Articles of the year 2020

A story often told of Benazir Bhutto has been repeated countless times. Once she was addressing the Staff College at Quetta, where the audience comprised of serving army officers. Towards the end of the session, a major complained of how expensive the electricity was becoming.

To this she retorted, “there’s a little switch behind you, if you cannot afford it switch it off.” This is a new twist on Marie Antoinette’s famous phrase ‘let them eat cake’, only our prime minister said ‘let them do without.’

Instead she gifted the people of Pakistan not only the most expensive electricity in the world but the people were forced to suffer through long hours of load shedding. The price of electricity rose, all the industries suffered, as a result Pakistan’s textile industry decreased and production moved to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, leading to the biggest blow to exports and unemployment in the country. Textiles are vital to any nation because the industry is labour intensive and creates employment.

It is the government’s responsibility to provide the necessities of life at an affordable price. Not advise the people to eat cake instead or do without.

She should have been reprimanded at that point and should have been ordered to reduce the price of power immediately. She should have been ordered to make life more affordable for the people and less difficult. Following in Marie’s footsteps, Bhutto’s lack of concern towards her people’s needs should have resulted in the loss of her throne and eventually her head. However, the Pakistani people had no such reaction and have subsequently suffered at the hands of inept leaders.

Pakistan has instead continued to deprive people of water, power and now sugar. The prices of these necessities are under the control of unscrupulous middle men, who continue to charge exorbitant prices for staple items, which should be under strict government control. However instead they are manipulated by these obstacles, which have been in place for a significant period of time and are now beyond the control of even Imran khan.

In fact industry should be nurtured because it provides jobs. That is the most important function of a government. This is why textiles is considered an important industry in any country, as it is labour intensive. Employment and job creation is always considered a priority, by all governments.

The Nazi party of Germany went on a road building spree in 1929, due to the depression there were massive amounts of unemployed. His use of road building was primarily to create jobs for his people. Germany under Hitler emerged with the finest network of autobahns, which is a crucial part of the German success in industry. These policies allowed the industry to grow efficiently. Hitler had many faults but this one achievement serves Germany till today.

Pakistan has Nawaz sharif building a network of beautiful roads however due to the unreliable electricity policies leading to increased cost of production, we see empty roads devoid of any goods.

A government must cater to the basic needs of the people, which are food and jobs. Industry was often ignored resulting in the worst unemployment Pakistan has seen since the 60s. Nawaz and Benazir failed on both accounts, so busy were they in lining their pockets.
The poor Pakistani is forced by these incompetent rulers to suffer, in misery and silence.