Righting Wrongs
Every government that comes to power, elected or otherwise, unfolds a platform to right wrongs, mostly of its predecessors. Military regimes are into righting wrongs far more than their civilian counterparts, declaring accountability as their major plank. For the civilian governments, in supercession to lip-service about food, water and shelter, etc for the citizens, restoration of democracy and democratic mores is the priority. The hapless public, alternately buffeted by subjective governance by both, are usually left to pray that their rulers practice what they preach. Musharraf’s reign has been by far the best of the military regimes to rule Pakistan. In the matter of accountability they have excelled themselves, but ironically because they did not exercise absolute self-accountability, they will be subjected to far more critical appraisal than their predecessor military regimes. While the President himself is way above reproach, the public perception will hold him accountable for a handful whose misdeeds he is not directly responsible for but by not severing ties with them he assumes liability on the “love me, love my dog” syndrome. The irony also is that some of the accountability may have little to do with corruption but feeding of motivated or misleading information certainly affected critical issues involving governance calling into question the President’s decision-making, which is Pervez Musharraf’s strongest suit. When the measure of this regime is taken, the tragedy will be that a far better than average governance will be tainted by the misdemeanors of a handful. History is as unforgiving to talented cousins as it is to errant aides with their hands in the government till, but does history remember these rascals or the person on whose broad shoulders the rascals went about their corrupt business?
The President has very little time left as an absolute decision-maker, he needs to make every day of the next 75 upto Oct 10 count. Pervez Musharraf is a keen student of history and a decisive man of action, he must conduct a quick appraisal of the situation that exists in the land, taking urgent and concrete steps to right wrongs that he must prioritize to set right. And above all, he must closely maintain the “aim” annunciated by him when the Army took over.
Economic Wilderness
In keeping with the financial mismanagement of the 50 years plus of this nation’s existence, the economic numbers simply do not add up. To be fair to the military regime, the massive siphoning off of public sector funds into private sinecures has been contained at the macro-level while the quantum of leakage at the micro-level seems to go on unabated has even increased because of the “risks” of being “nabbed”. Pakistan is in a Catch-22 situation of obtaining more and more loans to make repayments, without having the means to avoid further slide into an ominous debt trap. The quicksand is of our own making, with no or little help from the obdurate policies of world financial institutions and the lack of a spine among our financial negotiators. Our Finance Ministry has been grovelling before the IMF both in public and private for measly amounts which the IMF dangles before us but does not disburse. The flight of capital has assumed alarming proportions, a mass migration of talent and expertise going to Canada, if this is not reversed no entrepreneurial potential will be left in the country. Thankfully, our Finance Minister is still smiling in the face of eminent financial apocalypse, maybe he knows something we don’t.