KARACHI, Pakistan, July 27 (IPS) – In recent days, as Pakistan’s economic crises have intensified, a veritable cottage industry has grown to suggest how to bring the country into the world. go in the right direction.
The newest entrant into the field is renowned Harvard Economics professor Asim Khwaja. For a long time and widely circulated tweet he outlines his analysis of the problem. He argues that the way out is to work to increase productivity. He’s not wrong. Indeed, increasing productivity is a useful and necessary goal.
The problem, however, is that Dr.Khawja and all the other illustrious scholars, who have contributed to the debate about what to do, are missing the point. There’s really no arguing about what to do. It has been clear for a while.
I outlined the key elements three years ago in one Piece for the Daily Times: “Cut imports, boost exports, invest in critical infrastructure, rejuvenate local industry by drastically increasing tariff barriers, work to tie together the education system With the job market, the list goes on.” This prescription is also valid, possibly more, today than it was three years ago.
The point that scholars lack is not “what to do” but “who will do it”. In ordinary countries, the responsibility will rest with the elected representatives of those countries. But in our case, the people sitting on our board simply don’t have the ability or desire to do what is needed.
Sadly, our problem is that whenever there’s an election, we’re wildly successful in getting our worst people into parliament. This is the exact opposite of what successful democracies do, or at least strive to do, which is to send their best people into parliament. And this is why they are successful.
So why are we in Pakistan doing this wrong? Genuine democracy is conditioned by two important precepts. One, voters understand the problem. And two, they are free to vote for the candidates of their choice. There are no conditions to be achieved in Pakistan.
Feudal control of the levers of power made illiteracy widespread. And large populations were obligated to vote the way they were asked by feudal lords to vote. So voters don’t understand the problem and they can’t vote the way they want.
What we have is not democracy. It was feudalism disguised as democracy. This is why the same people or their ilks – the feudal lords and their families – are always elected. And in general, they tend to be corrupt and incompetent. They were elected to parliament to plunder the state not to build it.
And until we replace arguably the worst “representatives” of our people, with the best, our economic realities will change. We will continue to decline rather than progress.
So the challenge for all people of good will, academia and others, is to shift their focus from what needs to be done to the central issue of how do we get the people we need to live. real owner in the country.
In previous posts, I suggested a possible solution: Limit voting to people who have had at least 10 years of schooling. Educated people have minds of their own. They understand the problems. And in my experience, they are not usually slaves to the enemies.
This is a simple change. It will lead to real democracy. And, if enacted, it will change our destiny by truly empowering the people and opening the doors of parliament to those with the capacity, energy, aspiration and will to build the land. country.
Nadeem Qureshi was the founding chairman of the political party Mustaqbil Pakistan and has had a long business career, mainly in the Middle East. He studied engineering at MIT, and business at Harvard Business School, is fluent in classical Arabic and has published an Arabic-to-English translation of a book titled: Why are Muslims lagging behind and others making progress.
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