A missing element in Maryam’s discourse
The writer is a senior political economist
There is no doubt that the PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz is fast coming of age as a leader of the people. In 2013, she demonstrated her skills as elections strategist.
Soon she was launched politically as chairperson of Prime Minister’s Youth Loan Programme. This was quashed by the Lahore High Court, denying her direct experience of governance. Continuing work with the youth from the party platform, Maryam developed a strong media team and strategy. It was, however, after the disqualification of Nawaz Sharif in 2017 that Maryam assumed the mantle of leadership. There has been no going back since. Conviction, confinement and unending court appearances have not deterred her from connecting with the public at large. Who would have thought that, of all the parties, the PML-N would have a woman of courage to confront a man with a Himalayan ego. Out in the field in the mass contests, the next general election, whenever it takes place, will most likely be a one-to-one between Maryam and Khan.
Democracies stand on four pillars — legislature, executive, judiciary and media. Maryam has shown an impressive understanding of the role of media. At her age, she has had greater first-hand experience of the way the judicial system works than many senior leaders. Never one herself, her close interaction with legislators trained her in the art of the possible. Her stint in the executive was short-lived. But an experienced team of former ministers has prepared her for many branches of the executive. By default, none of them has known economic expertise. Economy is a branch conspicuous by its absence. And it shows in the jalsas. One cannot emphasise enough that the issues of bread and butter, even in relatively good times, are closer to the hearts of the voting public than the high ideals of politics. Expectations of economic relief, particularly in a less developed economy, far exceed the understanding of the economic costs it might entail. Politics is said to be the art of the possible precisely because of the trade-offs between political and real economic cost. A leader who has reached the stature that Maryam enjoys today has to be immersed in the nitty gritty of economics so as to be able to convey the hard realities facing the economy in an appealing narrative.
Take the example of what Imran Khan has just said. The economy is fast approaching a default. The country will not have the resources to meet its largest expenditure obligation, debt servicing. It will hit the defence expenditure, the next largest expenditure, and weaken the army. Foreign debt, though a lot smaller than the domestic debt, will be a greater problem for lack of dollars. Lenders will demand denuclearisation. With a weaker army and without nuclear capability, the country will disintegrate into three separate parts. This, observes Khan, is the conspiracy hatched externally and being executed by a puppet regime. There is a simple lack of understanding here of our economic constraints. Borrowing is inevitable as the bulk of revenue is spent on defence. Defence becomes stronger than the economy for the time being. Eventually, a weakening economy fails to generate revenue to finance defence. The main stakeholders, the people, figure nowhere. However, it takes some doing to understand that Pakistan has never defaulted, nor it will. Kennedy would have advised Maryam: “Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.”
Published in The Express Tribune, June 3rd, 2022.
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