Development agenda

When the PPP is in power, it calls legislator-backed development projects the ‘Peoples Works Projects’. When the PML-N is in office, they are called ‘Tameer-e-Watan Projects’. One might chalk up that difference to the cost of doing business in a multiparty democracy, but the two major parties differ with each other on a lot more than just their choice of names for development projects. And that difference can sometimes cost the taxpayers billions of rupees. Planning and Development Minister Ahsan Iqbal’s review of development projects initiated under the PPP is one such instance: the minister seems intent on shutting down all projects on which work has not started and may shut down many on which work has already begun. We understand his urge to crack down on inefficient or even fraudulent projects, but we would urge him to exercise caution in deciding which ones to cut off funding for.

Development spending in Pakistan is notoriously short-sighted, with administrations from both major parties seeking to implement projects that they can take credit for and shut down those that their political rivals initiated. The problem with this approach is that half-finished projects benefit nobody but have already sucked up much of the expenditure they were allocated. Effectively, the money spent on them is a complete waste. Given how the development budget is always the first to take a cut, and given the appalling state of the nation’s infrastructure, this fantastic waste of the taxpayers’ money is completely unaffordable. We recognise that elections have consequences and that the PML-N has the right to implement a development agenda of its choosing (and call it whatever it likes). But we also believe that, given the paucity of funds, the Nawaz Administration should continue projects that are being run well, even if they do not mesh with its own agenda. Pakistan’s landscape is littered with too many semi-completed projects that serve only as monuments to the fickleness of the nation’s development agenda. They do not weaken any party’s political opponents, but they do strengthen the cynicism of the Pakistani voter. And that is a loss to all elected officials.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 13^th, 2014.

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