Persuasion and its limits

Persuasion has its limits. This was amply demonstrated in the final interview of the former director of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for Pakistan, Marc-Andre Franche, who apparently, like many before him, eventually seemed to have lost the optimism that is usually the hallmark of all ‘development’ rhetoric. But unlike his predecessors, he made his frustration public which speaks volumes about the dedication and integrity that accompanied his work. Not long ago, the current UN resident coordinator in Pakistan also flagged his concerns about the dreadful state of affairs that characterise public health and its devastating socioeconomic consequences on the country. For once, they have got everybody talking, at least for now.

Things being as they are, do we really need men from another world to slap sense into us and tell us how miserable we are? A poverty rate of 40 per cent coupled with 44 per cent chronic child malnutrition (highest in the world), not to mention our Stone Age literacy standards, should send shockwaves down the collective conscience of a civilised society. Rest assured, such statistics of doom and gloom have been thrown around for decades to stir governments into action. There is a whole sea of NGOs and research institutes out there along with government departments that collect and dispense data on a wide assortment of social issues and ongoing development programmes. Countless seminars, workshops and coordination meetings are routinely conducted by various UN agencies involving government dignitaries and concerned line department officials. Some of the content generated through such 'deliberation' finds its way in national planning documents such as Vision 2025 as an acknowledgement of the 'unprecedented challenges' facing the nation, only to be ridiculed later by an absolute disregard from the very public officials who are supposed to lead the way in materialising their cherished vision. The 120-page document outlines an ambitious development agenda heavily littered with cliches like “inclusive growth”, “social justice” and “right to information”. True to form, the seriousness of the government in upholding those grandiose virtues of liberte has been pretty evident in the way it continues to play hide and seek on national matters of accountability like the CPEC and power sector deals. Only recently, the federal minister for planning and development, our 'Vision Man', patently declared that CPEC details cannot be made public. If anything, that amounts to blindfolding the national vision.

In their seminal work in institutional economics titled Why Nations Fail, Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson put together a heap of evidence to suggest that all economic misfortune is the result of extractive institutions implanted by a parasitic political elite that relentlessly seek to perpetuate their hold on power. It doesn’t take a PhD in Economics to figure out the rot that afflicts economic development in Pakistan. The former UNDP country chief’s message reverberates with the ire of millions of disillusioned ordinary folk who find themselves excluded from the power structures of a polarised society. How do you explain the adversity of a country whose elected prime minister in a live interview before a global audience, callously admonishes his people to leave the country if they don’t feel satisfied with his governance. Imagine this scene, following right after the country’s president unabashedly grants presidential pardon to an unelected crony convicted of corruption. Only a couple of years later, a new prime minister from another political party embroiled in a plethora of corruption cases, regally takes charge for a record third time amid widespread protests of election rigging and merrily handpicks a cabinet of family and friends to run the ‘business’ of the state. Sixty-nine years into its existence, the vicious cycle of petty political squabbles, vile intrigues and self-consolatory blame game continues to defy good sense in this land of the pure. From the first military takeover to the cessation of East Pakistan and the horrors of our time, the adage 'our country is passing through a critical phase' has been utterly sapped of its meaning and consequence by various generations of rulers.

But fate may eventually catch up to strike the decisive blow. While we are indulged in a mindless bickering over the Karachi mayhem, Panama claptrap and another round of maniacal dharnas, existential threats loom large in the distance. Never mind the Islamic State and other folks blowing stuff up, by 2025, Pakistan is to become a “water scarce” country, signalling dire consequences for agriculture and an already alarming condition of food security. To put the icing on the cake, every year, Pakistan adds the equivalent of a New Zealand to its population, further strangling a fast depleting resource base. On top of that, an estimated 1.7 million job seekers enter the labour market annually, which requires a highly improbable GDP growth rate of seven per cent to absorb the influx of job seekers in the coming years. With Donald Trump running wild and Europe in the grip of a re-invigorated Islamophobia, remittances are gradually drying up which would inevitably shatter a fragile macro-economic balance that is propped up by a delicate patchwork of loans and grants.

Make no mistake about it, the country is surely passing through a critical stage. Till we get another shot in the arm or an egg in the face or both at once from a foreign friend, Pakistan Paindabad! 

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

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