Current Crisis of Pakistan and Way Forward

Pakistan is undergoing a lot of crises including economic, political, and many more. Most of the current crisis of Pakistan is related to the economy. every year Pakistan imports more than its exports. Every year, Pakistan takes loans of billions of dollars from global financial institutions and the USA. How it can be possible that such a country can have an independent foreign policy? Inflation, unemployment, the burden of increasing loans, risks of bankruptcy, and lack of electricity are five major problems in Pakistan that are increasing day by day. There are the following steps that can be helpful to take in the future regarding these crises in Pakistan:

1. Formulation of Comprehensive Policy

Our national security has the risks of internal anarchy and economic collapse. To deal with them, a comprehensive policy should be formulated.

2. Save Unnecessary Expenditure

Condemnable traditions of spending billion of rupees on government servants should be abolished as soon as possible to get rid of the economic crisis of Pakistan. These are all reminiscent of the era of slavery. Therefore, this cannot be considered in at least any independent developed country.

Every year, Pakistan spends millions of rupees on inauguration ceremonies of roads, bridges, and government buildings. There is a need of the hour to cut such unnecessary expenditures. Europe has no such spending on anything. We should save our each and every penny and spend it for the welfare of poor people.

Also Read: Water Issues of Pakistan & Way forward

3. Stop Undue Incentives

Don’t give undue incentives to federal ministers, provincial ministers, and members of the provincial and federal assemblies. If President, Prime Minister, Chief Minister, or any other minister is not capable of spending so much money, they should fix the limit of expenditure on themselves. It should be like former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did.

4. Utilize Manpower

Pakistan should utilize its millions of manpower in developmental projects and follow in the footsteps of China. There should be a ban on unnecessary foreign tours of government officers and ministers. It should be done at least till Pakistan is taking loans to run the country.

5. Build Dams

Pakistan should develop small dams beside big water projects by spending billions of rupees. According to experts, many small dams are more useful than one large dam.

6. More Provincial Autonomy

Provincial autonomy has been limited in Pakistan. There should be a system where the respective provincial governments should have a major contribution to respective provincial resources. Till now, it has become a tradition that the respective provincial government gets minimum revenue obtained from its resources. Now there should be a change in this tradition.

Also read: Reasons of Economic Sanctions: Do they even Work?

7. National Financial Awards

People should get to know about the realities of national financial awards. While dividing the budget between provinces, they should remember the area of the province besides its population. Often, the federal government divides the budget on the basis of population but should not keep in mind the area of the province. Thus, unfair decisions are taken.

8. Impose Tax

Tax should be imposed on agriculture revenue and earning billions for buying and selling agricultural land for big landlords.

9. Recieve Debts

The politicians and government officers who have evaded their debts should give back debt as soon as possible. It should be illegal to forgive a debt. Previous orders of forgiving debt should be canceled. According to a report of 12 years before, 1125 billion rupees were forgiven of debt within six years.

10. Cancel Indirect Tax

An indirect tax on consumer goods should be canceled. Tax should be imposed on income. There should be reform in the outdated system of tax imposing. In the developed countries of Europe and other continents, taxes are imposed on rich people which fulfill the needs of poor people. In Pakistan, poor people pay taxes so government officers can maintain their lavish lifestyle.

11. Stop Privatization

Stop the privatization of national institutions. privation is just a system of dictatorship. We cannot thank enough to the former Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Chaudhry, who prevented the selling of Pakistan steel mills for a mere amount of money. No national institute should be sold which is not beneficial for national purposes. There were many national institutes that were profitable before privatization but after that, they went into deficit. It caused unemployment for hundreds of people. If the government claims to be well wishes of the people it should stop following the USA or financial institutions in the leadership of the USA.

12. Build Nuclear Reactors

Pakistan should build nuclear reactors like Britain and France. It would help to produce cheap electricity on a large scale. Pakistan should get gas at a cheap price from the middle east and Iran. Pakistan should produce solar energy, wind energy, and geothermal energy on large scale as an alternative to power plants based on non-renewable energy sources.

Also Read: Next Superpower of the world

13. More Exports

There should be effective steps to be taken for increasing exports. Stop imports of billions of rupees so that there should not exceed one penny on imports to exports. Pakistan shouldn’t import wheat and cotton. It should not import edible oil of billions of rupees from Malaysia and ginger from Canada.

14. Ownership to Farmers

Lands irrigated by new projects of irrigation should be given to farmers of small levels. The farmers who have been cultivating for a long time should be given rights of ownership.

15. Make Accountability Committees Active

Pakistan should make accountability committees active at the center, district, and provincial levels. The persons who rob national wealth should be behind the bars and removed from office. There should be a ban on government officers taking treatment of them and their relatives on the behalf of country’s expenditure.

16. Change Vehicles for Ministers

For ministers, there should be a ban on using vehicles bigger than 1300 CC. If this ban should be fully implemented, it would not be less than any miracle. However, at this time, the vehicles available in ministries that are bigger than 1300CC, where should be used, would be also kept in mind. In the previous 5 years, two times vehicles have been changed for the upper-level officers of the Punjab Government only. Moreover, for provincial ministers, more than 40 cars were bought worth 70 Cr.

For an agricultural country, what can be more shameful than it is not self-sufficient in its food? The agriculture department contributes less than 24% of our national income but it utilizes more than 45% of the manpower. Within one year, the prices of fertilizers have increased 3 times which has damaged our agriculture department. There should the formulation of a new economic policy on the suggestions of the parliamentary committee. It should be in such a way that Pakistan shouldn’t take a loan of even one dollar.

Pakistan should learn lessons from Bangladesh and India. Moreover, there are many other steps that can be taken to get rid of the political and economic crisis of Pakistan which are major problems.