Punjab's Gulfstream blunder

How does a government manage to take off with an event like Basant and crash-land with a blunder like the Gulfstream in the same month?

The answer lies less in a sudden loss of rationality among the decision-makers and more in the political culture of power, perks, privileges and entitlement that comes with the holding of a public office. The Punjab government should have known better. Now the damage is done.

It all started with a news that the Punjab government had acquired a Gulfstream jet and it was seen flying between Lahore and other cities in the province this month. The gigantic price tag of the jet – just one Google search away – was reported at nearly Rs10 billion. The news of this luxury acquisition sent shockwaves across the media universe. As the decibel level of criticism mounted, the normally voluble Punjab government seemed to have lost its tongue. But when it finally did speak up, it took an axe to its own case. The provincial spokesperson came out with a gem of an explanation: the jet was purchased as part of the fleet for the planned Punjab Air airline!

Right, then.

The furore over this shocking extravagance refuses to die down because of the silence from the shell-shocked Punjab government. This has coincided with a fresh report unveiled by the Planning Commission which admits poverty rate in Pakistan has hit an 11-year high of 29 per cent. As per a report by Shahbaz Rana published in this newspaper: "Pakistan has now officially the 21 years' highest unemployment rate of 7.1%, highest poverty rate in 11 years and the highest inequality in 27 years, which are the direct outcomes of the poor policy choices by the ruling class."

The poorest of these poor choices now stands parked in a hangar somewhere as the beleaguered Punjab government goes into panic mode to figure out how to handle this self-created blunder. The worst option would be to just sit tight and hope the storm subsides. Then keep jetting around in the Gulfstream as a matter of entitlement. This will certainly be the advice of those bureaucrats surrounding the chief minister who would have most probably pushed her to acquire the jet in the first place. Hopefully the CM would have realised by now who not to listen to. The best option would be for her to admit the misjudgement and return the jet. This is what the art of true leadership demands.

The Gulfstream disaster is not an aberration. In fact, the absence of something as outrageously callous as this would have been an exception. Splurging taxpayer money on goodies for public office holders is a disease that no one in government – regardless of which political party is in power – has ever wanted to cure. The trappings of office, admit most politicians and senior officials, is the real lure of office. Higher the office, bigger the cars and pricier the jets – that's how the logic runs. That's also how public trust in these offices bleeds.

More so when the state of the economy is as precarious as now. The Planning Commission report confirms what everyone in the country knows well: the life of the average citizen is worse off today than in the recent past. The government may parrot off a long list of justifications (some even true) but the fact remains that the federal and provincial governments continue to tread the path most easy. The footprint of governments is as large as ever. Multiple committees and hundreds of marathon meetings later, the reduction in the size of the federal government has, at best, been merely symbolic. Talk is cheap. That's why every minister and secretary is happy to rattle of figures to showcase their performance. But the fact remains that the government has failed spectacularly in reducing its own expenditures. Wastage of taxpayer money is as rampant as ever.

The provincial governments are equally bad at such wastage. The Punjab government's Gulfstream blunder is just one example of how too much money and too little accountability leads to billions lost. Former finance minister Dr Miftah Ismail is right when he calls for a revision of the NFC award. The current formula leaves the federal government with no money and the provinces with so much they don't know what to do with it (though some know very well, as evidenced by the Gulfstream purchase).

Governance through spending money that you have not earned is easy. The real challenge is to reduce expenses (failure so far) and increase revenues (failure again as those already in the tax net are taxed more). There's something unnervingly surreal about a ruling class that just cannot bring itself to take decisions that reduce its own comfort. Even at a time when the federal and three provincial governments are enjoying that deliciously sweet spot of complete harmony with the establishment, as well as a favourable international situation – even if at such a time these leaders are unable or unwilling to take difficult decisions, then know this: we are nowhere close to breaking out of this cycle of mediocrity and poor governance.

Best then to go fly a kite.