The Pakistan Business Council (PBC), a non-political, not-for-profit institution, comprising of some of the leading local and multinational businesses of the country have come out with a set of points that they would like to have included in the national economic agenda. The PBC aims to suggest policies that would accelerate Pakistans economic growth.
It is encouraging to see big business in Pakistan come forward and create a forum that can put forward proposals for economic reform in Pakistan. They have the influence needed to get heard and they have the resources, if needed, to make their case. The points that the PBC has launched itself with make sense too. The PBC is asking for an overhaul of the tax system, restructuring of loss-making, corrupt and inefficient public enterprises, eliminating waste in government expenditure and phasing out of general subsidies, while increasing expenditure on health and education and introduction of better targeted subsides for vulnerable groups. Mr Asad Umar addressed the press conference that launched the PBC. The agenda points probably had a strong input from him as he has been talking of these issues on other fora as well.
But at the same time, the members of the Pakistan Business Council (PBC) should acknowledge that they too have a trust deficit with the people of Pakistan that they have to first address. We should not forget that some members of the Pakistan Business Council supported the Musharraf takeover enthusiastically, were part of his first cabinet and some remained supportive even in the quasi-political government that the dictator cobbled together with the help of the Q-League. Some of these members were aggressive about their defense of the dictator and were contemptuous of attempts, by others, to talk on and about democracy in those days. Some used their influence, quite considerable in some circles, to ensure support for the dictator. So when these PBC members stand in front of the camera and talk about saving Pakistan, the council members will have to bear the skepticism they are likely to receive in response.
Even in the days of the justice movement, big business was almost missing from the scene: supporting the regime while the outcome was not clear and too afraid to jump till the writing was on the wall. In fact some were actively in the dictators corner throughout the period.
Some of the PBC members are recipients of large benefits from previous governments in the form of getting access to public enterprises that were privatised at throwaway prices whether it be cement plants and/or banks. Talking of revamping the state-owned enterprises is fine, but when it comes from people who have benefited from the last revamping, at the cost of the people, the whole motive question gets clouded.
There are other members of the council who have enjoyed protections offered by the state for decades now and who do all they can, in terms of manipulation, to ensure that their protections continue to exist. So, the argument for removing economic distortions and revamping the tax system, coming from such people, becomes suspect. Will they be willing to talk of the protections their industries enjoy?
Big business, traditionally and generally, has been with every power that has been in control in Pakistan irrespective of whether that power was, in the larger sense, legal or not. This includes the repressive and dictatorial regimes of Ayub Khan, Zia-ul-Haq, and Pervez Musharraf. They have also thrived through self-seeking behavior that has, at times, been at the cost of the larger public. And they have been quite open about it too.
Is the PBC a change of heart from some of these people? Or is it that some of them see that right now, given the mood of the people and their self-interest (issues such as the energy crisis) it makes sense to join such coalitions and groups and appear to be on the side of reform and change.
Given the elitist and corrupt system that we have had in Pakistan for the last 60 plus years, most people (not all) who have made it big in Pakistan have done it using unsavory practices. And the people have rightly become skeptical about claims for the larger good from any such group. Big business is no exception.
In economics, we say talk is cheap. It is the walk that tells us whether there is any commitment behind the talk or not. The PBC, given the past of some of its members, will, like any other group in Pakistan, have to earn credibility by walking the walk. If that does not happen, it will be just another voice amongst the cacophony we are hearing right now: signifying nothing.
Given our past all of us have to be in the purgatory before we can gain the trust of the people. But if people are not just hedging bets and have had a genuine change of heart, and can demonstrate it through actions and not just words, it would definitely support the cause of reform tremendously if the substantial influence of big business weighed in on this side.
The writer is an Associate Professor of Economics at LUMS (currently on leave) and a Senior Advisor at Open Society Foundation (OSF). He can be reached at [email protected]
