I HAVE been reading articles with deep interest by former finance minister Miftah Ismail. As far as I am concerned, his diagnosis leaves much wanting. Pakistan may have governance and current account deficit issues, but they are only symptoms of the ailment, not the ailment itself.

He cites examples related to the countries that he wants Pakistan to follow in order to set our house in order. All those countries, except China, happen to be democracies. In saying this, I am assuming that by ‘Korea’ he means South Korea, and not North Korea, the proletarian promised land.

That being so, the examples and their application in the case of Pakistan is like drawing parallels between apples and oranges. In democracies, politicians are free to make choices and are not dictated by non-political actors. In Pakistan, that is not the case. I would be very interested if people like the former finance minister tell us how politicians are limited in making their decisions when it comes to allocating funds to different sectors.

Elected politicians make choices that keep their voters happy. And that is considered a good thing. However, the former minister laments that fact, and calls it political choice as if there is something wrong with it. Granted all those choices are not prudent, economically speaking, but that is how democracies work and politicians do not always make wise choices even in well-established democracies like, say, the United States.

I wonder how India became so powerful that it makes its own decisions and the West simply stands watching, while Pakistan has to follow the whim and fancy of the West or of its institutions. To me, it is the benefit of having a functioning democracy where the political leaders are free to make choices.

In a nutshell, there is no point discussing bad governance when it happens to be nothing but a by-product of a bad system. We have a system failure, not a governance failure.

I wish someone like the former finance minister, who has inside knowledge of the working pattern, candidly write about the various influences and counter-influences on the decision-making process in Pakistan.

Shakeel Nizamani
Alberta, Canada

Published in Dawn, December 11th, 2022