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Few
Solutions for Pakistan's Mounting Problems
 Pakistan
is fast sliding down the hill to complete chaos and disaster.
Politics is in shambles, economy is in deep hole, legal order
has broken, and society is at war with itself.
War against terrorism, an unnatural war for
Pakistani society, is taking its toll and consequently Pakistan
is falling apart.
Is there something that Pakistanis can do to
stop further deterioration?
Economy: 8 years of fake economic management
has totally collapsed Pakistani economy. Runaway prices have
made common folks life unbearable. They are selling or killing
their siblings or committing suicides to escape the vicious
cycles of poverty. If Pakistan has to pull its economy out of
hole, it has to take following drastic steps:
1) Immediately
knock down taxes on the oil to bring the oil prices down.
2)
Cut the electricity prices both
for domestic and commercial consumers to half for next 3 to 5
years.
3) Stop
all officially sponsored foreign trips. No government officials
including prime minister, ministers, bureaucrats or scholars
should visit abroad at least for next 5 years. Any businessman
or private citizen who needs to travel abroad for business
reasons should arrange their trips 100% through foreign
sponsorships.
4) All
imports other than materials required to run manufacturing
plants should be strictly banned for next 5 years.
5) Stop
all foreign borrowing for next 5 years. Do not accept any aid,
grant, subsidy or loan from any international source.
6) Lower
hotel rates to the minimum to attract foreign visitors. Take
steps to bring peace back in various parts of the country to
shed the image of violence, lawlessness off. Set-up lot of
visitors' centers throughout the country to help the visitors.
Law and order: Economic development and
prosperity is directly related to law and order and peacefulness
in a country. In order to bring rule of law back to the society
following steps can help:
1) Those
who are acting out of constitutional and legal limits set a dead
line for them to resign from their unconstitutional and illegal
activities. If they resign by the deadline, forgive their past
crimes, but deal with them with iron fist if they continue
behaving unconstitutionally and illegally.
2) Immediately
establish magistrates at municipal level throughout the country
with the authority to commute justice in a session or two with
the help of a fresh jury for every case selected by those
magistrates.
3) All
local law enforcement forces should be at the disposal of those
magistrates. They should have the power to immediately implement
their judgments with the help of local law enforcement forces.
4) In
NWFP or for that matter in other provinces of Pakistan use the
titles of Kazis for those magistrates and the council of the
Kazi for the jury. Such magistracies will neutralize Talibans in
NWFP. The people will get quick justice. Use the same
magistracies to deal with Talibans. Gradually process them
through these magistracies and make them ineffective and
eventually eliminate them.
Political Situation: Try to rebuild broken
political institutions. The maximum focus should be on building
political institution with allowing parliament to play the key
role. Following steps can help improve political situation in
the country:
1) Keep
parliament in session all the time. Parliament should meet in
official manner from Monday through Friday for next 5 years.
2) Immediately
establish parliamentary committees. Those committees should work
as watch dogs to constantly monitor the performance of
government departments on day-to -day basis. For next 5 years,
these committees should tirelessly interact with related
departments.
3) If
necessary, these committees should bring all issues of national
importance to the parliamentary floor.
4) Parliament
should constantly debate issues of national importance. All
internal and external policies should be debated and devised at
parliamentary floor and then implemented by government
departments under the supervision of parliamentary committees.
5) War
on terrorism should be debated at the parliamentary floor.
Actions should only be taken in the light of decisions taken by
the parliament.
Change outward looking policies: Pakistan has
unnecessarily internationalized its internal social, cultural,
economic, and political and defense issues. Pakistan must take
necessary steps to look inward.
1) Do
not unnecessarily involve foreign elements to address your
internal issues. Have confidence in your institutions such as
army, bureaucracy, judiciary and law enforcement agencies to
deal with law and order problems.
2) Set
a criteria and protocol for foreign dignitaries visiting
Pakistan to meet their counter parts in Pakistan if they come on
official business. Strictly, follow that criteria and protocol.
Do not accommodate foreign dignitaries if they do not maintain
the criteria. Also, take action against those Pakistani official
who accommodate foreign dignitaries without following the set
procedures.
3) Unnecessary
foreign interactions are further confusing situation in
Pakistan. Deal with Pakistani problems in a Pakistan way with
passion, sincerity and honesty.
4)
Pakistan is going through a phase where it needs to search its
soul and come up with unique solutions for its unique
problems. Isolationist, low profile polices will work better for
Pakistan than high profile internationalist policies. Pakistan
has to put its own house in order before it can play any role in
international affairs including war on terror.
There are many
other issues and solutions. However, this is the minimum
Pakistan has to do to pull itself out of imminent dangers.
Ignoring these issues will further complicate the situation. If
this deterioration is not averted, Pakistan may disintegrate,
which means lot of bloodshed, catastrophes and human tragedies.
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