Fixing the white elephants

The current PM is imminently qualified to turn them around

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has correctly named the white elephants that are bleeding the country: the PIA, the Pakistan Steel and the Pakistan Railways to name just three. All three started as important contributors in terms of revenue yield, providing employment and good service. Unfortunately because of their size, once they began making a loss, this too was quite huge.

In a political setup, the government of the day would like to have control of such companies, as plum jobs could be offered to the politically deserving, not necessarily on merit. This results in a self-inflicted wound, as it is tantamount to killing the goose.

That said, the biggest and most important revenue generator is the city of Karachi, which is running at only 25 per cent of its capacity. The importance of Karachi can be gauged from the fact that fully 30 per cent of livelihood of the entire country is generated from Karachi. If the revenue is down by 80 percent, obviously the effect on the population would be disastrous.

The collection of bhatta (extortion money) is also now closely identified with the MQM. Whether the MQM was the beneficiary or not, but being part of the government for the last five years, they must take their share of the blame. The 10 bodies a day that were dumped up on the streets of Karachi were responsible for the spread of fear. The parties should realize that a peaceful Karachi is much more lucrative generating maximum revenue, than at just 20 per cent.

Nawaz Sharif as prime minister should concentrate on bringing Karachi back from darkness to its former status as the City of Lights – with no element of fear and of course no extortion. This should be his prime objective to jumpstart Karachi, where at the last count 1,500 industries have been closed down – a huge number in any country. These industries represent employment and revenues – and, of course, taxes. The starting of these industries can only transpire once all problems of Bhatta and criminal acts have been taken care of.

Karachi has a large Memon/Khoja community that make excellent business managers – a big plus for businesses, and a large English-speaking work force that are a must for local and foreign investment.

Till now the Stock Exchange has been just a casino where select punters have gambled their way to big fortunes, by manipulating the shares as and when they liked – called insider trading in other countries and certainly a criminal act! It is the world’s biggest laundry for money, and a special bill was passed allowing profits to be question-free if the funds had come through the stock market. The stock market in any country is supposed to create capital for investment in industry. In Pakistan no IPOs have been launched and all the inflows have gone into the market and stayed there. This is a criminal misuse of funds that are supposed to keep new Industries coming up. It also allows the big players to corner the markets at will. No government entity has been able to curb the criminal intent, and with the absence of any real law enforcement it is yet another institution that has been corrupted beyond recognition. This is probably the easiest problem to fix, with many in the Sharif cabinet having the expertise to diagnose, repair and rectify the problem.

These are a few of the problems that need to be addressed, but, above all, the determination, and will is required. Mian Sahib has both, in abundance.

Nawaz Sharif will never allow any harm to come to Pakistan, and he has the wherewithal and the experience to bring this country to a financial upturn, maybe not a Singapore, but a beginning surely. The White elephants must now become our pillars of plenty.