Pakistan is passing these days through worse socio–economic and law and order situation because of the ruler’s inefficiencies, ineffectiveness, wrong policies and corrupt activities. The country in fact is run either by their foreign master’s directly or through their consultants having dual nationalities.
The consultants deputed are truly following the directives of their masters for implementing their agenda’s at the cost of our country’s risk, stability and solidarity. Perhaps this is the reason that the positions of Chief Economist and such five others very important positions in the Planning Commission are lying vacant since last Five years and the appointments of the honest, experienced and qualified Pakistani’s are not taking place. Appointments of honest, devoted, talented and highly qualified Pakistanis on such key positions could streamline the derailed economic situation of the country, but the rulers are not interested to disobey their master by doing so.

The open corruption, disinvestment, energy crisis, wrong monetary, fiscal, investment and trade policies and recruitment of the less qualified, dishonest and inexperienced people on key positions could be judged from the decision and policies they are formulating for the country’s socio –economic development, trade, monetary and fiscal stability.

The growing inflationary spiral and unfavorable balance of payments are the outcomes of our weak and unstable trade, investment, monetary, fiscal and industrial policies, which has almost collapsed the socio economic situation of the country. The prices of almost all the daily use house hold items have been increased ten times, while the per capita income of the household has been declined five folds. Increasing Unemployment and open violation of merit in recruitments has pushed the young generation to commit suicides and also to get involved in the terrorist and subversive activities against their own people.

The reason is that today, more than 60% of our young graduates are wandering in streets in search of jobs and are knocking at the doors of the corrupt politicians to buy jobs for their livelihoods and hardly 10% succeed in getting jobs either on payment to the corrupt politicians or on the basis of their approaches, political affiliations and nepotism.

Thousand such examples can be quoted, where low merit and less qualified people have been directly appointed but meritorious and hard workers, honest candidates have been deprived from their due appointment rights. It is not only the issue of unemployment, low income but numerous other issues have further pushed the country at the verge of collapse.

The growing load shedding is another alarming issue which has further not only made the life of the people at risk but also industrial and agriculture sectors are badly suffering and many industries have been closed on account of energy shortages, being known that today energy is the fifth very important factor of production.

The collapse of the industrial sector has not only increased the bills of our import expenditures but also has badly suffered our export sector as well. The every day increase in our import bills and decline in the export have raised expenditures many folds and has overburdened the country’s exchequer due to unfavorable balance of trade and payments. The industrial decline has further raised unemployment which consequently adversely affected the per capita income of the country and export of the manufactured goods. Non availability of the energy and its growing cost for the industry, transport and tube wells installed for the irrigation purposes has further pushed the country in to the worse economic stagnation and inflationary spiral.

The growing gas load shedding and increasing per unit cost is another setback for the economy of the country and is also not only increasing the miseries of the poor households and industrial sector but the transport sector is also suffering adversely. It is certainly quite apparent that in a country where neither energy is available nor cheap and frequent transportation facility exist for the speedy supply of the labour force and raw materials to the industries nor their limited finished goods can avail the facilitation of the cheap access to the consumer market, how industry and agriculture will prosper and flourish. It is indeed beyond the understanding of the poor people of Pakistan that in spite of the fact that production of the gas has been increased many folds on account of the exploration of the oil and gas fields and it is indicated from the revenue the government is collecting from this sector.

The government collected revenue of over Rs.138 billion from six different heads of oil and gas in the first six months of this fiscal year, up by over 106 per cent when compared with Rs. 67bn collected in the period last year. This was in addition to about Rs. 220bn as general sales tax on oil and gas collected in first six months, putting the total revenue receipts from oil and gas at about Rs. 358bn. As a result, the petroleum sector has emerged as the top revenue yielding sector for the government. According to official figures of the ministry of finance, the government collected Rs. 57.6bn as petroleum levy on oil products in July-December 2012-13 against Rs. 20.3bn collected during the same period last year, showing an increase of a whopping 184pc. Royalty on oil and gas stood at Rs. 29.8bn compared to Rs. 26.4bn in the first half of last fiscal year, an increase of about 13pc. On top of that, the government earned a windfall levy of Rs. 11.4bn during first six months of this fiscal year against zero collection under this head last year. Likewise, the government also collected Rs. 25bn as Gas Infrastructure Development Cess (GIDC) against no collection last year because the GIDC was introduced with effect from July 1, 2012. As a result, the petroleum sector has emerged as the top revenue yielding sector for the government and also for its investors, but unfortunately, these huge earnings are not appropriately utilized for the welfare of the general masses and all such resource generating institutions like PIA, Pakistan Steel mill, WAPDA, Railways, and such other departments are at the verge of collapse due to the incompetency and inefficiency of the present Government.

The increasing external and internal debts burden in the history of Pakistan is another complex issue which very rightly depicts the inefficiency of the present rulers and failure of their monetary and fiscal policy makers. The every day devaluation of the Pakistani currency and increasing dollar exchange rate is another conspiracy against this country, which is intentionally committed just to please their master’s and to give stability to their currencies and economy. The growing debt services burden is the outcome of our ill policies. According to the State Bank of Pakistan, the country’s foreign exchange reserves fell $154 million to $13.395 billion in the week ending Feb 8, from $13.549bn in the previous week. The payment of $146 million made to the International Monetary Fund in this month is not included in this data. The foreign exchange reserves held by the central bank slipped to $8.458bn from $8.586bn but that of commercial banks rose to $4.937bn from $4.888bn during the week.

The loyalty of the Governor State Bank having dual nationality could be judged from the policies he is introducing and the currency notes he is issuing on daily basis and from the outcome of the policies he is implementing in this country. The invisible outflow of the foreign currencies worth one billion dollars per day is another incompetency of the present policy makers.
Analyzing the previous five years foreign currencies exchange rates, it is worth mentioning that Pakistani Rupee is the most unstable and more devalued currency in the world currency market. Today the war affected Afghanistan’s currency is more stable than ours. Stable currency is considered a sign of stable economy.

The present coalition government has not only destabilized the economy of the country on account of their inefficiencies, corrupt policies and mala fide intentions but have made the country at the verge of complete failure due to the prevailing insecurity and deteriorating law and order situation in the provinces as well as at the country level in all respect. Dozens of people are dying every day either because of target killings or because of suicide attacks and state terrorism. The security agencies have totally been failed in bringing peace and security to the foreign investors, general masses of the country due to the reasons unknown to the general masses. The deteriorating law and order situation in the country and the government's inability to provide security to foreign investors remains a major factor in the decline in foreign direct investment (FDI). "Poor security arrangements by security agencies to local and foreign investors have discouraged investment in the country. Incidents of terrorism and a surge in targeted killings and kidnappings for ransom, extortion and bank robberies is affecting the entire country, especially Karachi, Quetta and Peshawar , but law-enforcement agencies have so far failed to devise a comprehensive plan to ensure security to foreign and local investors.

According to State Bank of Pakistan's (SBP) annual report, FDI, which supported the external sector over the past few years, fell below $1 billion, touching 0.35 percent of GDP. The Board of Investment's (BOI), investment policy 2013 gives importance to security issues of prospective foreign investors. It promises to provide "airport-to-airport" security to foreign investors in co-ordination with provincial investment promotion agencies (IPAs). But no such progress so far have been observed.

In such circumstances of insecurity, how foreign investors will come to invest in this country and will contribute in the economic stability and development of the country. Not only investment has been stopped but a mass brain drain of the honest and highly qualified and technical people is also at its peak. The poor state of the economy has failed to attract foreign investors for the last five years and is more visible through the data provided by the State Bank about foreign direct investment during the first seven months of the current fiscal year. While the country is in dire need of foreign exchange, the foreign investors are leaving this country. The State Bank reported that the foreign direct investment during the first seven months could hardly cross the figure of half a billion dollars. For many analysts situation is pathetic for the country since the inflows sharply declined during the five years. They said this is unbelievable that a country which received $5.5 billion in FY-2008 finds it hard to receive even one billion dollar today. Pakistan has been struggling to protect its falling foreign exchange reserves which have badly damaged the exchange rate. The State Bank said during July-January, the country received $525 million, less than $595 million received the same period in the last year.
Even many local investors have shifted their businesses and capital to other countries including Canada, UAE, UK, India, Australia and USA. Poor policies hinder foreign investment as indicated clearly by this one example that at a time when multinational pharmaceutical companies are shifting their businesses from Pakistan, global drug manufacturers are increasing their stakes in India due to favourable policies. As reported, pharmaceuticals group GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has recently invested over half a billion pounds in its Indian unit, increasing its stake in the healthcare of one of the most important emerging markets of the world. The Indian government had been planning this scenario since 1995 when they awarded the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to Pakistan and ensured that the same does not benefit Pakistan by erecting non tariff barriers. Similarly, their focus remained on attracting foreign investment and their dream has come true as multinational companies are attracted more towards India, Multinational pharmaceutical companies shy away from investing in Pakistan due to unfavourable drug pricing. “The cost of production is increasing day by day in Pakistan due to inflation and rupee devaluation and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) issue,”.

Unfortunately there is neither any proper and transparent accountability system in this country nor we have any fair justice and punishment system in our country. Even it is a matter of great concern that today it has been a general concept in this country that powerful and ruling class is above the law. Pakistan being an Islamic country, the leaders and rulers of the country consider themselves even above the Islamic regulations. Though such self given exemption for their immoral activities provided to the rulers of this country is not only un-Islamic and immoral but is certainly quite damaging. Any such amenities/ exemption granted on account of their corruption and immoralities to the rulers of this country are neither justified nor according to the Islamic norms. They are enjoying undue protection for all their unfair means and irregularities and illegalities. In this country such gross violations of the rules and regulations, mass corruption and illegalities of the powerful rulers, politicians, generals, judges, bureaucrats is some times protected through NRO’s or some times in the name of amenities and exemption provided through their own man made legislations.

Therefore, for the elimination of corruption, irregularities and illegalities, the Islamic laws needs to be introduced and the regulations of NRO be immediately abrogated and such laws needs to be brought in accordance with the Islamic norms and no such exemption be given to any one and every one must be accessible for fair accountability and trial in the free and fair courts of law for their ill doings including the President and Prime Minister of Pakistan and Governors and Chief Ministers of the Provinces. Courts be directed to speed up justice for the general masses as well. All socio –economic, educational Institutions, banking system, judiciary, and establishment sections be made free from the undue interference of the politicians. Today our MNA’s, MPA’s, Senators instead of contributing in the socio –economic development, they have snatched the powers of recruitment, allocation of funds, transfers, postings of the employees from the establishment sections, and are competing in the race of just looting and accumulating wealth. In such circumstances how the country will fairly and transparently run and how the objective of security, economic stability and socio –economic prosperity will be achieved. Let the role of the politicians be confined only to legislation, guidance and not to implementation. If we could do this, we will be successful in achieving the desired goals, otherwise socio -economic failure and destitute is our destiny.

The Author Prof. Dr. Asmatullah Khan, is a renowned Economist and a Retired Vice Chancellor of a University

http://www.thefrontierpost.com/category/40/