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Progress versus disruption
By Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif---October 29, 2016
I write these lines not as a politician or a chief minister but as a common citizen of
Pakistan. Barely 24 months back, we had the infamous Islamabad dharna. Once
you cut through the noise and bellicose rhetoric, its only contribution was
delaying the launch of the historic CPEC, which is already proving to be a fatechanger for Pakistan. Does it matter if this delay may have been an unintended
consequence, as some like to argue? What matters is that the project got
postponed by one whole year.
As in the life of an individual, every day matters for a nation. Every day, millions of
choices are made and decisions taken. And every choice we make, or choose not
to, has consequences. What I am talking about here is exactly one such critically
important choice for this country; does one support or reject the promised PTI
charge on Islamabad?
There are millions of those who reject it, and thousands others who support it,
but I want to hear the voice of the many who are still quiet about it. Because,
honestly speaking, silence is not an option here; for we are talking about the
future of our country, our children.
There are two conflicting versions here – and one is obviously wrong. And it’s
time to call that out, loudly and clearly. Government detractors insist that the
impending attack on Islamabad and its law-abiding residents is the only available
recourse to evoke a ‘truthful’ response from the prime minister on the Panama
Papers issue. Unfortunately, this premise itself is untrue.
The truth is that the Supreme Court of Pakistan is already seized of the matter.
The truth is that the prime minister has declared, despite stiff opposition by his
legal team, not to challenge the court’s legal jurisdiction to take up the issue and
has voluntarily submitted himself and his children to the writ of the court. If
seeking the truth was the ‘true’ objective, then the Supreme Court is the forum to
do it, for there is nothing above it but Allah Almighty. So isn’t it now time for the
other side to tell the truth as well and share the ‘true’ reason for this planned
onslaught? Or is it, in truth, a covert attempt to disrupt the ongoing progress?
Curse the blinders of ignorance and selfish motives, which prevent many from
seeing the difference between personal greed and the country’s need because
even outsiders are talking about Pakistan taking off. The Chinese are lauding
the progressof work being done here and have coined the term ‘Punjab Speed’ as
an acknowledgement. The outspoken managing director of the IMF, Christine
Largade, has described Pakistan’s economic turnaround as “a moment of
opportunity”. All our economic indicators are up, terrorism is down, economy is
on the rise, hopes have been revived, and hopelessness has evaporated. After a
long hiatus, we have finally hit the economic deck running. In order to sustain the
momentum,
we
need
uninterrupted
forward progress,
and
not
retrogressive disruptions.
Every indicator says life is good and getting better. Our forex reserves are the
highest in history. Stock exchanges have touched the highest positive notes and
there will be surplus energy in 2018. It was only a few days ago that the World
Bank listed Pakistan among the top ten improvers in its latest report of Doing
Business 2017, titled ‘Equal Opportunity for All’.
Massive transformation is underway in sectors like infrastructure development,
transportation, agriculture, communication, youth development, education, and
health etc. But, above all, the nation’s morale is high and positive after many
years.
But for any country to walk the arduous road of progress, its people must stand
and stand firm. It’s time for every citizen of Pakistan to be counted for his and her
country. Staying silent, or what many call being ‘neutral’ is not an option. Each
one of us has to be biased towards the country, and must openly reject what is
manifestly wrong. Call me wrong if you so feel and I shall respect you for
expressing your opinion candidly, but will you respect yourself if you do not speak
up for your country and allow a few agitating thousands to forcibly attempt
subjugating hundreds of millions to their whims and caprices?
The dharna will change nothing in terms of balance of power. The PML-N is the
ruling party because the nation elected it and gave it the mandate. And only the
nation can take it away. But what the dharna will, however, change and affect is
the pace of our progress. It could have an immediate and disastrous impact on
the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), something our enemies across the
borders and those within have tried their best to do, but failed so far.
The $51.5 billion CPEC forms a lynchpin in China’s historic initiative to build all
regional economies and Allah blessed Pakistan to be in a unique geographical
situation to be a hub of growth in the region. The CPEC’s overall economic benefit
for Pakistan is calculated to be around $150 billion at the minimum in the short
term alone.
Nothing is more injurious to the scheduled implementation of the CPEC than an
atmosphere of political instability and turmoil. Already, a number of energy
projects are at various phases of implementation. Their commissioning on time
will add much-needed power to the national grid and have a huge transformative
effect across various sectors. The CPEC holds the key to achieving energy security
by replacing darkness with light. The ending of the energy shortages alone will
add 2-3 points to our GDP.
The first dharna wreaked havoc on the CPEC by delaying its launch but thanks to
our immensely strong friendship bond with China, the CPEC and Pakistan
survived.
Next time around, we may not be that fortunate because not even the best of
friends can wait forever for a country to grapple with its internal demons. Time
and tide wait for no one and if we lose the surf, we lose the surge.
The ludicrous logic is being paraded nowadays that ‘the autocracy of majority of
numbers is not acceptable’. Democracy may have many shortcomings. Sure, it is
an evolving mechanism and must have the capacity to accept change and adapt
to the needs of time, but only through an orderly legal process and not by
anarchy on the streets. Anarchy breeds chaos and chaos consumes nations, not
build them.
We are a nation in the midst of a war. Terrorism is down but not completely out.
The valiant armed forces sacrificed thousands of its brave soldiers and officers as
did the police and other law-enforcement agencies. But can we ever allow
tyranny of religious extremism to be replaced with tyranny of political extremism?
Accept anarchy over order?
I can fathom one political leader’s desperation to claim a legacy even at the cost
of irreparable damage to the country but I feel compelled to say that notoriety is
not a legacy; it’s a curse. Legacies of honour are not carved out of slogans or built
upon empty rhetoric. They emerge over time, crafted painstakingly through
service to the people. Honourable legacies can only be earned, and not snatched
through anarchy or mob rule.
The writer is the chief minister of Punjab.
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