Wanted urgently: A shrewd and savvy Finance minister
The callously negligent national leadership is definitely the epitome and worst example of a laid- back, cavalier style of governance. Pressing national matters are invariably allowed to drift aimlessly or swept under the carpet. A case in point was the four year absence of a Foreign Minister in a fast- changing regional and international scenario, until the Supreme Court disqualification forced the former PM’s hand and led to super-loyalist Khawaja Asaf being gifted with the long vacant position. Lacking previous diplomatic experience, hampered by his somewhat abrasive personality and sharp tongue, he still managed to put across Pakistan’s viewpoint firmly at world forums. But combating the harm already done during the vacuum period remains an uphill task, as many negative viewpoints and wrong perceptions regarding our policies have solidified in foreign capitals, courtesy the incessant intense propaganda conducted by geo-political rivals.
Another similar rudderless and catastrophic approach is being followed in the crucial sphere of the national economy, whose present health status roughly approximates that of a patient in an intensive care unit kept alive on a ventilator machine. The incumbent minister appears a nervously broken man, being saddled with corruption charges and Accountability Court hearings, and currently lies in a London hospital awaiting treatment. There is no one minding the national mercantile store, no hand on the tiller, at a time when the dismal state and nightmare future of the economy sends shivers down the spines of independent-minded economists,who even talk of declaring an ‘economic emergency’. Not that Ishaq Dar’s presence made any defining difference or brought joy to the country’s finances, for his dubious legacy consists mainly of failed amnesty schemes, fudging budgetary figures and ruinous foreign borrowing at prohibitive rates to sustain dwindling forex reserves. The real issues plaguing the economy, absurdly low tax collection, declining exports, foreign direct investment and inward remittances, rising imports and luxury consumerism, profligate government habits, and introducing radical policies and practical reforms, were ignored. An experienced hand at the helm, ‘without an itching palm’, practicing and imposing a Spartan austerity, might still be able to save the day.
