Now an APC on the economic roadmap
The device of holding All Parties Conferences appears to be much in vogue with the present government as the panacea for all national ills, and without a doubt, the problems have now turned into a raging epidemic. Consensus and consultation are the regime’s watchwords (along with ‘all stakeholders’) – not a bad idea if all the high sounding ideals and pledges made are actually implemented with an unwavering will. But to many the mindset also indicates that the government itself is all at sea in tackling the myriad problems facing the country, and is abdicating its responsibility by not taking decisive action on the strength of its mandate. Perhaps the decade-plus the party leadership spent in the political wilderness has left it ill-prepared for the stern task, but in any case the word on the street and elsewhere is that the government simply cannot cope. So it is no surprise that soon after the one on security held with much fanfare on September 9, comes another APC on the state of the economy and its future roadmap. Called at 10 days notice and scheduled for Oct 26, 1,000 participants drawn from all political parties, as well as economists, technocrats, professionals and academics, shall seek the consensus nirvana on the national economy.
Possibly the brainchild of Ahsan Iqbal, the planning and development guru of the government, the moot will be presided over by the PM himself. This APC, apart from debating the dire straits of the finances and urgent steps needed to be taken for its rectification, has also been morphed into much more ambitious future plans and targets: transforming the country’s economy into the fastest growing in Asia in the next decade or so, expanding exports up to US$100 billion before 2025, increasing tax to GDP ratio by over five percent, from the present abysmally low 9 to 14, enhancing consultation and participation of all provinces (actually meaning resource-rich Balochistan) in the economic planning and development scenario, deliberating the next Five Year Plan and last but not least, to combat the alarming brain drain by appealing to our diaspora to come forward and ply its talents for the country’s development. One has to concede, the government’s policy of achieving consensus on Karachi has met with a degree of success, but the APC on security remains in the doldrums due to fundamental differences of opinion despite all the discussions, consultations and so-called ‘consensus’. As Winston Churchill once remarked, “consultation is a vague and elastic term’’. Consensus is useless unless what has been agreed upon is implemented in practice.
