Business and governance

If nothing else Pakistan is a nation of businesses large and small, and lately of entrepreneurs. A meeting of the Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry recently heard from its acting president who said that the incoming government of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) ought to extensively consult with the chambers of commerce and the business leaders who may have useful inputs to make in the formulation of ‘viable and result-oriented’ economic policies. The acting president said that over many years successive governments had ignored the business community when it came to policy formulation and as far as may be determined he is right.

It is the business community that is one of the largest stakeholders economically — how could it be otherwise — but time and again they have been left out, a pool of knowledge and expertise that has a particular relevance for the incoming government of the PTI. This will be a government for which ‘big power’ outside of provincial responsibilities, is entirely new. The PTI has never led the country at the federal level and it faces opportunities and threats and needs to be aware of both.

The country is on something of a cliff-edge financially and a visit to the IMF by the new government a virtual certainty. The import/export gap poses a serious challenge economically with exports especially in need of bolstering. It is acknowledged that the PTI financial wizards are already on the job but they have yet to embrace the business community in any meaningful sense. This is a community that unlike politics and political parties has national presence and coverage, and given the inexperience of the PTI as a national party it would do well to plug into a resource that has a lifetime of experience behind it and a long lifetime at that. The textile sector in particular is in need of revolutionary reform if it is ever to retain anything of its former glory. This is not an impossibility, but a choice to be taken. If the PTI is to embrace inclusivity then business is an obvious way-station. Over to you, PTI. 

Published in The Express Tribune, August 8^th, 2018.

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