No one bothers about the poor

There are many ways to identify Pakistan's problems and these can be in the socio-economic sphere or they can be in the social sphere and of late, one has started on the structural analysis of the development process. There is no question that no foreign power will ever develop this country. Why should they? They want us where they have us and why should we escape their claws?
In a recent tour of the rural areas in Sindh and in the Kalar Kahar areas in Punjab, there was evidence of waste and there was evidence of poverty the likes of which I have never witnessed. I have seen this in former East Pakistan and I pride myself in travelling within the country and see things for myself.
So the development policies that my associates tolerated from me were totally different from the normal run of the development policies that are normally articulated and approved by the Planning Commission. There is a disconnect between perception and actual requirement and that this disconnect is now very serious as the macro economic factors after and during the Musharraf regime suffered due to the policies laid down at that time. No one bothers about the poor. No one ever did. Some paid lip service and used their massive energy and loyal powers.
All that the previous governments were interested in was to somehow perpetuate themselves in power. Whatever the cost? Economics mentioned these days by some of the ministers is defunct and obsolete and they have no idea of the actual ramifications and since all the action is in blind arena this will continue. The same powerful representatives sent to the National Assembly with the collective wisdom of their voters now find that not only are the voters stranded, but they themselves have been stranded.
The political paradigm had to shift but it did not and what many saw in the political system that it was time for getting their work done now seek the alternate route. Unfortunately, however, the alternate route is not easily available as the economic system has to go hand in hand political system.
The only countries amongst the transition countries from communist and socialist rule to go to a capitalist system are China and Vietnam and the simple answer is that the political system has not been disturbed and the capitalist system stands modified by the political system. That is why China and Vietnam have done so well in the reduction of poverty and the WB/ADB have reluctantly, very reluctantly, given them the accolades that they have given. So micro behaviour is representing in these countries what macro performance would ideally want. The consequences of this have never been realized and in Pakistan, the equation - at least the economic equations - have never been fully conceptualised.
The seemingly endless options for the pro-poor policies are relatively simple as compared to pro-gender policies. Why is this so? In the pro-gender policies the attitude and values of centuries have to be sorted out and taken to their logical conclusion. That is easily said and almost impossible to break the macho code of the male homo sapiens of Pakistan. This ingrained value system will not go easily despite the anti-harassment efforts of the present government. Wherever women are working, a simple examination will tell you that the attitude of men to exploit women knows no bounds. It is rampant in the research system and the best efforts at stopping or changing the attitude have succeeded, albeit partially. Women are threatened and that is because they are considered by these goons as if these women were inferior class. Personal policies have been so articulated and the deprived and the depraved have come to the fore in what may seem to be an alliance of unholy idiots.
Why these pro-gender policies are not understood easily. With inflation ripe as it is and with this inflation likely to increase to maintain the Western system of quality living for their people the likelihood of this reducing is extremely remote. So the options that will be exercised by the families will be to move lock stock and barrel from the rural areas to the urban areas and for the young girls to become employed as maid servants and for the relatively old to be involved in criminal activities. This has happened with growing concern in the defence housing systems. The affluent are seen as the creators of all kinds of earnings with rental classes abounding; the kind that the colonialists created to control the local populations.
In the world of internet and IT, the case for managing rental attitudes has to be controlled and yet we see the failure of the political system to come to terms with this kind of social class creators. The complexity has grown with the criminal gangs getting an upper hand.
Land mafia is one area, which has been identified by the media and by the uproar that has been created by the sufferers. That is one area that needs closer analysis. My own view is that the women need adequate protection and that the movement of the males from the rural areas can be halted over time with policies that are bipartisan. In the absence of bipartisan approved system, the country cannot function. All over the world, the recruitment policies being developed are one off and not relatives or connections oriented.
In fact, the current crisis of the graduated class of Western educated university students is that they are unemployable and the employers do not like the look of these young men and they are seeking even more competence in the newly recruited as there is no time for trial and error. In fact, jobs have to be provided by the functional requirements of the organisations. There cannot be any sinecure jobs nor can there be any senile person appointed for a job at hand.
In Pakistan, research has become a woman's skirt behind which every kind of scoundrel tries to hide. Our job is research and nothing else. They have done it for the better part of their mid-fifty lives and now they are master at this sort of excuses for not doing anything. So the science part is out. It is the art part that has to be bothered about. Art is possible. Science by these goons is not possible. All that they are good at is snitching about every one that is not present. Back biters and what have you.
The third aspect of the tri-policy is pro-eco development. Now that we have the technology it is possible to go ahead and bio-remediate all the city waters. That means that the argument about water for the city and water for agriculture is now a barn argument. All the waters that are from the industrial areas can now be made available for agriculture after the process that has been developed.
The senility in humans that have reached policy-making levels by any means is devastating this country. They are now incapable of any work and I literally mean any work. They have become obsolete and their learning curve has stopped. They will not allow this country to develop. The chronological age is not under dispute here, for one can be senile and useless at recruitment time if one is the niece or the nephew of a powerful minister. Is the right to a job only that of a nephew or are other people living in this country require a job. How would it happen if the positions were reversed and the minister's nephew was the one, who had no influence and he was competent?
I have not touched the case of substituting everything expensive and imported by localized production system. Is Pakistan meant to look after the farmers of the other developed countries? Should it suffer the consequences of beef imported from another country that has Rift Valley fever? Pakistanis are hamstrung because of the elitists that are in the system. Would he allow the non-descript to take the job. Same is the case for bio-fuels. Please do not suffer fools. They will let you down at all times.
These three policies taken together could make this country competitive and able to hold its own in the comity of nations. Grandiose things do not make a country into a nation; it is the simple aspects dealt with a fair hand and judiciously that makes a difference. These policies are also not contradictory. Fear is never catered for in government policy or for that matter in any policy. That is how Satan employs himself and there are considerable numbers of Satans in the country at the moment. Beware, they will give you the dark side always. They are also the mafias of this world, elites that are sold to the West. Economics does not work that ways; micro-behaviour for macro performance is necessary. Try serendipity.