Folly is the product of all countries and ages. Foolishness must have an expiry date. It cannot be allowed to last for a lifetime. The first degree of folly is to hold oneself wise, the second to profess it, the third to despise counsel. It is only the wise who will alter themselves; never the foolish.
Perhaps our inconsistent policies as a nation have come to represent us as a country that is developing an epitaph for itself that corresponds to the frequently used metaphor ‘distant dreams on broken wings’.
We have well-defined aspirations. There is much clarity on what we want to achieve. The real issue is that we do not know, or we do not possess the wherewithal to realise our dreams. We are at least good to the extent that we aim high consistently. All aspects that can be seen or act as impediments towards realising the goals do not alter our frame of positive thinking and of aiming for the best. This is true, because, we have proven on several occasions that setbacks do not dampen our spirits. This is one great feature we possess as a nation; never to be despondent.
Having recognised the trait of positive thinking and resilience, it is also important to remember that we cannot lead a life of an ostrich, unwilling to see reality by burying the head/neck in the sand.
The nation retains, against all odds, a strong belief that broken wings can be repaired and the distance between reality and dreams can be narrowed through hard work and persistence. Any unit of the economic sector that isn’t working can be amended through sheer dint of application and focus.
For sure, lip-honouring comes without cost and hence the nation indulges into it wholesomely and lavishly. There is a Chinese proverb that says, ‘forethought is easy, repentance is hard’. No amount of condemnation will be sufficient to illustrate a society or a country whose soul is dead. We need to recheck the spirit of our nation. There is an imperative need to revive the spirit of 1947— a spirit of sacrifice and a spirit of giving. The country needs to be resolute about its ambitions. ‘When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept; ambition should be made of sterner stuff’. Recently, I heard a minister complaining about the state of affairs! People in power have to ‘do’ and not crib.
If truth can be told through lying, so be it. Jean-Paul Sartre had rightly said, ‘like all dreamers, I mistook disenchantment for truth.’ The stance of ‘all is good’ reminds me of ‘everywhere I see bliss, from which I alone am irrevocably excluded.’ Despair is the price we pay as a nation when we aim to achieve, we know, we cannot, within an ambitious timeline that we normally set for ourselves. At the initiation itself we know the failure it will achieve in the future. And yet, we pursue. Pakistan Steel Mills and KCR (Karachi Circular Railway) are a case in point. There is no room for us to decline any further – we just cannot become ‘legion of the lost ones’.
When countries make ten or more years of economic plans they base it on existing levels of performance. In the run-up to the expiry date of the plan, several reviews must be made, based upon the unshakeable foundation of honesty of purpose. Regrettably, we have been caught by international financial institutions, credit rating agencies and multilateral institutions to have ‘fixed the macroeconomic data’. With the unstoppable deluge of information that is continuously uploaded even on social media there cannot therefore be any excuse to alter or to post inaccurate/false data.
We do not shy to boast about both, pour aspirations and our unique challenges, but we spend less time in resolving issues or finding solutions to the unique problems of our country. We indulge in serious mudslinging. This is costly to the nation. Every successive government spends billions in trying to convince that the predecessor government’s misdeeds have been left for them to resolve. In collusion with this strategy, they issue billions of rupees worth of advertisements in print and electronic media. A serious wastage of resources.
Our 2030 vision is indicative that the economic growth will emerge from the strategy of expanding the export base, i.e., we will have an export led economy. The current situation is extremely different. The looming tariff war and its impact need a focused analysis. The textile sector, which employs hundreds and thousands of workers, is in a shutting-down mode of its factories. They are moving to target only showroom presence of what Pakistan can offer to the international markets.
Within the exports arena textile happens to be our mainstay. The exports are at a nagging, stubborn and lazy figure of USD 30bn; will imports continue to soar? Inward remittances are on a record high hovering around USD 40/41bn — we can celebrate, but with caution because it is a folly to rely upon remittances for payment of our import bill. The inward remittances must serve only as a cushion to the export earnings. We need to correct the trade imbalances.
Political governments promise one thing during the election time and once voted into office they end up being ‘converted socialists’ – they distribute poverty equally between members of the electorate. The TV footages posted to the ever-hungry TV channels indicate the malice of a sizeable population that lives below the poverty line. The reality of the story is significantly different from what is envisaged. We, and who doesn’t love to live in ‘Cuckooland’ – where the echoing slogan is ‘all is well’ and ‘we are on right track’. The best slogan of all is ‘we have saved the country’.
We must move ahead with speed to keep pace with the progress the countries in the region are making. It is reported that in the next week our eastern neighbour is hosting a conference, where all the IT-related corporate glitterati would be exploring to setup shop inside India, to undertake the work of Silicon Valley – this move is to beat the $100k visa fees clamped for hiring overseas IT technos in the USA. Based in India will be the development and backing of the new technology – Silicon will remain dependent on Indian IT experts. The revolution of innovation in IT, AI, and robotics will begin in these centres.
The sense of preparedness and the sense of urgency are conspicuously absent in our planning for the future. Our annual population growth rate is at 2.55 percent and has been so for the past two decades. Each year in the next three to five years, the market will have to absorb a minimum of two million energetic, youthful human resources compliment. To handle this potential with positive results we need a strategy which unfortunately today is unclear. We act as distinctive individuals of a puzzle – the leadership has to take cognisance of this disarray in planning economic growth. The task is to put together the diverse pieces of the puzzle and convert these potential units of energy into a performing mosaic.
Our policymakers must rush to make the environment conducive and enabling to attract the interest of global entrepreneurs. Stability in thought and policy coupled with peaceful environment are the first basic prerequisites.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
The writer is a Senior Banker & Freelance Contributor
Comments