http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=172287
http://www.mosharrafzaidi.com/
What the Friends of Pakistan should be buying
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
by Mosharraf Zaidi
Having asked for $30 billion so that it can get its act together, Pakistan should prepare itself for good news. It is not going to get $30 billion. It will get somewhat of a fraction of that money. This is the best news Pakistan could ask for.
If countries could be fixed with bailouts, Israel would be the safest country in the world. As the recipient of more money than any other country, and indeed more than many countries put together, Israel’s problems should have been sorted out by now. Things are far from sorted in Israel. Its biggest problem in 1945 is its biggest problem today. Palestinians don’t like Israel. All the money in the world cannot buy you a solution to that problem.
Pakistan too, like Israel, is saddled with an existential problem that cannot be solved with money. In fact, just like in Israel, the sustained injections of petty cash into this country, and particularly its armed forces, have caused a mutilation of incentives that has in fact perpetuated Pakistan’s most deep-rooted problems. Pakistan does not need a Marshall Plan. It needs to marshal its resources to solve its problems itself.
Pakistan’s lack of preparedness to do so is manifest in the two most popular items on Pakistan’s wish list — a new social protection instrument called the Benazir Income Support Programme, and the new alternative police force, or counter-terror force.
There is nothing wrong with wanting to have cash transfers to support poor families across the country. It is even better that parliament or the cabinet should want to name such social protection instruments in the memory of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto. There are few better ways to remember those that have passed away than through the gift of giving.
Perhaps more importantly, who could argue against the need for improved security services in Pakistan? Terrorists have been able to exert their will in attacking major symbols of the state right across the country, killing scores of people, and bleeding the country of its most important asset — its confidence. An effective and robust counter-terror force is not a luxury, it is an inalienable right of the people in the current context of Pakistan’s internal security situation.
On the face of it then, it seems Pakistan is perfectly right to go to Tokyo and expect its friends to help it in the areas that it needs help in. There is of course one major issue that such an assumption ignores. Pakistan already has a plethora of social protection instruments. Pakistan already has a police force at the national and provincial level.
Why does Pakistan need new instruments to fulfil the functions of already existing ones?
The answer, for anyone, that has spent any time at all working with the public sector in this country, is easy. The existing systems don’t work. The social protection instruments, such as the Zakaat Fund, or the Pakistan Bait-ul-Maal Fund are so deeply dysfunctional and political that they are not seen to present viable options to extend support to poor families during trying economic times.
The existing police set-up, already shaken and stirred by the Police Order 2002 and the various amendments to it, and further convoluted by an uncertain decentralisation process, is also deeply dysfunctional. The police’s ability to investigate crimes and to address the key law and order challenges in the 21st century are open to all kinds of questions.
So with Zakaat and Bait-ul-Maal in disrepute, and with the existing police structures incapable of dealing with the challenges of terror, Pakistan has gone to its friends and asked for money to begin new structures, new systems and new mechanisms to address relatively old problems.
A good friend would not hand the money over. It would ask Pakistan why it doesn’t fix the existing systems instead of starting new ones.
However, you can only solve problems and fix broken things if and when you really want to. The problems faced by the police system are rooted in the same issues that plague the spectrum of state functions. Some of these are structural, such as salaries, the security of tenure at the officer level, the relative share of the central Police Service of Pakistan (PSP) in the provinces, the relationship between a district top cop, and the district’s top bureaucrat from an administration perspective, and the relationship between cops and executives (or elected officials).
Other issues are semantic. No one likes to be treated like dirt. An officer of the NYPD is treated like a hero unless he or she is absolutely abhorrent in their behaviour toward citizens. This is a well-earned respect, the New York City police having been at the forefront of rescue effort post-9/11 and at the cutting edge of protecting the life and property of New Yorkers since then. How many times do policemen get a smile from the average Pakistani citizen for putting their life at risk in Pakistan? The ministry of information can hire dozens of expensive consultants to work on the images of politicians, but it has no strategic communications plan to work on the positioning and stature of a beat cop that’s braving the threat of death to protect Pakistanis.
The issues in the Zakaat Fund and the Baitul Maal Fund are even more complicated. And why wouldn’t they be? They are instruments to distribute cash. No venture could be more fraught with risk. Yet instead of getting into the nitty-gritty, Pakistan’s most able economists have been told, hands-off the Zakaat and Baitul Maal! Please construct new instruments to do the same things.
If the government of Pakistan does not have the gumption to undertake reform, it cannot survive. And this gumption has to be a lot more resolute than what it has demonstrated to be so far, in its pursuit of reform in areas such as the judiciary, and the supremacy of parliament as the ultimate arbiter of resource allocation and the exercise of state power. The short version is simple. If the government pursues reform the way it has pursued to the actualisation of the Charter of Democracy, then neither democracy, nor this country can have a very bright future.
Public policy hacks are taught at a very early stage in their careers that one of the most overwhelming incentives for transformational reform is what is called the compulsion of the burning platform. Pakistan not only stumps many analysts, it also fundamentally challenges long-standing political, economic and social theory. The platform has been burning for decades. There are fiscal, operational and semantic time bombs buried in government at all three tiers — federal, provincial and district. There is a mass upheaval of talent out of government at the officer level. There is despondency and desperation outside the officer class. There is the handcuffing and paralysis of elected officials in terms of their ability to effect change.
In this context, handing more money to Pakistan is not the act of a friend. Aid to Pakistan must be conditional. It is simply that those conditions must be about change in Pakistan, rather than change on and beyond Pakistan’s borders.
Dear Mo,
may i call you mo? excellent piece but rather than giving money with conditions attached (which i agree and have proposed as well), what the “friends of pakistan” or FOP should be doing is giving pakistan and pakistani entrepreneurs market access. not preferential access but straight up market access. creating gainful employment which gives people an alternate means of earning a living is key. this hare-brained idea of starting ROZ’s in the north is retarded at best. which business group is going to invest money to start up operations in a ROZ? Peshawar is not safe today!
Yours Humbly,
Syed Shakir Husain Shah al-Thani
Posted by shakir husain | 14. Apr, 2009, 10:18 amsobering, and yet i wish i hadn’t read this at the start of my work day. i am convinced that the Friends won’t ever be helping us out in any way.
i was just reading this round table of experts the Financial Times put together.
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/discussions/roundtables/whats-the-problem-with-pakistan
All of them agree that there is an urgent need to build and invest in civilian institutions. yet none of them even mention the movement for the judiciary.
i guess when we have our heads in the sand all the time, the Friends we make are also of the same dispensation.
Posted by karachikhatmal | 14. Apr, 2009, 3:57 pmRight on! Yes, it’s time we put behind us this twisted illusion that we are a ‘sovereign’ nation which has the right to survive on dole outs. In fact, if there is even a bit of indepedence left in us, then we should behave like proud nations and ourselves set up benchmarks to measure our success but alas, that will never be the case. More so because it is pre-ordained that the noose should be tightenend by more and more dole outs. Afterall, how can we otherwise guarentee further collapse of the state of Pakistan?
Posted by Aalya Gloekler | 14. Apr, 2009, 4:01 pmPeter Bauer, the Hungarian economist was an early critic of aid (to Africa) rightly pointing out its pernicious effects which included the development of monopsonies. Your post rightly points out that an influx of cash won’t solve the country’s problems perhaps even, as you advocate, with strings attached – the trite Chinese proverb “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime” remains relevant in almost any situation.
Separately, it was disappointing to read the reference to Israel. While it is true that that country’s problems remain unsolved and even intractable, one reason that is the case is that there are neighboring countries that remain inimical to its existence. Of course it does not help that 60 years later a substantial portion of its population is considerably more extreme than at its inception. Nevertheless, it is a separate topic and arguably hard to draw inferences for other situations.
Posted by Vijay | 14. Apr, 2009, 5:34 pmDuring my visits to Pakistan, one of the toughest things to see is the availability of talent in all shapes and sizes which is either unutilized or underutilized. What is more heart-breaking is the deminishng desire to “why cannot we get it right” or “make it right”
Assuming capital infusion is a necessary evil, conditions are a must including but not limiting to transparency, accountability, reporting in media such as congressional hearings on progress. Aahhh… some wishful thinking
Posted by Farooq | 14. Apr, 2009, 9:48 pmFIVE REGIONAL CITIES OF PAKISTAN should be upgraded with in the provinces in the country. Regional cities of Dera Ismail Khan in NWFP, Gawadar/ Qalat in Balouchistan, Sukkar/ Larkana in Upper Sind, Jehlam/ Rawalpindi and Multan in Punjab province. These regional cities have been ignored by the federal and provincial governments although these cities have their own history, culture and languages.Dera Ismail Khan in south of Pakhtun khwa/MWFP is under seige, Multan/DG Khan in south of Punjab is next target of religious extremists,Sukkar/ Larkana is being rule by criminals, Gawadar/ Qalat is trouble some. The people of these regions have to travel to provincial capitals for every small issue and requirement of the daily life which should be provided in nearby cities. A good number of population travel to big cities for their survival to earn livelihood as the local feudal own majority land and keep the common man as their slaves. Creation of regional government and upgrading of the regional cities will save a lot of money and time of the poor people of these regions. Circuit benches of the High Courts are already working in these areas and only requirement is the additional staff of different departments involved in additional work at the provincial capitals. The concern authorities should immediately consider to upgrade the regional cities. And immediate attention should be given upgrade/build the airports,TV station, civic center, libraries,hospitals, educational institutes and investment opportunities for Pakistanis living abroad and foreign firms to create jobs in the area as majority population in rural Pakistan do not have enough resources to survive. It’s remind me the condition of pre Islamic revolution of Iran in Shah time when the rural Iran was ignored and the capital Tehran was developed in a way to call it Paris of Middle East with modern life style. Couple of other big cities like Isfahan and Caspian sea was taken care of because of foreign tourists but rural area was ruled by cruel police and intelligence. Then what happen rural population supported the Islamic revolution and moved to Tehran and other big cities later on. The new government after revolution developed, built and upgraded the rural areas of Iran accordingly. A fund to upgrade/build these regional cities in Pakistan should be intoduced by public and private sector and Pakistani government, our foreign friends and Pakistanis living abroad may be asked to participate in this development mission in the country..KHWAJA AFTAB ALI,( former secretary, Iranian embassy, Saudi Arabia,1979-88) Advocate High Court & I.P. Attorney-first & the only Pakistani lawyer who earned Intellectual Property laws scholarship in USA,presently residing in Florida, USA. all_languages@hotmail.com
Posted by KHWAJA AFTAB ALI, Florida, USA | 05. Aug, 2009, 2:51 pmHearty Eid Greetings to the People’s Prime Minister of Pakistan and special appreciation for the recent development activities in Multan greater area. Would prime minister be kind enough to work on a mega project for this neglected area of Southern Punjab to create enough jobs which may stop poor people of this area to be exploited in big cities of the country and abroad. Last but not least, if the Prime minister could arrange to move/ transfer the Head Quarters of Pakistan Railways in Multan area-the real center of the country to boost under developed area and provide an opportunity to earn fortune by selling railways expansive land in Lahore, mostly used for railway officers’ residences. I hope PM will do his best as no one stays for ever on this authoritative important positions. Sincerely , Khwaja Aftab Ali, Advocate/ I.P. Attorney
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Posted by Khwaja Aftab Ali, USA | 20. Sep, 2009, 10:15 pm