Economy and private sector

In the upcoming elections, as always, the manifestos of all parties will appear very people-friendly, and each party will try to portray itself as the most sympathetic towards the public. However, if we exert our focus on historical records, every party has presented promising manifestos for many years, discussing plans to alleviate poverty and ensure the well-being of the people. So why haven’t the conditions of the people improved over the years? We still lament over inflation, and for many years, we have been enduring the same complaints about rising prices.

Undoubtedly, Pakistan has made progress by building better roads and adopting Western practices, but acquiring the necessities of life has always been challenging. If we discuss the current three-month caretaker government, what could they not do? Within three months, arrangements were made to repatriate Afghan refugees who had been a burden on Pakistan’s economy for years, and smuggling on the Afghan border was curbed within this short period.

The arms of the dollar, which play with the economy, were restrained within a few days, and an unprecedented increase in the value of the rupee was observed. One might ponder why there was no control over the shortage of the dollar in the past three years, and the dollar, like the stock market, became a victim of manipulation. Whether it’s the stock market or the dollar, some individuals, by using it legally, became richer while being seen as wealthy individuals.

Even today, some people in Pakistan are involved in damaging the national economy, manipulating every illegal activity legally to serve their interests. It is because of these people that inflation is on the rise. Will the next responsible government be capable of implementing policies that will prevent any individual, using illegal means, from causing harm to the national economy permanently?

Can Pakistan, like China, uplift its economy globally? Pakistan used to receive financial assistance from China and Saudi Arabia. So, what is the reason for its current state? If we look at China’s progress, it initially eliminated those profiteers who were causing illegal harm to China’s economy and legalized their illegal activities through the law.

China started establishing government agencies to control private sectors, making these government agencies so strong that the private sector had to work day and night to compete. Private sectors did not have the courage to blackmail the government by imposing their values on the public. Today, China’s economic success is attributed to this. Seventy percent of the government agencies and factories are present in China, forcing the private sector not to impose its values.

These 70 percent factories are the reason why China sells its goods at the lowest prices worldwide. In Pakistan, government agencies were destroyed so that the private sector could continue to impose its values on the public, and, due to the influence of political figures, they have always helped in increasing prices.

Take the example of the 70% of companies that generate electricity, which are called IPPs. They produce most of Pakistan’s electricity, and the Pakistani public is provided with the most expensive electricity. If we look at the electricity situation when the government had it, 30% line losses were incurred, and there was a reduction in the prices of 170% of electricity. Today, while line losses have reduced to only 15%, the price of electricity has almost quadrupled, and most of the public’s income goes into paying electricity bills.

These electricity companies have always blackmailed the government and made their balance sheet legal by beautifully making their illegal balance sheets legal through private auditors, even when they are not visible to those institutions whose balance sheets do not show any benefit, they still use private auditors to make their illegal balance sheets legal for tax evasion.

In the past ten years, steel prices have risen, and the steel mill has closed down. Similarly, now the private sector wants an institution like PIA to be closed down, which has been running at a loss for many years so that private airlines can recover their values from the public. Not only that, but Pakistan’s foreign exchange should also be taken out by foreign airlines, and then the effects on Pakistan’s foreign reserves will start to show.

All sectors of Pakistan’s private sector form cartels within their industries and present inflation as a justification, just as stock market players beautifully manipulate the market to raise it and also use beautiful excuses and news to lower the market to reach the government and the public. This era of inflation began with the private sector, where we saw that the prices of cars were brought into millions from hundreds of thousands. Similarly, Pakistan’s cement, steel, and other industries related to construction have indiscriminately increased prices.

Now, if we turn our attention to food, the private sector has also contributed to the destruction of agriculture. They made fertilizer prices unreasonably expensive and imported the most expensive seeds from abroad, causing difficulties for farmers. The farmer who used to buy a tractor at a very affordable price now faces difficulties in putting diesel into the tractor because Harry receives less money, and those who buy supplies from Harry, such as traders, and transporters, earn illegal profits.

The reason is only and only that farmers do not easily get their necessary things because our farmer is not educated. Our big landlords and jagirdars have always kept the farmer away from education so that he continues farming. In the past 70 years in Pakistan, there are only a few people in every field who have become richer than the rich.

The number of rich people in the country has not increased; instead, the middle class, previously part of the lower class, has now joined the lower class due to poverty.

If the government wants prosperity in Pakistan, it should regulate the private sector, prevent individuals from making illegal gains, and establish more government institutions so that no private sector entity can dictate its values to the public. The same private sector funds political figures to ensure that their unlawful actions can be legitimized when they become part of the government. Today, private sector institutions, through the media, have turned the people of Pakistan against the country’s own institutions and are using the public to advance their own agenda.

The question to ponder is why it is repeatedly suggested to privatize entities like the railway and PIA? Why is it said that this is not the government’s job? If the government cannot run institutions, it has no right to govern. Whoever tells the government that entities like PIA and Steel Mills cannot be run should resign, because the government’s job is to govern the country, and the country runs when laws are created that enable both government and private sectors to work successfully together.

If government institutions do not generate revenue, they collect taxes from the public to run the government. If these government institutions, approximately 200 of them including PIA, Steel Mills, and railways, work successfully, the burden of taxes on the public would be reduced, and the government would be running the country with its own funds. A country where you see a decrease in taxes means that the government institutions are functioning well.

The highest taxes in Pakistan are levied on essential goods, affecting the prices of necessary commodities for the public, and the lowest contributors to taxes are usually business individuals. If we talk about indirect taxes, 70% are contributed by the common man, and if we talk about direct taxes, the rate is 25%. Thus, 70% of taxes come from the ordinary person who sustains the country. If government agencies are closed down, the common man will have to pay more than 70% in taxes directly.

The consideration here is that the government is willing to run the entire Pakistan, ready to provide things for the use of people from all walks of life, but it cannot run its own institutions. If government institutions are set right, we can still have affordable water, cheap cement, inexpensive steel, affordable housing, low-cost medicines, affordable healthcare, and cheap education today.