In this age of economic development, it seems the political leadership of the country is foreign to the changing world and all its energies revolve around hackneyed statements and personal interests. Fine words butter no parsnips and that is the case in Pakistan where the current government has completed more than half of its tenure without delivering anything to the nation. Energy crisis still persists, exports are falling and law and order is absent. The economic scenario of the region is changing as the countries are putting more emphasize on economy than politics. If Pakistan wants close relations with other countries, it will have to increase volume of business and trade with them. However, the politicians are playing decades old politics and have failed to learn from their past mistakes. So far, the main thrust of the present government is on loans from every donor agency which comes to its way. Instead of using the loan money on the development of the economy, the government is using it on non-development sectors which is increasing the burden of loans on the nation and is pushing the poor into the poorest stages. The percentage of the poor is rising every year as providing a few thousands rupees after three months to the individuals will not bring any change in their lives.
The first thing the government will have to do is to identify real issues facing the economy to put it on the right track. It seems all the economic policies are imported from donor agencies and they have their own agenda and schemes. Why they will work for the development of Pakistan when they are making money out of it. According to newspaper reports, the Department for International Development is expected to provide over Rs 40 billion to the microfinance industry in the country. The DFID started supporting the poverty alleviation programme in 2012 and has committed $366 million for the Benazir Income Support Programme until 2019-20. It is not difficult to understand what this money will bring changes in Pakistan in four years as billions of dollar loans have already been consumed without any visible progress in any economic or social sector of the country.
As a matter of fact, providing easy money to anyone will have negative impact not only on the economy, but also on the workforce. The government should provide jobs to the youth and it will automatically curtail the level of poverty. However, this will be only possible when conditions are improved for the growth of trade and industry. The time is running out and serious efforts are required to clear the economic mess. The ball is in the court of political leadership and it has to burn midnight oil to do something for this nation.
