Compassion deficit

Islamabad, 30 June 2023: Pakistan is in the final stage of laying down door-to-door pipeline for the distribution of pure organic honey to every household. The project is an extension of the recently completed last mile pipeline distribution network of fresh dairy milk.

These remarkable feats have been made possible by drastic tax reforms brought about since August 2018. At the end of the just completed fiscal year the national kitty was overflowing with tax revenues leading the government to pay tax refunds in advance even prior to the claims made by businesses. The move, though aimed to further ease the cash cycle of businesses, may backfire as traders and manufacturers alike complain that the payment of tax refunds in advance is causing a ‘compassion deficit’ in their hearts and they would rather have Pakistani government help the poor brethren in India, Iran, Afghanistan, and China.

This may be an overstretched sarcasm. But because Prime Minister Imran Khan did not punctuate his dreams, vision and promises with a healthy dose of hard and ugly face of reality, perhaps it is not exaggerated. The failure to punctuate his dream with the hard reality may backfire if his government fails to deliver. But that is a bet he seems willing to take. Perhaps because he is an optimistic person who maintains that he likes to take the bull by its horns. Or perhaps, he wanted to give hope to the nation instead of boring them with specific challenges and the steps needed to overcome those challenges. The latter seems a plausible explanation.

The fact he didn’t not touch upon CPEC, energy, FTAs, and other administrative affairs lend credence to the view that he wanted to speak as a visionary statesman, rather than an administrator. Instead, the subjects he touched upon are some of the most burning yet largely ignored issues that tear the very fabric of Pakistan’s society: stunting, education, housing, state-society relationship (‘babugiri’), corruption, water, child abuse, pollution, devolution, police reforms and an attempt to bring the nation together by inspiring confidence among resident and non-resident Pakistanis alike.

Seen from the lens of statesmanship, therefore, the speech was not without shortcomings. That Balochistan was only mentioned in a by-the-way fashion is sorely noticed. He spoke more on pollution and cleanliness than the genuine concerns of Balochistan. Hopefully, in action, he and his party would give at least equal weight to the concerns of Baloch people.

His silence over the freedom of media and the missing persons is also difficult to ignore, considering that he chose to give an image of a visionary statesman than an administrator. When he could talk about Pakistanis rotting in jails outside Pakistan, then he could surely have made a statement about putting an end to missing persons.

These omissions lend weight to the criticism that Khan’s rise to the top executive office comes on the back of the establishment, on whom he perhaps expects to rely, if and when there is a political backlash to his promised spring-clean.

Sans these omissions and ignoring the fact that large number of items on Khan’s agenda lie in the provincial domain, where he faces tough opposition in Punjab and sits in opposition in Sindh, he did make a good speech that touched upon critical socio-economic issues. It was effective enough to gain nods of approval of the critics, and also warm up the sentiments of his followers. The test of delivery begins now. The clock is ticking!