PPP & PML-N — competing for the bottom slot

The Sharif political dynasty, now in power for the third time, is demonstrating the same political pathology as it has in the past. Having been in power for some years, and with so much support and international exposure, sadly, its top leaders have learnt nothing from their past personal experiences or from the experiences of the countries that they often admire and present as models of development. Each country is different in every aspect, in the attitudes of their people, cultures, resources and political structures. While countries can share their experiences, as they do, national leaders and parties must look within the country to develop an indigenous development agenda for progress. The Sharifs are lost somewhere between foreign models and utter confusion about what we need at this stage of our development.

In my view, incompetence, wrong priorities and the absence of political capacity to take hard, difficult decisions characterise the dynastic political rule of the two major parties. Both of them, the PML-N and the PPP, collectively and individually, have ruined Pakistan. Systematic corruption from top to bottom and the deliberate ruining of the institutions of law and justice to escape any accountability, have stripped society of its values and rendered state institutions ungovernable.



Interestingly, both parties have similar ideas about how to frame political strategy in order to gain power and hold on to it. Again, one may discern a similar pattern. First, there is the network of elite politics, which involves building a political alliance among dynastic political families across the provinces and the country. That has been and continues to be the foundational element of Pakistani politics. Second, we see the subverting of the autonomy of state institutions so that they serve vested political interests of these two parties. This is no different from other authoritarian regimes of Central Asia and the Middle East where the state is subservient to the primacy of political interests of the ruling oligarchies. Third, both major parties while in power have used public resources to patronise dynastic families and members of assemblies to continue their hold on electoral politics.

Both parties, and of course their political allies, have ruined the country in the name of helping the poor. It is often this deceptive populist politics of smoke and mirrors that blurs the vision of leaders and parties. What did the poor get out of the several stints in power of the PPP or the PML-N? Nothing. You may measure performance by economic growth, equality, expansion of the resource base, building of a knowledge economy, technology advancement and rate of employment. Take any of these indices and assess the years in power of these rival political dynasties and you will see for yourself, the magnitude of the disaster they have been. One may also look at the comparable performance of other economies of the South Asian region to judge how dismal the record of our dynasties is.



When the Sharifs took the reins of power for the third time, there was little optimism. Overall, they are little better than the PPP, and that is the only thing they have going for them. But in many ways, they are a bigger disaster because real opportunities have opened up for the country and they have made a big mess of everything. Every ‘populist’ priority of theirs is erroneous — be it the laptop scheme or the yellow cabs. The most recent addition to this is the medical card scheme for the poor. What this means is a lack of will to reform the public health system or to put more money into it. This regime has heavily borrowed, adding enormously to public debt, to start extravagant projects.

Political expediency driven by self-interest is yet another feature of the political class. What is the national value of the steel mills, power distribution companies and the useless PIA? These have only wasted public monies far larger in amount than the funds being allocated to the education and health sectors of the country. The result is corruption and political cronyism.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 6^th, 2016.

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