Say it, show it, if you know it

No. Silence does not speak louder than words. Yes. That's a reminder for the government to find its voice.

We are, it seems, living in a house of silence. Whipsawed by random events, thwacked by mounting problems and suffocating in a tightly controlled environment, people are compelled to ask: "What the heck is going on, and is anyone doing anything about anything?"

More than a generic social angst, this query is rooted in the absence of coherent answers about problems that define today's Pakistan. If I were to cut to the chase, I would ask the government the following shockingly obvious questions:

1. What is our strategy on Balochistan?

2. What do we plan to do about terrorism from Afghanistan?

3. What is the plan to solve federal government's fiscal problem?

4. Why is the committee on NFC award not meeting and deciding the way forward?

5. Why is the government not reducing its bloated size?

6. What is stopping the government (and provinces) from taxing retail, real estate and agriculture with the same zeal that it taxes the salaried class?

7. Why is the government not privatising (or shutting down) loss-making State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs)?

8. How does the government plan to solve the energy crisis and provide affordable electricity to citizens?

9. Does the government have a medium-term or even long-term plan to solve our debt crisis?

10. Why are the federal and provincial governments not allowing empowered local governments?

What I fail to understand is why the government cannot come up with a proper explanation, policy and implementation plan for each of these ten issues. It's not that it is being asked to solve every issue right now. All that is required is a roadmap, a plan of action, and a well-articulated narrative.

Instead, we have silence.

There can be three reasons for this:

First, the government actually does not know what to do for each issue.

Second, it has some idea but is clueless how to communicate it coherently to the people.

Third, it does not have the political courage to say that vested interests do not allow it to implement the reforms that Pakistan so desperately needs.

Whether it is one or all three, it is absolutely unpardonable that Pakistanis' vital interests are held hostage to this governance (or communications) failure.

But this isn't the worst of it.

Consider this. No government has had more space to get work done than the present one. There are no judges who are throwing Suo Moto spears at it, or striking down any projects or policies as unconstitutional; there are no journalists who are exposing any scandals or running a campaign against the government (on their own or on someone's behalf), there is no opposition that is holding long marches or public rallies or even challenging the Treasury benches in the Parliament; there is no threat from the establishment; there are no external challenges (or threat of punitive actions) from superpowers, regional powers or financial institutions; there is no province that has the need or the capacity to undercut the functioning of the Centre; and there is more diplomatic goodwill available than has ever been in living memory.

What more could a government wish for?

And yet, it is mumbling and fumbling. It is incomprehensible why, half way through its term, it cannot tell its own story.

Mind you, I am just referring to the ability to tell people that the government has a plan. That is the bare minimum that can be expected of any government. But here we have dozens of people doing hundreds of things and holding thousands of meetings, and no one has a clue what they all amount to.

Cliched rhetoric is not the answer. Specific ideas on the ten specific issues I have listed above is what is required. If even this lowest of low bars is higher than the ability of the government to overcome, then we are staring at a very alarming conclusion.

If the federal cabinet is not competent enough to govern professionally, and if the federal bureaucracy is structurally ill-suited for modern governance and is infested with mediocrity; and if the political parties cannot unshackle themselves from their medieval culture of kinship and patronage; and if the establishment refuses to let go of its grip over major decision-making; and if there are no external stimuli available to trigger systemic reform (other than IMF conditionalities); and if the sum total of all this is that we are fine with "muddling through", then ladies and gentlemen: muddling through it is.

Not that this is sudden revelation dawning upon us. The PTI government had shattered all records of incompetence. The PML-N government before that splurged on mega projects, controlled the exchange rate by force and nearly drove the economy into the ground. The PPP government before that governed with as much confusion as it always does. We can keep going further back, and traversing across the civilian-military spectrum in its various combinations and permutations, and yet the story remains the same: the criminal failure of every civilian, military and hybrid government to reform Pakistan.

The most depressing aspect is that this has turned into a never-ending vicious cycle of musical chairs. We have experienced an alphabet soup of political parties entering and exiting the corridors of power. There is not one single major party that has not been part of a governing setup. This will most likely continue. Today its PML-N, tomorrow it may be PPP, or PTI or some version of PML-Q, or yet another combination of all. Perhaps there will be another hybrid model. Perhaps the wheel will turn and we may have a free, fair and legitimate election that sends a "genuine" setup into the government. What then? Does anyone have clear answers to the ten questions? Does anyone have proper plan that it can share with the people? Does anyone care?

Silence is its own answer.