Economic Confessions of Ramchand Pakistani

By Muhammad Umair

This year I carefully chalked down a strategy to avoid long queues at CNG stations by hoarding petrol in my own home, acting smart and setting up an alarm on my fully-charged smart phone, when electricity supply is in abundance so that I can wake up in the middle of the night and enable my geyser to burn its mid-night oil. I planned to upgrade my UPS; yes sir, I am aware darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. I sent birthday wishes at least three days in advance via SMS and two days in case of social media sites; failing on both occasions, I switched to pigeons. Oh, how could I forget I planned to vote. Our economic managers, completely conscious of gaps between demand and supply of everything produced and consumed within the land of the pure, are trying their best to reinvent the economic wheel which will, without doubt, wheel-jam the economy. It is very unfortunate that short term solutions are invented and later implemented with full noise and energy, as little or nothing is being done to address the underlying problem. At least till the next objection is levied. My nation is being informed, without disturbing their morale, that they are extremely blessed with numerous treasures. My innocent people are living the dream of excelling in every field of life. Once again they are asked to sacrifice during these tough times. Just by solving the circular debt, Gross Domestic Product can grow by three percent. Lucky for us, everyone within the land of the pure wants their living status to grow, and why shouldn’t they? But when output is decreasing, one cannot grow. Out of the box thinking is required to trigger the much needed growth. This shouldn’t be a problem considering Pakistan ranks fourth in most intelligent people among 125 countries - according to a survey held by the Institute of European Business Administration. When will we act upon options that are strategic and beneficial in the long term? I fail to understand, why pilgrims will soon be routed to fly off to Iran instead of fixing the law and order situation in Balochistan? Effortlessly, you can turn the telecommunications’ switch off on specific days instead of framing and later implementing water-locked rules for its unauthorised and dangerous usage. Once again, sacrifices have to come from the citizens, I presume? Everyone gets invited to a party where demand destructive solutions are served, the one which forces you to wear multiple layers of warm clothes during winter and the same fraternity requests you to fix your thermostat at a certain degree during summers. According to a local newspaper, President Zardari solved the load shedding problem in record time. He gave advice to a group of industrialists who whined about shortage of electric supply. He told them to generate their own electricity.  Mind you, our president does not have any economic background yet he presented a simple way out – increase in supply! Reminds me, Pakistan has also been offered electricity from all neighbouring countries including India, China and Iran. Whilst our government contemplates these supply sources, I suspect Bangladesh will declare itself an atomic power and a proposal for a joint venture with Afghanistan will be offered to produce electricity that will probably end up falling on deaf ears as well.  What is important to mention here is that the entire mindset needs a change. All commodities share a common property. Be it vegetables, sugar, fertiliser, wheat, milk - scarcity is witnessed everywhere. We must use our possessions industriously. Otherwise, Pakistan’s second largest salt mine, fourth largest milk and rice production, fifth in sugar cane and wheat production, sixth largest gold and coal reserves, seventh largest copper mine, ninth largest telecom market and I assure you, the list can go on and on, would mean zilch. Let’s not bluff ourselves and move forward with a vision. Let us all work to break out of this infinity loop. Otherwise, chances are that our fatalistic attitude might put us in a familiar position where we will have to apologise to our future generations for losing decades on contemplating decisions that should have been implemented immediately. Published 24 May, 2013 - US The News Weekly Magazine. http://magazine.thenews.com.pk/mag/detail_article.asp?id=5320&magId=9