The following article was referred to me by Zakk, and it’s quite interesting, the fact that the government wants our, us normal Pakistanis’ feedback on how to plan, implement policies, run and govern the country.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_6-4-2005_pg3_5
DEVELOPING PAKISTAN: Have your say in running the country
—Miguel Loureiro
The Planning Commission has recently drafted a five-year development plan. They consulted experts from provincial and federal governments, public and private sectors, civil society organisations, academics, researchers, etc before they came up with the Medium Term Development Framework (MTDF) 2005-10. Now apparently the idea is to refine it by having further consultations with the provincial and local governments, and they’re asking for suggestions and comments from various sections of the society (that means you).
One way you can comment and give suggestions is by going to the government’s website (http://www.pakistan.gov.pk/) and clicking on the “Medium Term Development Framework 2005-10 (Working Draft)”, which appears on the bottom right side of the web page. This will open a new page where MTDF can be downloaded (in pdf format). My advice is to first download and read the overview (20 pages) and then download the chapters and/or sub-chapters where you feel you can contribute. Even if you feel that you don’t know enough or don’t consider yourself an expert, please read some sections (the ones more related to you) and send them your comments/suggestions. I strongly believe in your knowledge and expertise. Also, look at it this way: it is your right (and responsibility) as a citizen to have your say on how your country should be run for the next five years. And if you look at some of the country’s decision-makers’ and policy-makers’ knowledge and expertise, I’m sure you’ll agree with me that anyone can do a similar if not a better job…
What do I think of it? Well, as an exercise I have to congratulate the government to come up with not only a medium-term development framework, but also to invite comments and suggestions from the country’s citizens.
As for the MTDF itself… where should I start? I like the way it’s divided into six parts: 1. Accelerating output growth; 2. Upgrading physical infrastructure; 3. Supporting the private sector; 4. Achieving the millennium development goals; 5. Economically just development; 6. Macroeconomic framework. But I would start with Economically just development, followed by Achieving the millennium development goals, and then the rest. Why? Because I feel that Pakistan’s greatest problems are related to a lack of rural development (this includes agrarian and land reforms), miserable redistribution policies, and a lack of quality and quantity services in health, education, population welfare, water, hygiene and sanitation, women development, and environmental awareness.
Its fundamental problem is that the goal of the MTDF is again growth (of the economy, not the people) and not human development. It confuses industrialisation with development (they are not the same thing and one does not automatically lead to another), it keeps on talking about attracting foreign direct investment as the main solution for capital input (there are other solutions, e.g. taxing the rich or appeal to expatriates to invest their money in the economy, rather than spend it in land and big cars), and states as its main orientation an export-led economy (in today’s world, with China and India as neighbours, apart from textiles what on earth can Pakistan really export?).
If I may quickly go through some of its chapters, let me mention a few things worth thinking about.
Accelerating output growth deals with agriculture, livestock, fisheries, forestry, industry, minerals, export development, and science and technology. And while they mention self-reliance in critical commodities, food security and increment of productivity for the first two sub-chapters, most of it is about increasing productivity, i.e. growth. This is not a race; the role of the government is to improve its citizens’ standard of living, not make them slaves of economic growth. On industry and minerals, apparently the reason to improve these sectors is for export (have they forgotten that they have an internal market the size of 150 million people?). And they make two blunders: one, that the only way to develop rapidly is in accelerating industrialisation (it depends on their definition of development); the other, that relying on export-led growth is one of the key factors to rapid growth (growth in exports, yes). Finally, what is their fixation with IT? Do they know that there are other equally important sciences (e.g. medicine, biology, physics, chemistry, social sciences)?
The second chapter (Upgrading physical infrastructure) deals with water, energy, transport and communications, tourism development, and urban development and housing. On water, they should stress more on water use (do you know how much water is wasted in this country?) and make sure that all of us know how to conserve and utilise water. On energy, I found frightening the idea of increasing the production of coal (ever heard of the environment?), and feeble the (little) increase of nuclear and renewable energy. On tourism, I’m sure that we all can come up with more ideas.
The third chapter (Supporting the private sector) has a few interesting ideas but the main scary thought is of seeing the government trying to get away from delivering essential services. In the hands of the private sector, the poor and the vulnerable (majority of the population) will simply be unable to afford them. Again, there is the strange idea of looking at people as resources, i.e. the means rather than the ends of development.
Chapter four (Achieving millennium development goals) deals with basic education (where they promise to achieve universal primary education and free education up to secondary level, but forget to mention the problem of quality), health, nutrition, water supply and sanitation (they’re thinking of privatising water supply — please see what happened in countries that have done so), environment, and women development. Overall some nice words, let’s see what they’ll do.
Chapter five (Economically just development) deals with rural development (again, still nothing on land reforms), accelerated development of less developed areas (in which I think they should include Balochistan, the Seraiki belt and northern Sindh), devolved development (which without fiscal devolution and political parties won’t go far), and employment and income distribution (where they promise to reduce unemployment to 4 percent).
Finally the last chapter deals with the macroeconomic framework, where they reaffirm that the goal of the government is economic growth and not human development.
Unfortunately I have no more space. But please, please read it and email your comments to [email protected] .
Miguel Loureiro is a lecturer in development studies at the Lahore University of Management Sciences