The country’s problems are structural, and will not go away with just a change of government.
LONDON: This is with reference to Marvi Memon’s article of July 8 titled “Midterm elections — a very reachable goal”.
First, as far as accountability and transparency are concerned, why doesn’t the writer post her own asset declaration and tax returns on her website? Then the issue of midterm elections — what will that precisely achieve at this point in time, the only thing that they will bring is further instability. The country’s problems are structural, and will not go away with just a change of government.
To elaborate, surely people who don’t pay their taxes now will not start paying them just because there is a change in government. As for provision of cheap electricity, how exactly is that going to be achieved, given that presently as much as 30 per cent of what is generated does not reach the end consumer? One alternative could be hydropower but who will pay the billions that are needed for setting up such power generation projects? As for the economy, those who suggest that Pakistan should become financially self-reliant forget that first it needs to pay off the substantial debt that it already has.
Syed Nadir El-Edroos
Published in The Express Tribune, July 9th, 2011.
