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Governance
Published on July 25th, 2009

The situation in Pakistan is growing steadily worse. Governance it seems is at a minimal. The electricity riots, with railway trains being set on fire by unruly mobs and substations of the KESC being attacked are now becoming regular fare on our TV channels. The imagery of people sleeping in the open, sweltering, mothers fanning their children to sleep having to sacrifice their own sleep to give a little comfort to their infants. The enormity of the problem is not yet realized by the Babus in Islamabad, nor the bloated Cabinet

The suffering being witnessed on TV are not the poverty stricken. These are the urban middle class, people with homes, and the basics necessities of life, fans, and refrigerators. These are all day to day essentials. The refrigerator helps the housewife stretch her budget through being able to serve leftovers. Milk of course cannot be kept unless refrigerated. All these thousands upon thousands of families had to throw away food that had suddenly spoiled. These were not the poor. These were the 10 million householders, with food in the fridge - spoiling. The worst part of the power crisis has been the gradual slide into disaster. There was no earthquake or flood, or any natural disaster. This was the outcome of mismanagement of the government at all levels.

The public is watching as a helpless bystander, when their very livelihood, their daily routine is being upset, and what little they have is being snatched away, for no fault of their own. They voted overwhelmingly for the parties of their choice but have all been let down across the country. It is indeed the entire Parliament that has let down the nation. If this is democracy - then it is certainly not working. At a phenomenal cost to the public, if this is the governance that is being meted out to the poor people, then perhaps the Taliban will look more attractive to the people of Pakistan. Maybe they will be able to get things done, and not just dole out election promises.

The president it seems is also being played by the US. The funds promised in Tokyo, and Washington`by the 'Friends of Pakistan' and elsewhere appear only on paper, and have not materialised. The many TV networks are showing all the problems faced by the public, in pitiful detail, and these images are flashing round the world in real time. These images are already taking root in some minds, and the rumblings are being heard of discord, and voices are being raised against the government. The talk show hosts are openly calling criticism on the political system, and the US for having foisted a democratic government upon a hapless people. They were told that democracy would be the panacea for all their troubles. Milk and honey would flow. It is over a year, and with live clips from the National Assembly showing the legislators in various activities -mostly lounging in their seats close to sleep, with very little legislation coming from the House. These clips are on daily offer courtesy National TV.

So the people do not understand the shortage of power generation. Or the circular debt. With 12 billion $ in reserves why have the oil companies not been paid, for oil that has been already used? Why have the power companies not been paid for power that they have already sold and pocketed the proceeds? We the people do not understand circular debt. We do understand that we are not getting what we have paid for. With the largest Cabinet in our history. So, the anger in the people, storming on the streets is understandable, and justifiable. People are therefore delighted and grateful to the Supreme Court for taking suo moto notice barring a price hike in the power rates onto an already suffering public. Whose power rates are already the highest in the region!

The people are fed up with the litany of the IMF, and the World Bank, these institutions are the sticks that we are beaten with regularly - to raise the prices of fuel and or electricity. We are already not competitive in our major exports - cotton textiles. We have been overtaken by the newcomers such as Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. This year our exports have plummeted, and falling. Yet our mobile phone imports are thriving! Our manufacturing units are closing by the day, throwing more people out of work. These issues are not being addressed by the US team that flies in regularly on study tours, or our lounging legislators. They are so obsessed by the hunt for the Taliban, they cannot see the poverty, and the hopeless millions of jobless. We need our economic managers to wake up, and the Americans to realise that we may not be as poor as our Afghan brothers, but we are getting there. The result would be catastrophic.