Saving us from ourselves

I was amused to read a recent news item by journalist Mehtab Haider who wrote that talks are underway with friendly countries to “bail out” Pakistan’s economy. I called Mehtab and asked him why any country in its right mind would like to offer us financial help. He said for him the issue was about writing the same things ever so often. In his words, “it seems I am back to square one – reporting the same economic story every ten years or so.”

We keep going around in circles. And in this we look to others for help all the time. It’s not just the circle of dictators and elected leaders but also of the economy reeling and then recovering. But this is a somewhat dangerous assumption. What if, as one friend put it, one day we don’t recover?

This week saw the first stage of the local government elections being held. While the Supreme Court wants these to go ahead, everyone else seems hell bent on having them postponed.

We need to have local government. That is our first port of call as voters and citizens. Our councilor ensures that water comes through our taps, roads are built and maintained, garbage is collected, streets are swept and our sewerage is disposed effectively.

Local bodies look after schools, parks and other public amenities. As a citizen, this is where most of our interaction takes place with government.

The problem is that our elected government don’t see local bodies as such. They use them to fleece and reap. What better way than to let them earn billions this way or that. Local governments provide endless funds and limitless opportunities to earn. Why give this away to elected councillors when unelected bureaucrats can do a better job of doling out contracts to the corrupt and shameless? These are the priorities of our elected governments.

Who in their right mind would want to bail out or finance such a system, I wonder. Except those possibly who are also interested in fleecing the country one way or another.

Our ability to weather shocks seems very limited. This month, Imran Khan threatened to close down NATO supplies and as a result the US hinted that it will divert the convoys and also went on to withholds CSF payments. Within days, the rupee started to slide. The government sat and watched. Today our foreign currency reserves stand at a 12 year low.

Our own finance reporter, Shahbaz Rana, who watches the goings on at the finance ministry with an eagle eye, says that despite the urgency to plug loopholes in the country’s monetary and fiscal policies, the federal government seems in no hurry to call a long overdue meeting of the Monetary and Fiscal Policies Coordination Board (MFPCB) – the statutory body which has the mandate to review monetary, fiscal and trade policies, and create a link between them.

The PML-N government was supposed to call the first meeting of the coordination board immediately after forming the cabinet and presenting the budget before parliament. The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Act of 1956 makes its binding for the finance ministry to call a meeting of the MFPCB every quarter. The meeting was due again in September. The last such meeting was held in January. In the meantime, after foreign currency payments the reserves have dipped under $3 billion. Such a figure was never seen during the PPP government despite its reputation of being a fiscally irresponsible administration.

Our finance minister, in the meantime predicts that the dollar will once again be sold at Rs98. One wonders where he got this figure. Is it a lucky number? Given that he is neither a politician in the true sense nor playing to the gallery (finance minister never do), why should he make such proclamations?

We have not forgotten the recent statement by de-facto foreign minister Sartaj Aziz about drone strikes. And how interior minister called his own colleague “naive.” Who is steering the ship?

Finally, a warm goodbye to our chief justice who retires this week. Thank you sir for ensuring that the judiciary remained fiercely independent. We will miss you.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 9^th, 2013.

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