VIEW: How to de-develop a country —Andleeb Abbas

Pakistan’s rating on the human development index is appalling; it has one of the lowest literacy rates and one of the highest maternal and infant mortality rates in the world

If there were an international tender floated for consulting on how to retard development in a country, the Pakistani leadership would win hands down. The present budget is a classic example of this. The economy has retrenched to half its size, inflation has broken previous records, unemployment is at an all time high and basic amenities like water and energy are endangered species. With such a screaming crisis in the country, the budget merrily ignores all these areas and admits that VAT is going to enhance inflation, cost of energy is going to increase relentlessly and interest rates cannot be lowered making investment a risky business and thus unemployment an inevitable reality.

The budget is normally a window dressing exercise designed to partially appease a restless public on issues close to their heart. There are strong rhetoric speeches and big reformation agendas to hide the ugly interior by show piecing a few enticing bigwig projects. Unfortunately, our present brass of leaders is not even competent enough to build a decent façade. The budget is so weak in its substance that no amount of style can hide the economic hollowness.

This, they claim, is a pro-poor budget; on analysis this is neither a pro-poor nor a pro-rich budget but a clear and present pro-government budget. The so-called relief provided is to government employees whose pay scales for no reason whatsoever have been enhanced by 50 percent. With two days off a week and the worst productivity level in most of the public sectors, this huge increment, regardless of performance, is bound to discourage any effort towards improving their capability and performance.

The budget speech made a lot of noise about a decrease in government expenditures but the actual figures show a marked increase in government expenses. The expenditure at the Presidency will increase by 14 percent and that of the Prime Minister Secretariat by 13 percent. An amount of Rs 931 million has been allocated to these two houses, compared to an amount of Rs 818 million last year. This amount can sustain thousands of households for a whole year, especially the millions who live on a dollar a day. Compare this with any neighbouring country’s leadership lifestyle and expenditure and you would know why we remain the most underdeveloped country in the region. Take Manmohan Singh of India or Ahmadinejad of Iran and see the way they dress, drive around, eat and live and you immediately know who are responsible for retarding the growth and development of this country.

The two crucial areas of developing any country remain on the lowest of our priorities, i.e. education and health. Pakistan’s rating on the human development index is appalling; it has one of the lowest literacy rates and one of the highest maternal and infant mortality rates in the world.

Without education, development is a perishable commodity. We know it, we have witnessed it and we talk about it, yet it remains the most under addressed priority in our leader’s agenda of governing this country. The latest economic survey has also reluctantly admitted to this apathetic attitude of the government by highlighting the paltry investment of 2 percent of GDP made by the government last year, making it one of the lowest allocations historically as well as globally. India allocated 3.3 percent of GDP, Iran 5.2 percent, Malaysia 4.7 percent and Vietnam 5.3 percent of GDP. Even Bangladesh has allocated 2.6 percent of GDP to education. These are, of course, just numbers and do not tell us how effective this allocation has been in achieving objectives. The 2 percent allocated in Pakistan is again used by government ministries that are totally incapable of utilising any resources for productive use. Thus, you have a state of affairs where the money allocated for the education sector is for projects that are bound to lead to nothing. What needs resources and attention is the quality of education in public schools. Unless the public school curriculum and teaching standards are changed, no meaningful transformation will come in the education level in the country. India’s progress in the world is directly attributable to the good quality education available to the masses. Sri Lanka’s 98 percent literacy is due to the completely free quality education available right up to the university level. What is needed in Pakistan is a reasonable level basic education and then functional literacy where people can learn vocational skills authenticated by international level certification to make them employable immediately after they graduate. The present system of education is designed to kill creativity and produce mass numbers of ‘educated’ who are desperately trying and vying for every job in sight with the result that organisations are full of disengaged misfits whose commitment and contribution is mediocre at best.

With life expectancy barely 64 years and health facilities a luxury only the rich can afford, the present budget blatantly admits to their complete apathy to this basic state responsibility. The health budget has been slashed by 27 percent, hoping that the provinces will make up for the deficit. Successive governments have relied on foreign benevolence to build standard hospitals. The Aga Khan hospital in Karachi, Sheikh Zayed hospital in Lahore and nearly every other mentionable hospital had been built by the British or the Hindus a long time ago. This yawning gap of health facilities has been exploited by expensive private hospitals where only the truly rich can afford to go. For the poor man, ill health is almost semi-death for the patient and his family.

The budget is thus another faked document, which means a lot of numerical gimmickry and pseudo policy wizardry. In a country where the business of fakes is the only business that has experienced growth in rough times, genuine values have become a matter of scorn. With our leaders proudly owning up to fake degrees and still managing to hold on to seats of power, it is a true reflection of how insensitive we have become to this shameless loot. Only the collective resolve of a nation not ready to give in to this moral rigging can stop this leadership collusion bent on degrading the country’s sustainability, sovereignty and dignity.

The writer is a consultant and CEO of FranklinCovey and can be reached at andleeb@franklincoveysouthasia.com