Pakistan is today facing the most critical problems of its history. Economy is terrible, law & order is deteriorating, shortage of water, electricity and other necessities are clearly vanishing. The number of unemployed youth is rising at an alarming rate in the country. The country is facing a complex multi-dimensional governance crisis. Corruption and the bad governance is order of the day. In fact, corruption has emerged as a big issue in Pakistan since the restoration of “democracy” in 1988.
It is the fourth in series of the governments of Pakistan People’s Party in center. Whenever PPP came into power it took over without any preparedness to perform the task diligently. It always proved to be unaware how to run the affairs of the country and ruled the country only on the basis of hollow slogans, “accommodating” party loyalists, and pleasing the top leadership. Most of the party loyalists so “accommodated” are not academically qualified to such levels as to hold any important position in the government. When the party comes into power, it has only those poorly educated or not educated at all to run the affairs of the government. In doing so all norms of fairness, honesty, morality, ethics, responsibility and competency were each time regarded as hurdles and were trampled under the feet. Matters have grown worse this time. The state is now malfunctioning. The present government’s slide into gross political mismanagement, corruption and indifference is deteriorating its relations with the ordinary people. This seems to be the most incompetent government of all time. It is obvious that the People’s Party hasn’t learnt any lessons from its previous experiences. The lack of governance and the ineptness can be seen in every sphere of government institutions but no step has been ever taken to improve the situation. Merit and competency is always ignored in all the appointments including heads of autonomous bodies.
Corruption, which has acquired the status of a continental emergency in Pakistan, is considered to be the root cause of poverty, illiteracy, terrorism, shortage of electricity, food etc and lack of good governance, but who cares specially when it relates to the already unfortunate nation like Pakistan. Good Governance flourish in a necessarily corruption free situation. Pakistan is unfortunately way down on the ladder on this account. Corruption of all magnitudes mega, moderate and petty permeates all tiers of governance and all segments of the society public, private, political, judicial, commercial and even religions. The scale of corruption is highest in development projects and procurement and the bank loan write offs. Whereas mega corruption is mainly in development projects, bank loans and procurements which rock the foundation of the economy, the common man is more interested in the petty and middle level corruption that he encounters in the daily dealings in the government offices.
According to Shaukat Tareen (ex-Finance Minister), leakages merely in FBR stands between Rs500 billion to Rs750 billion per year. Pakistan loses around Rs600 billion per year due to corruption in tax collection alone whereas irregularities in direct tax stands around Rs150-200 billion per annum. National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Commerce has raised eyebrows over alleged corruption in Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) and violation of PPRA Rules. Engineer Khurram Dastgir Khan MNA, PML(N), Chairperson of the Standing Committee has said “Corruption is rampant in the TCP where officials with the help of the Ministry of Commerce collude to hide the wrongdoings and let criminals roam free”. Crash of Pakistan Steel Pakistan Steel, a sheet anchor in Pakistan’s infrastructure development, had a reserve of Rs 11 billion and an inventory of products worth at least Rs 6 billion in June 2008. In space of only 54 weeks, Pakistan Steel was almost turned into a bankrupt state institution with liabilities of Rs 21 billion. The Pakistan Steel has topped a list of 41 public sector enterprises with financial embezzlements amounting to Rs 16.29 billion during the financial year 2008-09, with an audit report for 2009-10 on the accounts of the 41 enterprises highlighting irregularities amounting to Rs 46 billion – including a Rs 95.46 million fraud. It suffered a net loss of Rs 26.526 billion during 2009-10, with irregular utilisation of employees’ funds amounting to Rs 7.514 billion and the loss to the mills amounting to Rs 7.151 billion because of the sale of steel products below cost price. Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) is another example where a prime national institution is facing financial and administrative collapse. PIA suffered a loss of Rs 13 billion in the year 2007 that rose dramatically to Rs 40 billion in the year that ended in December 2008. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and the national cricket team are facing serious allegations of match fixing and corruption. The National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) is another national institution facing doubts about its health and deals concerning government linked individuals, companies and projects.
Energy resources have depleted! Whatever resources are available are simply too expensive to buy or already acquired by countries which had planned and acted long time ago. Delayed efforts in the exploration sector have not been able to find sufficient amounts of energy resources. Airplanes, trains, cars, motorbikes, buses and trucks, all modes of transportation are coming to a stand still. Many industries have closed due to insufficient power supply. Price of oil has gone above the ceiling. At domestic level, alternate methods like solar, biogas and other methods are being tried for mere survival. A whopping Rs 21 billion worth rental power projects have already run into controversy because of the government’s mysterious inability to fully utilize the already-installed electricity generation capacity in Pakistan and arm twisting of other Pakistani banks to finance the shady scheme. Senator Tariq Azeem of Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) has disclosed that the government was getting old submarine technology from France while the country had already that technology. The Port Qasim Authority (PQA) is a prime example of influence peddling by politically-linked people in getting posted to lucrative positions. Secretary Finance and Revenue said. “We have put a subsidy of Rs 22 billion in federal budget 2011 to finance pay and pension of employees, fuel, repair of locomotive and rail tracks.” he said. But government is facing serious budgetary constraints; therefore it is not possible to finance it through budget. However, commercial loan would help make 150 locomotives operational. Government decisions, in total disregard to merit, fair play and transparency, based on personal monetary gains for a few individuals in the government have grossly compounded the economic miseries of Pakistan and turned several government organizations into insolvent corporate entities, according to an investigation during which dozens of well-placed and informed sources in the government and corporate sectors were interviewed. Positioning of several handpicked corrupt and incompetent officials in key appointments at the government-run companies, in many cases without an active approval of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, has left a trail of incredible cases of corruption never witnessed before. Power vacuum on the streets of Islamabad is visible. Sovereignty and Freedom seem like fabled tales of the past.
In addition to affecting economic efficiency corruption can also have distributional consequences. This affects income inequality and poverty by reducing economic growth, the progressivity of the tax system, the level and effectiveness of social programs, and by perpetuating an unequal distribution of asset ownership and unequal access to education.
Well, now the budget is finally here. The people of Pakistan today purposefully avoid listening to the budget speech because everybody knows that there is nothing for ordinary people in Pakistan in the budget. There has never been any relief for ordinary people in any budget in Pakistan particularly after coming in “democracy”, except of course empty promises and useless rhetoric. The tradition around the world is to cut taxes, and efforts are made to lower the burden on masses whenever governments introduce budgets. However, in Pakistan, it is absolutely opposite because Pakistan is perhaps the only country where government tries to squeeze more out of the citizens every year by both imposing direct new taxes and enhancing price of utilities, oil, and food and obviously by taxing industries that are promptly going to pass the new taxes to the consumer.
In order to broaden the tax-to-GDP ratio, instead of suggesting the Pak leadership to stop the corruption and reduce the lavish Government expenditure, The IMF and the US are constantly urging Pakistan to implement fiscal reforms such as eliminating power subsidies (which nowhere exist now in real sense) and introducing RGST without taking into consideration that although it will reduce the fiscal gap yet this strategy would not be able to reduce inflation because enhancement in such indirect taxation like sales tax as well as withdrawal of so-called subsidies on utilities, oil and food items has always inflationary impacts.
Pakistan is already a high tax state. Its economy is heavily regulated and controlled by the government. The ever-increasing burden of taxes and regulations has given rise to a parallel economy. On the one hand, it is not providing the least of the essential services to its citizens; that is, maintaining law and order, and protecting life, liberty and property of its citizens. On the other, under the slogan of Welfare-ism, it is resorting to high taxes and control over the lives of the people, and thus it has to sustain an ever-increasing state-machinery. Moreover, it has instituted monopolies, and likes to take care of their interests. And, last but not least, it has gathered around a ring of rent-seekers in the shape of politicians, privileged groups, civil and military bureaucrats, etc. who cause to manipulate its policy of taxation to their own benefit or to the detriment of others. In spite of heavy tax collection the situation for the Pakistan economy is pretty grim.
The most hard-hitting problem being faced by a common man is the unparalleled price increase in the commodities of everyday life. The price hikes have broken all previous records, unemployment, power load-shedding of about 18 hours, and crashing stock markets, the central government appears least bothered about taking stock and controlling the situation— even as the country descends deeper into its several crises. Instead of taking measures to solve this dilemma, the SBP has put the fuel on fire by aggravating the situation even more through further tightening of the monetary policy by hiking the discount rate for the third time this year. This unprecedented enhancement in discount rate would lead to further increase in the cost of doing business, badly hampering investment and growth. Inflation is between 15 per cent to 24 per cent at present. Pakistan’s budget deficit is already six per cent, above a target of four per cent. The budget deficit could go up to eight per cent in this fiscal if the government borrowing continues at the same pace. The Government should ensure that inflation does not increase in further or even reduces. It is feared that rapid speed of the State Bank borrowings by the government could soon lead to escalating inflation levels and cause an economic crisis.
Repeated power breakdown is crippling small businesses that are the lifeblood of Pakistan’s middle-sized towns and smaller cities. Some larger and better funded companies can partly compensate by buying diesel and gas generators, so they can switch their power supplies to avoid the different potential shortages. Others adjust their work flow so that jobs that need power get done whenever the power happens to be available. But there are some others don’t make it. This situation is a job killer, in a country that has been losing the race between population growth and jobs.
The future of Pakistan and alleviation of poverty in rural areas of Pakistan is highly dependent on successful and completion of all development projects. This success is threatened by the evil of corruption that must be stopped on urgently before it is too late.
The luxurious life style of so called public servants is another annoying aspect for the masses. And, surprisingly, there is no cut in housing allowances, petrol allowances, travel announces, domestic help (drivers, cooks, gardeners, body guards) office allowances, salaries or other perks for those who were elected to help the ordinary citizens live a better life. According to Pakistan Observer ”Perks are a type of corruption which country’s ruling politicians, bureaucracy and military elite is enjoying in the form of free fuel, electricity, accommodation, luxury cars, army of servants. There is no legal and/or moral justification for such perks.” In such an alarming situation, the question is: who will take decisions? There is a complete vacuum of leadership and nothing has been done so far. One look at the aristocratic lifestyle of Pakistan’s ruling elite is enough to make people give up hope about Pakistan’s future, forever.
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Don’t speak shit of FBR, I request all to please mention their own NTNs before shitting about FBR, thank you.