The omnipotence of money

The budget is upon us and the financial wizards have spoken on the development budget as being of Rs 730 billion. Impressive. That is for sure. Inflation was not mentioned. The effort is laudable to clear the backlog and to start and initiate new projects that would lead to growth in the economy.
That the potential to achieve a growth rate of 7 to 8 percent is possible and desirable for Pakistan was also mentioned. Budgets are not about numbers for the effort has to be substantively more for the poor. That is also in the offing. Many things have been in the offing in the past without these being ever realised. It was in Birmingham that one realised that the need for checking the entailing system also was in the financial system. The collectors of assets were heavily taxed - almost 80% of the rent. Houses came on the market with lightening speed.
Pakistanis had bought house after house and were enjoying rentals that the government of the day thought they should not. Moonlighting was in order. In other words, society could be ordered to behave itself with financial instruments. That we choose not to do this is also very much with us. There are no holy cows when it comes to running a country and its fiscal policy.
The fact is that Pakistan has become a begging country. We beg of the WB/ADB and then seek the efforts of the IMF to bail us out and in the process we do as they desire. The IMF itself is in disgrace these days for the manner in which it behaves in human affairs. That exports went up to $25 billion and that we received another $12 billion from overseas Pakistanis is neither here nor there.
Outward profit as a success condition is not the goal of societies, but is only a means to an end. Worthless intangibles are needed to be removed and the egoism that has been allowed to be built as a result of the collection of financial resources needs to be cast out of the personality.
Consider our men of letters. Were they rich or were they rich in the minds and hearts? All our spiritual heroes have been at odds with money. Inflation has made the living of ordinary people difficult and worthless. Money in truth can do much to ameliorate the lot of the poor but it, by itself, cannot do everything. Does anyone know the province of money? What are the limits? What to do if it goes beyond that province? Push it back and how? Practically the lack of effort militates against the work ethics of a nation. If effort is an ordeal, then everyone must be able to work themselves through that ordeal.
How else can you honour the ordeal of the lower classes to move up the scale? The strength of a nation lies in this. That is where strong men are born, for is it not the ordeal that makes men of us? Can we regulate the struggle or shall we leave it to chance? The uncut diamonds of our society, lost to the vagaries of chance. Shall the worst be with us and the best far from us?
The budget promises much and it is for the policy-makers to show us how that can be achieved. As I look at institutions, I feel that much has to be done to reinvigorate them. How can that be done? Ask everyone as to what they have done for the country. Did they do better or did they do better for themselves irrespective of the consequences to the country. Did they give of themselves or did they take for themselves? The test is simple.
There are no exceptions. If this were to be applied, then roughly 70% of the federal government would be laid-off, as having jobs that do not deliver. The federal government by itself, is a hot bed of intrigue and hate. They are in a paralysis of all kinds. The minds have ceased to work. This has been allowed to develop over the years.
The growth strategy that has been suggested by the Planning Commission is based on not the government-led but market-led. The last time this strategy was made it was by Shaukat Aziz, now referred to by his boss as a 'suitcase' PM. The suppositions are according to the local press most interesting. How far these suppositions would work is another matter. But since all those in the Planning Commission are spiritually ordained no one should question them.
The 'what' to do is well-laid out. The 'how' to do it is not. The strategy is on the software. I have already, last week, without knowing what these policy-makers were going to say made an expose on this very aspect. The software is to provide the necessary conducive atmosphere for the hardware growth. Where will this software come from and how will it be relevant?
It is also argued that the bureaucracy working would be improved, the commercial judicial system [meaning contracts and their implementation], the taxation system and so on. The ordeal that the Planning Commission is suggesting does not take care of the senile job hunters and the sinecure jobs that have been provided. Six decades of inequity will be done away by a magic wand.
The political governments have always had the wrong end of the stick. Growth is not a function of money investment only. Money I have argued, cannot be the end in itself. If one were to go Shaheed Benazir's time, then some of the policy-makers would realise their mistake. The growth in agriculture during those 4 years went from -5.2% to 11.7% and check the investment that was made. Just good governance did it. Shaukat Aziz, with all the money that came their way from the 9/11, were able to waste this money resources. Just one example of the Regional Agricultural Development Project [worth 720 million over 5 years] was wasted through the building of a new lift system to carry their lordships to the fifth floor.
Frigidaire in every room and also a microwave was where the investment went. Junket tours abroad were the order of the day. The resources were wasted. What are they going to do with a microwave in every PSO/CSO's room? Heat the food when it comes? Fights started later on and everyone thought that what was bought by government resources was theirs for the asking.
Buses, laptops for the children of the so-called scientists and cars for the scientists so that they could take their children to tours to Chiniot or nearby and Faisalabad in order to visit their parent and grandparents. They were doing a favour to the government of the day. An occasional second marriage was also in order. It was the Englishman who said that if you do your business on your step you will have to clean it. Clean it, they did.
The reforms suggested go deeper and more dangerously to the bone of the system. Which one was responsible for this perfidious behaviour? Shall I stop here and I think that decency demands that be so, for there will be more as one goes through the budget season at the assembly.
The developers are not helpful by their astounding statements. I would have thought that the system dealers would have been careful. For after all, what if they cannot deliver? Will they look for holes in their socks? The agriculture sector will not deliver? Take it as an absolute statement. I am ready to answer for it at the appropriate time. They cannot match the efforts and knowledge of the President on this. Since they cannot comprehend, they cannot intervene if he wants them to. Savvy.