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Old Monday, November 29, 2010
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Open to debate

Government’s efforts to put its development agenda before the world may not be impressive but at least an effort has been made

By Dr. Abid Qaiyum Suleri

"Pakistan Development Forum (PDF) was full of contradictions with inconsistencies not only among federal government and provincial governments, but also between various federal ministries", these were the remarks of a German official who was part of German delegation and met me in Berlin the other day.

He is not the only one. Most of us who attended PDF had similar views about the quality of deliberations from the government side. However, before discussing the shortcomings, one should give credit to the current government for reorganising the forum after a long gap. The government should be condoned for diagnosing many of its problems, both chronic and acute, and for admitting that they had weaknesses in system that required immediate solution. The government should be also acknowledged for inviting representatives of civil society organizations there. Although few of us who were there felt that civil society representation was not inclusive and we did not get much chance to share our point of view.

The finance minister kept on clarifying that it was not a donor’s conference. It was a forum where the government placed its development agenda before the international community (with a purpose to seek their help and support) for feedback and suggestions. It is a different matter that only Paris Club plus few others were invited in this forum. Indonesia was a new entry from ASEAN.

The topic of this forum was "Reform Agenda for Sustainable Development". One was expecting reforms, at least in theory if not in practice, for sustainable development after the devastating "man made" floods. However, it was quite a disappointment to note that there was no radical shift and despite recognising its weaknesses and shortcomings, government’s plan for development was business as usual. Actually I should stand corrected.

It was not business as usual. At least in business as usual the government was willing to allocate some funds for public sector development programme. Here one of the major reforms was slashing the developmental budget by a massive amount of 541 billion rupees (off course there was no mention of increasing the defence budget by 110 billion rupees). My major worry was that slashing PSDP would mean taking the fuel out from economic growth engine. Half of the Pakistan is already destroyed by devastating floods and rest of the half would be deprived of public sector development programs (on health, agriculture, education, drinking water, civil infrastructure development etc) because we are diverting this money for flood rehabilitation and reconstruction.

The World Bank and ADB shared their flood damage need assessment report; the one which also carries a logo of government of Pakistan (and hence an endorsement of federal government too) informs that 10 billion dollars are required for rehabilitation and reconstruction. I was asked this question again and again by various German ministries and development organizations during last couple of days whether SDPI or any other civil society organization form Pakistan was part of this damage need assessment.

To this question I can only smile. How can I tell them that what to talk of civil society organizations, many of the governmental organizations including planning commission of Pakistan and provincial governments were also not involved in this exercise. No wonder that initial damage need assessment by federal and provincial governments totals to 41 billion dollars.

Coming back to PDF, the session on social protection measures was the most disappointing one. Shehnaz Wazir Ali was asked to reduce her presentation to 10 minutes. Government very rightly highlighted its flagship social safety net programme Benazir Income Support Programme. However, this programme cannot bring any reforms for sustainable development, certainly not in unusual times when majority of Pakistanis are not only marred by effects of floods, food and fuel inflation but also by the effects of initiatives taken for macro-economic stability.

Can we not think of a modified version of minimum employment guarantee scheme or free school lunch programme as have been initiated in India as examples of effective social safety net programs? I don’t mind if we name it Benazir Minimum Employment Guarantee Scheme, but simply doling out money in the name of BISP programme would certainly not turn our social safety nets any effective or sustainable.

The most interesting part of PDF was contradiction between the statements of Interior Minister and Finance Minister. Interior Minister very passionately appealed for writing off debts as a compensation for Pakistan’s sacrifices in the war against terrorism while Finance Minister was of the view that Pakistan is a responsible borrower and we would never ask for debt writing off as it would negatively affect our credit rating.

Another issue that confused the international community was the contradiction between provincial and federal government’s stance on international help. While federal government had made it clear during earlier Friends of Pakistan Forum that it would be taking care of flood rehabilitation and reconstruction expenditures by mobilising its own resources, provincial governments were requesting for direct financial support from international community.

"We were told that GOP would only request for budgetary support for direct cash grants (through Watan Cards) from international community, but here provinces are asking for support for reconstruction and rehabilitation", commented a Western diplomat.

Reform agenda on taxation was least impressive. All Chairman FBR could present was regressive taxes without any clear plan on how tax net would be broadened. In the absence of any discussion on tax on agricultural income, donors were not convinced that Pakistan is really serious to increase its tax base.

I liked the presentation of Governor State Bank. He was quite candid in pointing that government was borrowing 2 billion rupees per day and hence crowding out the private sector from access to cheap liquidity. After his presentation there was a spontaneous comment from a British diplomat who said it seemed Pakistan’s problems lied in irresponsible domestic borrowing.

There was a luncheon session with business representatives. I must admit that we as a nation are still not ready for civilized meetings like having luncheon talks. Dining hall of a five-star hotel was full of people who were least bothered to listen what was being said by speakers on the podium.

SAARC countries were not invited in PDF. We are founder member of SAARC. There are provisions of SAARC food bank to tackle food security issues. There is a SAARC disaster preparedness mechanism, an agreed upon SAARC counter terrorism mechanism and we don’t want to share our development plans with other SAARC partners.

It would have been better to allocate one session for civil society representatives. This could have been given a positive signal to donor countries that Pakistan is following best practices of transparency and consultation. My major concern is that there was no discussion on land reforms, a crucial prerequisite for any meaningful reform agenda in Pakistan for sustainable development. Last week, I did write about a paradigm shift without which the conflict between have and have not is impossible to avoid. I wished if Pakistan Development Forum could have human development approach.

The writer is executive Director of Sustainable Development Policy Institute. He can be contacted at suleri@sdpi.org
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