PAKISTAN has accumulated expensive loans, a huge trade gap and a current account deficit, declining remittances and state-owned enterprise incurring huge losses. There is massive corruption so much so that the size of the black economy has overtaken the country’s annual budget, money laundering in excess of $10 billion annually and a depreciating rupee. This is a sure recipe for disaster. Thus a radical change is the need of the hour.

Our political parties have shown no resolve to address the issues afflicting the country. It seems they neither have the capacity nor the will to deliver. Perhaps the system was never designed to serve the people. In view of the foregoing, it is time for corrective action.

We need a consensus government of young, qualified and honest people who are less than 45 years at the Centre and the provinces to achieve six tasks in short- and medium-terms.

They are: 1) reviving the economy, 2) drafting a new social contract for every sector with special focus on the have-nots, 3) devising a governance plan free of blackmail by pressure groups, 4) further enhance the scope of CPEC projects, 5) develop mechanism to stop corruption and money laundering and 6) a robust strategy to bring back the wealth stashed abroad by Pakistanis.

To ensure that the country stays on the right track, every economic activity must be documented while taxes and duties be reduced to bare minimum.

I am a septuagenarian, and have no qualms in admitting that our generation has failed Pakistan. We must hand over the mantle to those less than 50 years old.

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad

Lahore

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2017