Opinion

Imagined sovereignty — I

Nobody shouts about sovereignty from the rooftops when the IMF dictates our budget.

Rubina Saigol May 04, 2011

Suddenly, there is a chorus of indignant voices about Pakistan’s sovereignty and honour. Former dictator Pervez Musharraf has described the US operation to kill Osama bin Laden as a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty. Members of the Senate from the opposition benches, are screaming themselves hoarse about the breach of our sovereignty and have demanded an explanation from our leaders. Several TV anchors and journalists are parroting the sovereignty discourse day in and day out. The sovereignty rhetoric comes on the heels of the chief of army staff’s Yaum-e-Shuhada address in which he declared that Pakistan would not trade the nation’s honour and integrity for the sake of prosperity.

It was a pleasant surprise to discover that we are sovereign because our constitution, framed by our honourable leaders in 1973, tells us in its first sentence that sovereignty, over the entire universe, belongs to Allah alone. Not only did we constitutionally cede our sovereignty, we subsequently surrendered our economic sovereignty, the basis of political sovereignty, to the US, and ultimately to the IMF and the World Bank. For years now, it is the IMF that tells us which taxes to levy, how much to spend on our people, how high or low the interest rate should be, how to privatise basic services and rights such as health and education. In other words, that ultimate political document that determines who produces wealth and income and on whom and how it is spent, the budget, is formulated by actors other than our elected representatives, who obediently acquiesce and pretend that they are the ones who make decisions. Strangely, nobody shouts about sovereignty from the rooftops when this charade is carried out annually.

Amazingly, we don’t worry about our imagined and ever-slipping sovereignty when foreigners, of all shades and hues, occupy our ungoverned and governed areas. We only worry about hospitality, whether it is the Haqqani network, entrenched obstinately in our allegedly ‘ungovernable’ areas, or Osama bin Laden himself, comfortably ensconced in a spacious house in close proximity to our military academy. We develop total amnesia about our sovereignty when al Qaeda members converge on our hospitable soil from all four corners of the world and kill, maim and mutilate our citizens with wild abandon. They blow up our markets, bomb our public spaces and murder our men, women and children with heartless regularity. We suddenly wake up to issues of sovereignty only when the world’s most feared terrorist outfit is decapitated. We seem to have become so used to ceding our sovereignty to outsiders, roaming all over our land and killing us, that we have forgotten what sovereignty means.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 5^th, 2011.

COMMENTS (10)

Ashok | 13 years ago | Reply Dear Rubina Saigol, I really liked your work in Viewpoint on Iqbal. However, you should know that Mr. Meekal Ahmed was a senior member of the IMF and has worked in a very important capacity in a Pakistani governmental agency, and has written frankly and sincerely on a number of issues. Just search his name on the Express Tribune search bar and you will find his comments and articles. I'm sure Mr. Ahmed must be smiling after reading your response. I guess this is what happens when an economist argues with an independent researcher.

Rubina Saigol | 13 years ago | Reply Dear Meekal Ahmad, It seems to me that your understanding of the IMF is very limited. There is a mountain of material on the IMF's role as world's economic policeman that serves the interests of the developed countries. One book that I would like to recommend to you is called 'Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World' by Arturo Escobar. It really reveals how the newly independent countries were re-colonized by the Bretton Woods Institutions through the mantra of privatization, liberalization and de-regulation; it was in 2008 that even countries like the US nationalized and understood the importance of regulation when finance capital was hit by a crisis. I think the book I have recommended will really help you to understand the IMF. There is a wealth of other material also. I think you take a rather simplistic and uninformed view of IMF.

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Qasim | 13 years ago | Reply Beggers can never be sovereign; as simple as that. We borrow to keep funding our armed (vastly exposed) forces to protect our dented (multiple times) sovereignty, burgeoning cabinets, up-keep of presidential, prime minister, chief ministers, governors and so-on palaces, corrupt politicians, generals and bureacrats, tax evaders, plunders etc. while the masses suffer from anarchy, sky rocketing prices of essential items, load-shedding, lack of clean water, decaying health and education systems and lack of other basic social services.

Anoop | 13 years ago | Reply Pakistani Military has sold the Pakistani Sovereignty for $1.3 Billion annually. You thought Aid had no strings attached, did you?

natasha | 13 years ago | Reply What honour and pride do we have when our citizaens are not able to afford food, feul their cars or live in peace and secuirty. Kidnappings, bombings have become a regular feature of our lives. As the writer pointed out, our economic mismanagement has made us slaves to the IMF. We are a safe haven for terrorists from all over the world. Our army and ISI is as incapable as the rest of the country. Obviously the Americans had to do it themselves; he was the most wanted man in the world. Had they left it up to our fine generals, they would have either botched it up or struck a deal..holiday homes in France for them -freedom for him. Please wake up to the reality of our country's situation..“The nation’s honor and pride is more important than prosperity”. Thats a theme for a PTV sponsored song not the situation at hand.

M. H. Hussain | 13 years ago | Reply "that ultimate political document that determines who produces wealth and income and on whom and how it is spent, the budget, is formulated by actors other than our elected representatives" Rubina, this has now become a cliché. So we should stop arguing about whether IMF is assisting or dictating us. The reason for keep reverting back to international donors is that our political parties are dumb enough to understand economics. How many parties have economists or social scientists?? You expect these so called elected representatives to prepare budget? you must be kidding!!!!!!!

Pallavi Chhibber | 13 years ago | Reply That was a wonderful article Rubina. Very well written, honest to god and in your face. it is hard to even comprehend what the citizens of Pakistan must be going through apart from utter bewilderment at the latest happenings and the game of pass when it comes to taking responsibility by the government and the authorities. I hope someday, all the countries in the world stand at a pedestal that no such sovereignty violating acts would take place at all. on an unrelated note, just a thought - how come the US had to intervene in Iraq and Iran to take control of the political unrest and not in Libya and Egypt. Clearly, the motivations were different and not the declared end results. I hope somebody Pakistan is a prospering state and not at the cost of honor and pride and most importantly peace and development for its citizens.

Meekal Ahmed | 13 years ago | Reply Madam, I regret that you believe in the myth of the IMF's capture of our economic soverignity. I had expected a more mature and balanced article from you -- and not sweeping, generic generalizations. They do not become you. For all it's fearful reputation as the big-bad-wolf, the "Lean, Mean Lending Machine" that dictates to countries what they must do and how they should do it, the "ground reality" is quite different. The IMF in the past 40 years has, at best, had only a transient and fleeting impact on our economic policies. Let me put it this way. Can you (or anyone else) tell me of one, just one, single recommendation that the IMF has got Pakistan to implement? They may tell us what they would like us to do -- tax agriculture and services, tax the rich and powerful, bring back the progressive taxes, get rid of all the concessions and exemptions that you have given the well-connected, phase out ill-targeted and open-ended subsidies that benefit predominantly the rich, establish well-financed safety-nets of the poor, improve economic governance, keep inflation down, foster the conditions for labor-intensive growth led by net exports, reduce your dependence on foreign aid/savings and debt, streamline and restructure your public enterprises, and so on. But guess what? We do exactly as we please. Let us stop kidding ourselves because our track record is there for all to see. We undertake "reforms" in a grudging, half-hearted, bad-faith manner, meeting targets that we have agreed to ourselves with the sleigh of hand here and there. More often than not, we don't meet targets, seek a waiver for non-compliance and have the target re-set for some future date. That is the best way to kill the impact and momentum of any economic reform. We have no "ownership" of the reforms we claim to be comitted to. "Ownership" is a critical ingredient of program success as demonstrated by the experience of other successful countries. It is all a fraud, a travesty and a ruse. Let me conclude by saying that IMF has been too damned soft on Pakistan. Time and again they have left us off the hook when a crisis is the best time to push through deep and major structural economic reforms. As they say, 'never let a crisis go to waste'. The IMF would do Pakistan a huge favour by staying in Washington DC and enjoying their country club. What better time to do so with Spring in the air? Let us stew in our juice, pontificate about soverignity, and twist in the wind. They should tell us NOT to call them until we have a comprehensive program in place that has been approved by the national assemply. No more promises and commitments that we do not, have not and cannot keep.

Cautious | 13 years ago | Reply You cede your right to sovereignty when you allow terrorist safe harbors to launch attacks on others. OBL was the last straw.

John | 13 years ago | Reply When PAK respects others sovereignty, her sovereignty will be respected. Is it hard to comprehend. But I do not see that happening anytime soon. Any little acknowledged sovereignty that PAK has been enjoying is lost in Abbottabad, by PAK. IMF is not knocking at PAK's door. Leave it alone. "The nation's honor and pride is more important than prosperity".

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