Mismanagement of national resources – By: Prof. Rahmat Karim Baig
Our country has seen great vicissitudes in its history. In fact it has got boundless natural resources like cultivated lands, irrigation system from the rivers, minerals, greater spell of sunshine, sea food resources, vast stocks of glaciers, rains both in winters and summer, great potential of hydel power houses, natural gas, coal reserves, manpower in good amount, strategic location, geographic location, wild life varieties but most of these resources are in the hands of a small number of feudal lords and most of the population in Punjab, Baluchistan and Sindh is landless. They get meager amount of the land produce from the landlords and undergo bonded labour with loans from their feudal Lords from which they cannot extricate themselves. As long as the feudal system exists the common man cannot have access to better life standard. The landless segment of the population gets no education and undergoes the vicious cycle of poverty inside this feudal system.
The bad thing about the downfall of our economy was the tug of war between the politicians after the assassination of Liaqat Ali Khan. From that time up to the imposition of Martial Law in 1958 the role of the members of the team of the Qaid was too poor and this opened and paved the path to military intervention. The period after 1958 has seen a decade of economic growth but then the country broke into two. The financial resources were not developed, agriculture was not given due priority and no dams were built hence no development of hydel energy which led to the worst shortage of power after 1980. The non party based election wrought a havoc to the national economy and horse trading emerged as a curse. This was a great burden on the financial sector and loans had to be taken and thus a phase of getting loans from IMF grew and worsened the situation.
The political leadership failed to foresee the economic down fall that was imminent. They fought for power and did not care for the development of the economy in an emerging and competitive world. This was unpardonable. Loans were given to politicians from the National Exchequer and then written off for political maneuvering. This phase of the economy of our history is lamentable. The Agriculture sector and the Energy sector were almost forgotten. We have got fertile lands in vast areas but fail to get enough wheat to feed the growing population let alone for export. We have got the best river system but suffer load shedding and fail to provide enough power to industrial sector. Our exports are shrinking to the lowest level. Our currency has lost its value. All because our political leadership is inefficient, selfish, dishonest and corrupt to their finger tips. Let’s get rid of this leadership.
