Be
positive!
Even though a year has
passed since the ‘Great Khan’ and his very able ministers came to power, there
are people who actually believe that Imran Khan is the only one who can save
the country and pull it out of its current mess, for part of which he is himself
responsible. One such PTI supporter even told me, a week after the Kashmir
crisis made us forget everything else, that somehow the magic of Khan’s
personality would solve all our problems. Like when huge reserves of oil would
be found in the sea near Karachi, just because he said so. There was another
one who sent me a video in which the narrator urged his listeners to be
positive instead of sliding into acute depression, as I had done.
The thing is I have
studied everything that this government says it has achieved, and that is what
makes me pessimistic, unless you can call the huge debt of thousands of
billions an achievement. I try hard but I simply can’t ignore the fact that the
prices of bread and other edibles have risen steeply in the past year. This
despite the fact that the Dear Leader himself said that gas would be sold at
subsidised rates to tandoors. Potatoes and onions now cost three times what
they did a year ago. I remember the Great Khan saying that he would constitute
a committee to look into the high rate of inflation, but I don’t know what came
of it. Probably after holding a few meetings in which samosas, pastries and tea
were consumed in great quantities, the committee members didn’t find any proof
that the past government was responsible for the rising prices.
The common man, of course,
is not concerned with such abstract terms as GDP and macroeconomic factors. All
he knows is that even though he is not earning much more than he did a year
ago, his expenses have increased due to prices going through the roof. He has
to pay more for petrol, electricity and gas. But that is not all. His expenses
on food have also increased sharply and he doesn’t know how he’ll survive. You
can excuse him for seriously considering suicide; yes, I have met some people
who said they would be better off dead.
Whichever way you look at
it, this government has been ineffective. There was this news item about the
current account deficit decreasing by seventy-three percent, but how does that
benefit the common man? All it means is that the values of our imports have
decreased compared to our export earnings, which has stabilised the dollar. A
cursory look at the figures tells us that importers have stopped importing
because of the very high value of the dollar due to devaluation, as well as the
rise in cost due to the regulatory duties imposed on most imported items, which
has made imports prohibitive.
Export figures have not increased at all, as expected, despite
massive devaluation. But now smugglers have stepped in, getting into the
country all those items that are too expensive to import due to the high value
of the dollar and the regulatory duties. The government gains nothing; it’s
only the smugglers who benefit.
I believe that among those who are praying for the long life and
prosperity of the Dear Leader are smugglers and other such criminals, like
those who evade taxes and those who get loans written off. Among the ones
praying are the feudal lords who are exempted from paying income tax on their
agricultural income, and those who get elected and then decide how much tax we
should pay to support their lavish lifestyles.
Which brings me to what
past governments were bitterly criticised by the Great Leader for doing:
waiving off loans every year or so. Without considering the ramifications of
the step, the PTI government has decided to waive two hundred and eight billion
rupees due from a few industrialists. I know that most Pakistanis, particularly
those belonging to the PTI, are weak in mathematics, but just to put things in
perspective, two hundred and eight billion rupees is equal to almost a billion
and a half dollars.
Then there is the
estimated loss of five billion dollars every year to the nation due to
smuggling. And there is another huge loss due to NAB being told not to pursue
cases against sales tax evaders. Their cases have been sent back to the FBR
where the files will gather dust until the cases get time-barred. All this
deliberate loss despite the country being in dire economic straits, as the
Great Khan himself has said on all his visits abroad. Waiving off loans,
allowing smugglers a free hand, not recovering taxes from tax evaders, no
wonder we have to beg the IMF and others to bail us out. So what difference is
there between the PTI government and those who ruled over us in the past?
Not much
to be positive about, is there?
The writer is an
engineer, a former visiting lecturer at NED Engineering College
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