’s Economy requires immediate attention. The major political parties talk of reforming and improving the economy, but none has so far offered any detailed programme for salvaging the faltering economy. There is a need to pay attention to the economy both at the macro and micro levels and address the decline in the overall growth of the economy and how and why agriculture and industry have shown a decline in their output. There is a need to make sure that the agriculture sector gets the input at a reasonable price and in excellent quality. Experience suggests that whenever agriculture requires fertilizer and pesticide for the crop, the dealers restrict the supply of these items to the market to raise prices. Other important issues include the restructuring of the faltering sectors of the economy, privatization of the state enterprises that are running in losses.

Another aspect of the economy that needs attention is high inflation and price hikes of food items and other goods of household needs. The inflation rate is around 29 percent, which is quite high. The intermediaries and shopkeepers manipulate the supply of goods, including food items, to raise prices at will; there is hardly any government check on exaggerated and frequent price hikes. This has caused insecurities in the lives of majority of Pakistan’s population.?

The most neglected areas of the economy are societal security and human development. The experience of some Southeast Asian states suggests that the key to turning around the society is to spend state resources on education, health care, basic civic facilities, and environmental issues. These countries have also defused conflicts with the neighboring states. Pakistan needs to learn from the experience of these countries for economic revival and human welfare and regional conflict management. Another related issue is to pay attention to acquisition of modern knowledge, science and technology and cultivation of effective economic linkages with other countries for trade, investment and movement of ideas and people across territorial borders.???????????????

Pakistan links four regions of Central Asia, the Middle East, India, and China. The economic future of such a country depends on trade, oil and gas pipelines, roads and railways, transmission of electricity and a fast-moving trade and ample investment in mutually beneficial industrial and agricultural projects. However, Pakistan’s trade with the states of the region is a small fraction of its total trade. Pakistan’s relations with India are almost suspended. There are strains in its relations with Afghanistan which limits trade and transit of good option to Central Asia. It has limited economic relations with Iran and gets gas and oil from other countries rather than from Iran that borders Pakistan. China is the only neighbor with whom Pakistan has good and active relations.

Pakistan cannot take full benefits of its geographic location because of its weak economy and domestic law and order situation. The terrorist incidents that take place quite often deter foreign investment and adversely affect the domestic efforts to improve the economy. Religious extremism is another Pakistani handicap that deters foreign visitors, including investors, to come to Pakistan for tourism visits or for business purpose. These are not insurmountable problems. These challenges require a change of priorities on the part of the leaders and initiation of continuous effort to address domestic political and economic problems and cultivation of positive economic relations with the rest of the world, especially with the neighboring states. .......

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