July 22, 2022

Pakistan’s elite drive the country towards bankruptcy and poverty

topic:	Transparency and Corruption
located:	Pakistan
editor:	Shadi Khan Saif

Only Pakistan’s civilian and military elite are responsible for the country’s likely bankruptcy, which will engender even grimmer years ahead for the millions of poor and middle-class citizens already struggling to make ends meet. These groups have been blaming international lenders for the tougher economic policies, but the evident fact is that the failure in leadership and dishonest approach by the political parties and the powerful military establishment are the root causes of the current struggle that Pakistanis face. 

It is a candid ‘fiddle while Rome burns’ scenario: the elites are occupied with their cunning political games for power while the people pay for their failures with skyrocketing ratios of multiple taxes. Politicians are maintaining their royal-like outlook in a country that may very well face the fate of Sri Lanka if the house is not put in order. 

Within weeks, an elected government – which was not serving the masses in an ideal way either – was toppled through a patchwork of traded loyalties in the parliament and now another patchwork seems underway for the redistribution of power among the stalwarts. 

What is clearly missing and has been missing in this entire political manoeuvring, which is clearly influenced by the army, is the public welfare, needs and services. 

The political elite are brazenly battling over their dogmatic narratives that are detached from the daily lives of their millions of voters, such as livelihood, education and health. The entire democratic process seems hijacked by the elite and staged as if the voters are simple passive subjects meant to endorse them through ballots and then go about their lives instead of complaining or demanding an end to this modern slavery.  

True, the entire world is going through supply-chain issues resulting in inflation, but in Pakistan, it is absolutely a different ball game. There are no cuts in budget spending on the powerful army or any other measures to improve productivity and cut costs.

The country has enormous potential with a massive workforce and plenty of natural resources. Nevertheless, the elite’s plundering of the nation’s wealth has brought it to its knees. 

Ever since the country opted for the international lender’s lifeline, the consecutive governments in Islamabad have kept passing the bucket of debt to the next regime rather than devising policies to get through it. 

And the public has been kept in the dark about what this prolonged debt means for them. Over many years, under pressure from the lenders, the governments in Pakistan have been raising taxes on people’s basic needs without revealing to them the true picture.

Without defending violence, it has been seen worldwide that under such circumstances the poor and marginalised have no other way left for survival than taking up arms and committing crimes. Is the elite driving millions of Pakistanis that way?

Photo by Zeeshan Tejani

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