The art of standing still

by Kamila Hyat

The condition of inertia can have many downfalls. It slows down circulation, leads to a variety of health problems – and quite obviously holds back progress. Things become even more precarious when we stand on a steep, slippery slope, sliding backwards because there is no momentum to take us forward.

This is precisely the condition we find ourselves facing today. The lack of progress of the federal government, which took charge some six months ago, has been widely noted. The economy continues to nosedive, with inflation rising rapidly. The impact on the lives of the people of the country is dramatic, with the huge surge in utility bills affecting virtually everyone.

Strangely enough, we still have no foreign minister – even though foreign relations are obviously vital to our interests in terms of the region, with a US pull-out from Afghanistan scheduled for next month. Our relations with other countries are also important for our economy. The difficulty in obtaining the $2 billion financing to construct the segment of the Iran-Pak pipeline that is to run through our territory illustrates this. Indeed, Tehran, which has already built its own part of the pipeline, has withdrawn an earlier offer to extend a loan to cover part of the costs.

Despite some repair work carried out in India by the PM’s adviser on foreign affairs Tarek Fatemi and Shahbaz Sharif, who delivered in Ludhiana a speech in his native Punjabi that we, oddly enough, rarely hear him speak at home despite being the chief minister of Punjab, relations with India stay somewhat strained and it is unclear what the future will bring with electoral change forecast in that country next year.

A faux pas also seems to have been made, according to some Gulf-based newspapers, in terms of ties with the UAE – a crucial ally – with that nation apparently miffed by Pakistan’s failure to vote for it as the host for the giant trade fair, Expo 2020, in the initial round of voting held in Paris a few weeks ago. Pakistan did, though, vote for it in subsequent rounds with Dubai winning hosting honours. But annoying the dwindling band of friends we still have in the world is obviously not very sensible.

The energy crisis continues, and in a sarcastic gesture traders from Faisalabad asked the Punjab CM to join protests in their city against gas and power cuts, just as he had done last year during the tenure of the PPP government. This time he chose not to. Militant attacks continue, as do drone strikes, and while the government told the recent meeting of the Cabinet Committee on National Security that it was continuing with its strategy of talking to the Taliban and was indeed in contact with them, no information is available as to precisely who is being talked to and what the discussions centre around.

The Taliban leadership itself, led by Mullah Fazlullah, continues to make public statements denying any desire to talk to anyone and threatening attacks on selected targets, while the new army chief, General Raheel Sharif has said terrorism will not be tolerated – despite agreeing at the CCNS meeting on a strategy of dialogue. The attack on a North Waziristan check post, which killed at least seven soldiers as they prayed, followed by fierce military retaliation, may have led to his statement.

The confusion surrounding militancy is illustrated also by PTI chief Imran Khan’s typically courageous decision to launch the anti-polio campaign himself in Akora Khattak and appeal to militants not to oppose it. The gesture was followed immediately by threats to the well-meaning Khan from the little known Taliban-affiliated group, the Ansarul Mujahideen, leading his party to seek higher levels of security. The incident simply illustrates the complexities of dealing with a militant force split into so many factions and sub-factions. There has been no real response to Imran’s appeal from other, mainstream Taliban groups either – and this is not encouraging.

We have a kind of gridlock in other areas too. As we saw during the previous government’s period in power, appointments to key offices remain problematic. Three officials who were recently dismissed from key official bodies by the government have been restored to their posts by the Islamabad High Court following appeals. Without going into the nitty-gritty or the merits and demerits of the individual cases, this too does not show an especially efficient state of governance. Other key appointments, such as those of a permanent chairman of the Higher Education Commission (HEC), have remained pending for months.

The high-profile measures that have been taken are, on closer examination, mainly cosmetic. One example of that is the youth income scheme, launched by Maryam Nawaz Sharif, under which young people, aged between 21 and 45 years would be provided loans on easy terms, amounting up to Rs2,000,000 to set up businesses and thus escape the soul-destroying search for jobs that dominates so many lives. In theory the scheme looks good – feasible and possibly beneficial to a large number of people.

But then there is the finer print, which says that each loan seeker must be backed by a guarantor who is able to put up the collateral needed to back the loan. Where the average, unemployed young person is expected to find such a guarantor is unclear. There is also doubt over how many loans are to be given out with the finances available or what the protection mechanism is against failure, given that this is almost inevitable in some cases with possibly inexperienced young entrepreneurs not expected to succeed in each case.

This raises the question of quite what we should do. Somehow or the other, forward momentum needs to be found; change introduced in what has become a stagnant situation. The hopes attached to the new government have been fading, although of course six months is far too early to judge a government, especially one that has taken over in a time of crisis.

But what we do need to see is some evidence of strategies for the future being planned, and changes being introduced. There is as yet too little of that. A confusion appears to exist over policymaking and quite what direction to follow. No one appears to hold an accurate map that can help us walk down a clearly defined road.

It has been suggested that even solving one problem – such as the energy crisis – would be an achievement. This is certainly true. But our problems are in many ways so entwined, so wrapped up together in a tightly woven mass that it is difficult to separate them and treat them as individual issues.

For example, the question of security is tied in to economic growth, that of militancy to health and development. It may indeed be sensible to focus initially on a single sphere of activity. But whatever is decided upon must be followed through with purpose so that we move towards the sense of progress that is badly required to introduce a ray of optimism and end the cynicism that at present pervades our society and holds us back in many ways.

Breaking through these shadows to allow rays of sunlight to enter is important for many different reasons. More time must not be lost; we must enable this to happen.

The writer is a freelance columnist and former newspaper editor.

Email: kamilahyat@hotmail.com

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