Reinforcing success
Four months ago, almost to the day, THE NATION advised Dr Mahbubul Haq to take a week off and go to Bangladesh to explore the virtues of “THE ECONOMICS OF TOGETHERNESS”. He may have read the article and taken the advice or simply got an inspiration from heaven, but he returned from Dhaka not only imbued with a Messianic fervour to enlarge the trade with Bangladesh but having taken concrete and substantial steps towards that direction. His batteries having been simultaneously and sufficiently recharged by a well-deserved short break (after the debilitating effects of events leading upto the 1988 Federal Budget and after), the good doctor can take pride in solidifying a trade structure that Pakistan needed to put into place and which should be used as an example for other bilateral trade agreements.
Lest one forgets the architects of the 1988 Pakistan-Bangladesh trade happening they need to be mentioned. Two bureaucrats, one each from Pakistan and Bangladesh, men of far-sighted vision and honesty, in 1983 laid the foundations of this excellent economic arrangement, the credit of finally achieving of which must definitely go to Dr Mahbubul Haq as it is he who cut across the red tape and inherent obstructionism among the gnomes burrowed deep within the Ministries of Commerce and Finance in Pakistan, one of the advantages of being a concurrent incumbent. One must record that it was Mr. Mohammad Yousuf, who as the Chairman of the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) set the ball rolling in 1983, the principal collaboration from the Bangladeshi side coming from Mr Nurul Hasan Khan, the then Consul General of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh in Karachi, presently Secretary Telephone and Telegraphs, Government of Bangladesh. Both these outstanding men need to have their selfless performance recognised and their perseverance commended. In an atmosphere of utter sincerity and without singular motivation, both these persons recognized the deep-rooted logic for such an arrangement and the groundwork was thus laid, the ensuing process slow but steady till disaster in the form of the previous Chairman was dumped on the TCP, one of the vagaries of having a brother in a position of inordinate influence, conceivably even without his knowledge. Whether for parochial reasons, sheer cussedness or whatever, he turned his sinecure before retirement into a vendetta against trade with Bangladesh (among other venting of his natural frustrations against exports in general), and the nett result was that the TCP-TCB STA came to a virtual standstill, utilised only in bits and parts by third parties and only when extremely necessary or when faced with no other options. In fact TCP’s total exports simultaneously nose-dived to the zero mark as a new import-oriented philosophy, contrary to the avowed purpose of TCP’s economic existence, safe on individual money-making, obviating any export risk-taking, symbolized by the great UNDOK sugar deal, came into existence. Mr M M Usmani, the new Chairman TCP, fresh in the saddle with less than two months in the chair and unencumbered by such prejudices, has come back from Bangladesh with almost US$20 million exports in ready business and another US$15 million to be done within the next six months. TCP finally seems to be arousing from its Rip Van Winkle existence which included eating cannibal-like its capital resources.
Therefore we say that Dr Mahbubul Haq has achieved something. If Pakistan is to come out of the straitjacket of the present economic doldrums we have to take meaningful and substantial steps towards export promotion, particularly of our engineering and electrical goods to Third World countries. Misquoting Neil Armstrong, the visit of Dr. Mahbubul Haq may have been a giant step for Pakistan-Bangladesh economic (and OTHER) ties but it has been a symbolically even more gigantic step for export promotion of value-added goods from Pakistan to Third World countries.
In all the euphoria, there is need for caution, to take into account the sensibilities of vested interests of petty-minded people in both the countries, whether they are in the public and/or private sector. Not that anybody should care one hoot about some of our jute mill owners in Pakistan who shed crocodile tears while looting the public coffers under the cover of protection to the jute industry; making windfall profits, the “Golden Fleece” based on the golden fibre jute goods continues unabated, the Pakistan Government subsidising their profits in the region of Rs:1500 million annually, most of it in undeclared foreign income derived out of the kickbacks available on raw jute. Caution must also be exercised in ensuring that the rhetoric of the past week (based on real performance) is not pigeon-holed and sidetracked by bureaucracy in Committee deliberations. The new TCP Chairman has shown great promise at the outset, as the Ministry of Commerce’s point man in trade with Bangladesh his efforts must not become a flash in the pan and that can only be sustained through constant effort and distancing himself from the corrupt lackeys (and mala fide advice) of the previous Chairman, selected by him to man all sensitive TCP posts purely on ethnic basis rather than on merit. Great harm has been done to TCP as a national organisation and Mr Usmani will have to go above and beyond his mandate to bring TCP back on an even keel.
Selection of management personnel should be the result of careful evaluation, particularly in the context of export promotion extremely vital for Pakistan. We must not look at foreign paper qualifications but at real performance and we must go through the manpower available in the broad spectrum of the public and private sector. The “square peg in a round hole” philosophy has to stop in favour of performance-orientation based on experience. We delight ourselves in incongruities like the present incumbency of a supposed marketing specialist with dubious background (and well-known ethnic and parochial sentiments) being at the helm of one of the country’s premier corporations. If Dr Mahbubul Haq is serious about a long-term trade policy, he must find individuals professionally capable in the discipline which they are put in charge of. The public sector corporations particularly State Engineering Corporation (SEC) and its numerous constituents, which are supposed to be in the forefront of the engineering export effort must have men who are experienced and capable, have no parochial tendencies, have not been passed over in their previous Multi-national Corporation careers either for inefficiency and for a tendency to indulge in corrupt practices, have the technical ability necessary and are not prone to intrigue and various other subterfuges. How will such men be capable of delivering the goods whatever may be the rhetoric of Dr Mahbubul Haq or his well-laid out plans?
One must have the courage of conviction to state the truth and to persevere with it — despite the fact that the corrupt among the bureaucracy, who are the real rulers of this Earth, have an inherent tendency to give those who raise such voices an extremely short shrift. History records that corruption is almost always exposed (though without retribution) and inefficiency is condoned out of indifference and complacency. Pakistan has no time to wait for history’s verdict because we are faced with the reality of economic survival today. Whenever Dr Mahbubul Haq plays politics he comes to grief, left alone with the economy he almost always comes up aces, the laments of tax-dodgers notwithstanding. The real tragedy will be if cannot translate the full implications of his Bangladesh visit into other regions, river cruise and all. Every government since 1971, without exception has made sincere efforts for genuine reconciliation with Bangladesh, but only recently has the recognition been made of deep economic ties as a binding fabric and that must go to the credit of the excellent relationship between Presidents Zia and Ershad. In the process a fundamental change has come over the relationship between the two nations, unthinkable in 1971. We cannot afford any setbacks in the development of this relationship, remembering that it will be seen to be against the interests of India (and their paid agents in Pakistan), who shall certainly attempt to sabotage the process. As the Wullar Dam affair has shown, we cannot act like an Ostrich to the machinations of this particular coterie deeply imbedded in our nation. Going beyond this relationship between the two countries, which is important, Dr Mahbubul Haq has created a trading model to be followed in the present and the future, with necessary adjustments, for other Third World countries.
Change is always welcome in an economy perceived to be stagnant, the selection of personalities greatly affects the perceptions of the people likely to be effected. The Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE), an uneven indicator if there ever was one, is however constantly Bullish on Dr Mahbubul Haq, despite the stated misgivings of those likely to be the target of a sustained tax-collection campaign. In the same manner, we need to have strong signals shown by selecting executives par-excellence for our public corporate sector. Any Third World government sustaining a mixed economy is faced usually with Hobson’s choices. The correct choice will have a positive effect on our teeming expectant millions and not only on the corporate sector to which an individual is designated. In the coming months, Dr Mahbubul Haq is likely to chart a course between populist and pragmatist policies because of the impending elections but the economic foundation that he has laid will be beneficial to whatever leadership is evolved in the country’s future. To that end the President has made an excellent choice in using Dr Mahbubul Haq as his point man in the economic plane and the good doctor must rise to the occasion (and above everything) to give the country economic managers and management par-excellence and without reproach. Only in this manner will the present drive for economic emancipation be sustained. The time has come for us to go on from here. What better way than to reinforce success!
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