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Mir Taqi Mir and Pakistan's
Economic Ailments
We do not know the exact context of the
couplet written by Urdu’s classic poet Mir Taqi Mir that reads:
Mir Bemar Hoye Jis Ke Sabab – Usi Attar Ke Launday Say Dua Lete
Hain: We acquire prescription from the Son of the same quack
who made us sick.
In whatever context Mir wrote this couplet it
somehow perfectly describes the reasons of Pakistan’s economic
ailments.
It is a separate story the government of
Pakistan admits it or not but Pakistan’s economic collapse is
more than certain. The government may hide its head in sand of
ignorance like ostrich and refuse to accept the reality of
imminent demise of Pakistan’s economy, but financial hurricane
is about to hit Pakistan’s economic shores.
The present government had choices. As a new
democratic government it could formulate economic policies to
free Pakistan from the shackles of World Bank and make it a
self-reliant country. However, it decided to tread on the same
rotten path which was taken by all previous governments.
Only in name Peoples Party government did not
take any step to assert peoples’ will on its internal external
and economic policies.
Immediately after taking over Pakistan, it
decided to go back to the son of the same quake World Bank which
is responsible for Pakistan’s current economic collapse.
Pakistan was forced to turn back to World Bank because of the
policies adopted by shamefully sheepish past and present rulers
of Pakistan.
Every time Pakistan goes back to World Bank
to acquire few more dollars for its ailing economy the bank
slaps more conditions on Pakistan. Most of the time those
conditions worsen the economy. Consequently, economy’s ailments
become further chronic. Pakistan’s economic managers are
constantly in flight to catch up with World Bank officials in
Washington, London, Ankara or Dubai. They go wherever the World
Bank officials want to meet them. They do not have enough of
leverage to tell World Bank officials to come to Islamabad so
that Pakistan can save few dollars which it has to incur on
travel arrangements of its economic managers. Like kite-tail,
Pakistan’s economic managers follow World Bank officials across
the globe.
Leaving aside the devil of the details, the
next imminent financial death trap of World Bank for the people
of Pakistan is the condition of imposition of 15% value added
tax on all sellable items of daily use.
Does Pakistan Peoples Party government
realize the people of Pakistan have exhausted their ability to
pay taxes?
One misperception about taxes: most of the
analysts perceive the people of Pakistan do not pay taxes. The
fact of the matter is there is indirect tax system in Pakistan.
Indirect tax system was introduced to collect revenues in
undocumented economy which worked well until Pakistan decided to
involve the World Bank, WTO and WFO in Pakistan. These
international Financial Institutions forced Pakistan through
gradual conditions to enforce privatization to end mix economy
the best antidote to control uncontrollable greedy local
capitalists.
With such gradual tightening these
international Financial Institutions have choked Pakistan’s
economy to the extent that it cannot fulfill the needs of
Pakistani market any longer; real demand with fake manipulated
supplies is constantly weakening common folks buying capacity.
The unfortunate aspect of the whole situation
is the Peoples Party government is playing as a stauncher agent
of these international Financial Institutions. Instead of taking
steps to remap the economic course for Pakistan, it is
cooperating with these institutions more slavishly and pushing
Pakistan towards economic collapse.
In order to survive financially, Pakistan has
to stop going back to proverbial son of Mir Taqi Mir’s Attar
even if has to declare bankruptcy. If Pakistan continued to
visit and revisit this son of Attar, there is no doubt, it will
become bankrupt anyway, but it will be the worst scenario.
Pakistan and Pakistanis won’t be able to handle its
consequences. | 
