PTI priorities in K-P

The octogenarian Mahmud Mirza is an old Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) hand. He has been arguing with me that the PTI’s main strength is the radical economic content of its manifesto. This content remained underexploited at the hustings. Hence, it’s less than expected performance in the elections on May 11, especially among the poor and deprived youth. Writing just before the elections in these columns, I had described this content as the unhidden agenda of the PTI. After the elections, an interesting question is: what will be the PTI line as a government in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P)?

There are three focus areas of reform — land, industry and grassroots participation. The manifesto proposes to implement the land reform laws, earlier declared un-Islamic by the Shariat Bench of the Supreme Court. There is a commitment to end benami and distribution of the resumed land to the landless. This is in sharp contrast with the PML-N’s emphasis on corporate agriculture. In industry, the manifesto prefers small and medium enterprise and rural and cottage industries over big business, again a difference of emphasis compared with the PML-N. It is these enterprises that had played a major role in the development of Japan and East Asia. In Pakistan, over 70 per cent of non-agricultural employment is provided by informal activity. In matters of governance, the PTI wants to empower the lowest tier. Seen together, these three initiatives reject the trickle-down approach and embrace inclusive growth. The mass of the population deserves much more than a trickle. The PTI approach would make the “little” men and women in trade, industry and agriculture the growth-makers. Growth, so achieved, will be equitable as well.

All this sounds nice but not as radical as Mirza Sahib thinks. In our context, however, even this minimal change has not been attempted seriously. Does the PTI have the jurisdiction and the will to do it? After the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, there is nothing that stops the PTI to go all out for its programme in K-P. Education and health, the areas where the PTI wants to introduce profound changes, are completely in the provincial domain. Industry is also a provincial subject. In the case of K-P, this is not enough. The private sector has shied away from investing in large-scale manufacturing in the province because of its remoteness. Industrial estates set up on the basis of special tax concessions were bound to be disaster stories. The programme of small industrialisation conceived by the PTI is perhaps, the only programme of industrialisation that can work in the special conditions of K-P. The Seventh National Finance Commission Award provides enough resources to ensure a supportive role of the state by providing infrastructure and basic social and civic services. Any deficiency can be met by improving the ridiculously low yields of the provincial taxes. In particular, the PTI can lead the way by demonstrating that agricultural income tax is a doable project. Property tax is another treasure waiting to be discovered. If the provincial government lives up to the promise of being incorruptible and transparent, the rupee will be stretched further.

As is obvious, the PTI has no excuse to hide behind the argument that a national manifesto of change cannot be fully implemented in a province. Its economic programme is a good fit for the provincial domain. The major constraint will be the unceasing cycle of violence. While law and order is a provincial responsibility, the nature of the prevailing violence requires a national policy to counter it. The murder of its own MPA, Fareed Khan, should lead to some soul-searching within the PTI.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 7^th, 2013.                                                                                          

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