Is Pakistan for sale?

Some would like to think so, but they are wrong

A friend of mine asked a very interesting question: PPP wants to sell Pakistan while PML-N desires to buy it, but who will build the country? The season of buying and selling has started again. Public sector enterprises (PSE) are back for sale. As they are mostly losing money the transaction is highly distressed. The nationalisation of the 1970s and the privatisation of the 1990s both have failed to deliver.

Nationalisation of private enterprises, including schools and colleges in the 1970s did not work out. With the first martial law in 1958, nation building came to a halt and empires came into existence. By the time Ayub Khan decided to celebrate his decade of progress the country had been divided into haves and have nots. The wealth of the nation was concentrated into a few families and groups. Industrialisation was not based on national needs. PSEs were created by the Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s (ZAB) administration to cater for the basic building blocks of the nation. Most of these enterprises were profitable at that time and provided employment together with economic growth.

Privatisation of these public assets should not be confused with de-nationalisation of private enterprises, like Ittefaq Foundries or BECO. Profitable PSEs have to be revived, not sold as scrap. Professional management and independent boards can turn them around. National needs are being met by these institutions. Private sector monopolies or cartels are not in public interest. The culture of corporatisation is needed, baboos cannot run them.

In the absence of regulating frameworks and effective competitive controls, privatisation of cement and ghee corporations has been disastrous. The profit making units have been sold to become members of anti-people cartels while the loss making entities continue to drain the public exchequer. The prices of both essential commodities have increased manifold with no improvement in quality.

At the time of partition, Lahore had a functional bus network called Lahore Omnibus Service (LOS) designed on the pattern of Metropolitan London Transport system. LOS covered the entire length and breadth of the city, was self-sustaining and cash rich. Then came the concept of consolidation and centralisation of authority, and so Urban Transport Corporation was established. The outfit was unmanageable and loss making. It was finally shut down and its assets cannibalised, properties taken over by vested groups.

In Lahore a fresh public transport initiative was launched in 2013, called Metro Bus Service, or “Jangla Bus” by many people, which travels from Gujjamata to Shahdara with a highly subsidised fare. If subsidies have to be injected then there was no point in shutting down LOS which was effective and covered more city area. The charade continues while public continues to suffer.

Shaukat Aziz as prime minister wanted to run the country as a corporate body. The planning commission under a technocrat was given clear instructions to move in the direction of corporatisation followed by privatisation. Public sector banks were the first target. Pakistan Telecommunication Company (PTCL) was next, followed by Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM). But then the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP) intervened and PSM deal was cancelled. It started an executive-judiciary clash which eventually led to the dismissal of the chief justice by the president. Chaudhry Iftikhar challenged the arbitrary dismissal and defied the order.

The defiance of chief justice sparked the lawyers’ movement that eventually caused the fall of the dictator. The plastic CV prime minister who was confident of coming back into power left the country to serve his foreign masters in the corporate world of the West. He now resides in London and rubs shoulders with the elite. Pervez Musharaf got tired of his cushy life in the capital of Commonwealth of Nations and was lured into coming back by his party honchos like Ahmed Raza Kasuri who was duly warned of the consequences of the return of the dictator. Kasuri sahib was a key player in the judicial murder of ZAB and now is desperately trying to save the skin of the usurper.

Pakistan of 2013 is solidly moving in the direction of democracy and the rule of law. There have been five major changes among the top leadership of the country this year: president, prime minister, speaker of national assembly, chief justice, and army chief. Obstacles in the democratic path are being removed. The establishment has lost control of the judiciary and media with a vibrant civil society in place. National assets and interests can no longer be violated by sellers and buyers as the owners are vigilant.

The PML-N, being a party of vested interests, is finding it very difficult to multiply personal wealth as it was able to do in the last two stints in power. Almost everyone who matters within this party has experienced a phenomenal growth in wealth after entering politics. Starting from the top and moving all the way down to the union council level, it has been a bonanza for the party members. The movement of resources and building of empires has been unprecedented. In the words of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, PML-N democracy is for Mansha, by Mansha, with Mansha. While PPP still uses the slogan of roti, kapra, makan, it has repeatedly failed to deliver. Pakistan needs real growth, not mere slogans.

Pakistan and its vital assets are not for sale. The entire process of privatisation has to be reviewed Globalisation, deregulation and free market has failed to make a better world. The socio-democratic gains of the revolutions in the 20^th century have been neutralised by this approach. The distribution of wealth has been skewed. Rich have become richer while more people have fallen below the poverty line. Pakistan Incorporated has to be returned to its rightful owners: the suffering people of the republic.