A nation loosing the hope! 

October 23, 2008

Shamas-ur-Rehman Toor

The clouds of credit crunch are getting darker everyday. Almost everyone is hit with the current ongoing crisis, directly or indirectly. It’s a sad episode in which mistakes – rather blunders – of few are falling on all others. Fewer rich folks are now preparing to get richer while the middle class is puzzled whether they will be able to maintain their status quo. The poor is surely getting poorer.

The economic Tsunami has engulfed the markets of developing countries. Though countries in Asia, like Japan, Korea, Singapore, and China are severely hit, the effects are graver in places like India and Pakistan. But the economic problems are coupled with political and social issues in Pakistan, making it a double trouble. We need some five billion dollars to avoid a default. We also need over ten billions to further reinforce the economy over next few months. But the question is where is this money going to come from? The obvious choices are ‘Friends of Pakistan’, IMF or World Bank. Given our negotiations with ‘Friends of Pakistan’, particularly with China and Saudi Arabia, we know that we have been given no hopes. These two great and long-time friends of Pakistan know that we are so much used to begging money and it results in nothing. We waste it in petty issues and in filling the pockets of selected few. KSA and China have realized that giving money to Pakistan is just like throwing it into a well. It leads to nothing but another request in few years – as we have done it once again this time. What a shame that we lost trust with these great friends who have been with us through thick and thin.

Now the only bitter pie left is IMF. Leaving it is again no option. We will have to swallow the hard pill of the conditions that IMF brings in. Initial resistance towards the agreements that we see in the press is only a delay – may be to gain sympathy from the people. Government is delaying it only to create an environment so they call tell the people of Pakistan that ‘we did everything we could; we went to our friends who deserted us in the middle of nowhere; so we finally decided to agree with the tough conditions of IMF”. Isn’t it all very sad and tragic that we are back to square zero after 8 years of so-called development? Apparently we grew at the rate of 7-8% during last few years. Now we are only growing in debt. Where has all that money that US gave us in form of aid in return to our pledge for supporting the war on terror? Where is all the foreign direct investment that came to country? I agree we made a lot of development – primarily in the service sector and the real estate – but it was not good enough to save us from the current turmoil. We never though about sustainable development – we were just hasty to get some short-term and superficial gains in our development indices. We did get the intended results but the flawed strategies have now been exposed in the wake of global economic crisis – though our local socio-political crisis is far severe than the economic concerns. We learnt to eat fish – which others gave us in aid – instead of learning how to fish.

I left Pakistan in pursuit of higher studies in 2003. After living in Thailand for two years, from 2003 to 2005, I came to Singapore in July 2005. Before coming here, I visited Pakistan for a couple of months to spend time with my family and to contribute some expertise to my father’s business. At that time, in 2005, the exchange rate of Singapore Dollar was some 33 Pakistani Rupees. It has soared to now over 54. Three years ago, when I was there for more than two months, Pakistan was considered to be a rising star in Asia, even in the wake of November 2005 earth quake that badly hit the country. Now the country is on the verge of bankruptcy – at least this is what many credible reports say. There were sufficient foreign reserves back then. Now there are talks about borrowing more money from IMF and the World Bank. Back then, Pakistan was far more stable in terms of its internal security as well as global standing. Now there are concerns regarding both. Back then there was some economic hope among people. Now there is desperation and distress all around. Back then people were thinking to buy new cars and houses with the money they were making in the business. Now they are wondering if someone will buy their cars or houses in case the crisis goes worse.

Back then, you could sniff the sense of hope in the nation. Today, there is disappointment and despair all around. Back then, there was some anger about politics. Today, there is complete hopelessness about the whole system. Back then, there were so many students were being sent abroad for higher studies. Today, those who were sent are facing a risk of their scholarship cut. Back then, we could talk to others with pride. Today, we are begging again. Back then, we were developing economic ties by inviting foreign investors. Today, we are looking up to “friends of Pakistan” to give us aid and save us from an economic disaster. Back then, Pakistan was being governed by a dictator-led democracy. Now we are in a dictator-less dictatorship in the cover of democracy. Back then, there were talks about empowerment of people through democracy and grass-root government. Today, we have that all but that has only worsened the state of a common man. Back then, we were boasting about economic growth rate. Today, we are struggling to survive. In general, in 2005, we were better as a country. Today, we are lost again. Pakistan is on another sensitive turn of history. Pakistan is again in crisis. Pakistan is again a country left alone. Pakistan is again a country robbed by its own people. Pakistan is again a country with a lot of captains on board but none on the steering. Pakistan is again a country facing internal instability and alienation among its own friends.

What have we really achieved during last few years? An economy in the turmoil; a judiciary in political detention; a government playing in the hands of foreign powers; and social system in the peril; a failure of paramilitary agencies; a loss of hope; and above all, a loss of moral values. It is not that I am complaining about everything all over again. It is about putting the facts right and analyzing the situation from an objective point of view. During last one decade, we have gone through democracy, dictatorship, dictator-led democracy, and then democracy-led dictatorship. Nothing has brought prosperity to a common man. If anything, the rich has grown richer and the poor has grown poorer. The country remains a playing field of politicians, the establishment, and the foreign powers. Each one of them has exploited Pakistan whenever possible.

My father called me a day before yesterday. In routine, I asked him about his health and then the family business. He told me, for the first time during last 5 years, that the situation was getting desperate, day by day. He told me that the business had reduced to only 20% of its routine volume during last two months. What left me very sad – speechless to be precise – was when he dejectedly informed me that he was going to do some major lay-offs. The people that he had trained over last several years and who had become almost like family members were to be told that they had to leave. Those who had no other skill and nowhere else to go were to be informed that they had to be retrenched. It is not that only the business suffers. The whole society suffers from it. A business man might survive by temporarily reducing the operations on the plant. But a poor man will have no firewood to burn at home, no food to feed the kids, no money to pay the utility bills, and no resources to run everyday matters of the house. Who are they going to turn to? Who will be their messiah? Who will assure them two meals a day? Who will make sure that they don’t pull their kids out of the school? Who will promise that they will be able to wed their already over-aged daughter this winter? Who will guarantee them a single trip to Makkah for which they saved for the life time but spent all in clearing their bills and taxes? Who will warrant them that they are not going to be robbed of their only cell phone in the middle of the road?

In the agriculturally rich country of Pakistan, the lower-middle class and the lower class is only surviving. The country has no power with which to run the factories. There is scarcity of commodities. Whatever is available is getting expensive and close to unaffordable everyday. When I visited Pakistan this December (2008), I was surprised to notice that people were living from day to day basis. Many had no jobs, no business, and above all, no hope for a better future. I was shocked to see that many lower-middle class families did not travel to their hometowns to celebrate Eid with their relatives. They decided to stay back in the big cities only to save the money so that they could spend it on food and education for their kids. I was heartbroken to observe such a large number of baggers in the street. I could not believe when I saw many formerly middle class families barely making the ends meet.

I remember my chat with our watchman who told me that he needed 10,000 rupees to run his house but he earned only 5,400. He did a small part-time job that will still insufficient to afford him two satisfactory meals everyday. I cannot forget the face of a young kid who has lost his hopes of future after failing to pay his tuition fee and having dropped out his plans to go to medical school. I cannot breathe when I remember visiting the home of a relative, once a reasonably middle class family, who was on the verge of tears because they had cooked meat in many days and had not taken their kids back to their hometown for Eid holidays. I get to tears myself when I remember my brother laying off the laborers and telling them not to come to work until they were informed to. I can hardly imagine the faces of those laborers who did not know what to do to earn some money to buy new clothes for their children.

This is not the Pakistan that Jinnah and Iqbal dreamt of. This is not the Pakistan for which few millions sacrificed their lives. Every few years, we get back to the square one. Every few years we pick up the ‘Kashkol’ and start to look around for aid. Every few years someone comes to give us hopes and then leaves us in the lurch by filling his own pockets. We keep playing in the hands of foreign forces, selling our country to those we pledge to get rid of in every election. What a tragedy!