Pakistan is in the throes of a massive change as the social contract in and between various groups needs to be redefined. The issues are more complicated, because of the interference from the west and especially international agencies like the IMF and the WB. In fact, these are now the slave organisations to the developed countries. Their imperialistic designs are now in the open.
They have over the years created a group of citizens in each of the developing countries that work as their hit men. These hit men are now rampant and trying to prove themselves as the more developed country citizens than the actual ones. As the people removed from the scene and living in serene quarters they are stopped from making such statements about my country. Good bad or indifferent this is my country and I refuse to be put aside by any goonda element that may be there. I am not enamoured of the white skin nor do I feel that my country should be dependent on the ramifications and interference of these developed countries in the affairs of my country.
The last couple of days in the articles by those living in comfort abroad with huge salaries and pension benefits and they have been there for more than three decades, they are trying to preach to the Pakistani government what should be done. The IMF programme for Pakistan according to them is Pakistan's own programme and the country should own it. What nonsense?
The international agencies have been very myopic and today most of the problems facing Pakistan and such countries have emanated from the policies that the West has imposed on these developing countries. Were they innocent, why could they not take action to forestall them. That is easier said than done. The West has always played a terror game with the less-developed countries. Had they been fair to the people of these countries then the 9/11 option may not have happened. Who can say what would have been the outcome of a fair and just world?
The other hit man was of the opinion that the banks should provide credit to the private sector and make it viable. Let me state that Pakistan has no formal private sector at all. So what will the bank finance? The hit men are of the view that the banking sector can do a lot. They have done so much for the US where the banks are full of all kinds of scandals. If the US cannot regulate them, despite the many avowed policies of the most powerful government of the world, what can a country as unregulated as Pakistan do with this sector? Not much and it has been witnessed that the last government played havoc with this sector under the garb of bringing in reforms. They privatised or that is what they told the country. The AKRSP took away a chunk, the biggest chunk of the banking sector for peanuts. So did the others.
The deep abiding commitment of the government of Pakistan with the IMF is nothing but an attempt to divide the country socially and economically. The fact is that the urbanisation of the country has fallen into the hands of a particular mafia and it is a source of whitening black money. No country can survive urbanisation and infrastructure as the West has found out. The fact is that Pakistan is a moonlighter's heaven. The IMF policies under the structural programme will not help. Pakistan has to come to terms with the situation itself. The gray areas and the black areas have to be tackled and the West or the Western agencies cannot do a damn thing about these areas. The rural areas are in turmoil. They have been deprived of every decent aspect of life from education for their children to health facilities and the infrastructure that they are using is at best immature. How can the system be called fair? The policies and the support of the IMF and the WB has allowed for more structural dysfunctional work than the Pakistan government would ever have done. As a result of their cultural moron policies this thing has happened.
The world agencies have been saying that the market is a self-adjusting mechanism. That is not true in the case of Pakistan or for that matter for the developed countries otherwise why should there be this noise and interference by the governments in trying to regulate various banking sector markets. The minute this kind of policies are taken as a dogma, the social system stands annihilated and the social substance of society gets to be redundant. This has serious consequences as has been noted in the case of Tunisia and Egypt and the other Arab countries. The result is that there are islands of prosperity in the urban settings and there is wilderness elsewhere. Inevitably, society will take steps to protect itself? The Karachi episodes have been in the making for a long time. Serious social discord has a way of sorting itself out as soon as the burden is overbearing.
There are no measures at the moment to protect the rural areas and the effect has been total chaos and the fact is that the minute the rural people think that rules are not meant for the rich and the powerful, they will try and be more criminal in their dealings. What are the rural institutions that are available to the farmer and the non-farmer? Is it Shamilat [commons]? Have they not been encroached upon by the crooked? Look at the rural areas and examine policies that govern the land market. What has the revenue system done? Examine the past governments policies where patwaris ruled the roast. They are and will remain under the protection of the most powerful political or tyrannical system that we have had. The patwari these days cannot be transferred unless the CM of the province agrees. Why? What is sacrosanct about a patwari? He is sacrosanct because he has the available record of the lands with him. His power has increased with time. The patwari is now the richest person in the rural areas. He has the protection and he is a key player in the destruction of decency.
The federal and the provincial governments are oblivious of what is going on. They are happy to be left outside any confusion. As I look at the federal government and the provincial government I cannot help but feel that they will not be able to handle the current situation.
The world is rooting for a Western style action and the local requirements are totally different. Lord help the country for they cannot. Your only friend is China and they are about to throw in the towel. The fact is that the imagination of the feds is not working. By the way Lagarde the new President of IMF is a lawyer. Is she not? Where does that leave the IMF? What one needs is a person with imagination. We will soon find out if she has one. The education system be damned.