Questions dharna leaders must address for change

All credit to the dharna leaders for making the people of this unfortunate land not only conscious of what ails the economy and society, but also for mobilising them for change. Philosophers, said Hegel, have only interpreted the world; the point is to change it. This quote donned the inside cover of Karl Marx’s Capital, which went about explaining how the change would come. Our dharna leaders claim tardily that ‘tabdeeli aa gai hai’. The sooner they eschew this naiveté, the better. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had a similar disposition. His team was stronger than the dharna leaders’, yet he had to rely largely on the bureaucracy to translate his vague but popular vision into implementable policies. The results were disastrous for the people — and his person. Change will come, if the dharna leaders provide unequivocal answers to some important questions.



One: do you stand for land reform? If yes, please make your stand clear on the Federal Shariat Court’s verdict against it.

Two: do you believe that income from agriculture should be treated like any other income? If so, then make a commitment to introduce the required amendment to the Constitution so that the normal income tax applies to agricultural income as well.

It will buy credibility if Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Malik Ghulam Mustafa Khar are made to repeat the answers given in public by the leaders.

Three: will you reintroduce the taxes on propertied classes abolished during General (retd) Pervez Musharraf’s regime? These include wealth tax and estate/death duties.

Four: Will you restore the corporate tax rate to its pre-Musharraf level?

If the answers are in the affirmative, then the leaders should make a declaration to that effect before their respective dharnas. In so doing, Mr Jahangir Tareen and the Chaudhry brothers should be on their side to declare affirmative action in full public view.

Just as the rich and the powerful are not willing to pay their dues to the state, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is neither able nor willing to collect these dues in full. Hence the next question.

Five: would you abolish the present FBR and replace it with a statutorily autonomous body answerable to the Council of Common Interests, not the federal government, with laws amended suitably to jail the delinquents and staffed by professionals recruited on merit, and the powers to collect provincial as well as federal taxes?

Six: would you amend the Constitution to do away with the National Finance Commission Awards, fully devolve sales tax to the provinces and property tax to local governments to ensure a well-resourced autonomy to the three levels of government for effective delivery of services?

Seven: would you fully devolve the ownership of natural resources to the provinces to satisfy the aspirations of smaller provinces?

Eight: would you save strategic assets by stopping privatisation, which has neither reduced debt nor promoted investment? Let Mr Asad Umer prove his managerial mettle in the public sector.

Nine: would you, in a period of five years, make resources available to shift villages, urban housing, public buildings and all public lighting to solar power and to incentivise local manufacture of solar equipment of such quality that the country finds a niche in the export market?

Ten: would you consider taking over all houses above one kanal to provide housing for all in the shortest possible time in urban areas and to distribute state lands to the homeless in rural areas?

Eleven: would you make a solemn declaration to make adequate cash transfers to those below the poverty line to ensure nutritional security?

Published in The Express Tribune, October 3^rd, 2014.

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