How would you deal with this situation if you were the chief executive of Pakistan right now?

[Bilal Khan (Quwa)]

I think Pakistan has the potential to be a great power. It comes down to good leadership. Which we dont have. But we do have a young population, geostrategic location, large labour force, 5th largest population in the world. It would be a shame if we cant reach our full potential.

You have vision, but our leaders don't.

 

[JamD]

I think Pakistan has the potential to be a great power. It comes down to good leadership. Which we dont have. But we do have a young population, geostrategic location, large labour force, 5th largest population in the world. It would be a shame if we cant reach our full potential.

You have vision, but our leaders don't.

At the risk of putting words in @Bilal Khan (Quwa) 's mouth: leaders does not mean IK, Bajwa, NS or someone. Leaders are those guys PLUS
-all of your MNAs MPAs
-your big businessmen that own banks, sugarmills, and real estate
-your big military business under the "Fauji" brand

Pakistan cannot afford to be a socialist heaven for the rich and privileged for too much longer.

 

[Bilal Khan (Quwa)]

At the risk of putting words in @Bilal Khan (Quwa) 's mouth: leaders does not mean IK, Bajwa, NS or someone. Leaders are those guys PLUS
-all of your MNAs MPAs
-your big businessmen that own banks, sugarmills, and real estate
-your big military business under the "Fauji" brand

Pakistan cannot afford to be a socialist heaven for the rich and privileged for too much longer.

Plus generals, judges, senior journalists/talking heads, and so on. Literally, anyone and everyone with influence in society = leader.

 

[khail007]

A bullet to the head of all 'haram-khors', corrupts, thieves, 'lifafas', and robbers in institutes all across the board. This program should be implemented for the next five years to purge the filth.

No politicos with ownership of any business in his name or within his blood relatives should be allowed to contest in elections - all across the board.

Dual nationals, are not to be allowed to contest for any public/government offices in Pakistan. If someone's family/blood relatives are also settled in foreign countries - they are also not allowed to contest in Pakistan for public/government office.

Every case in the courts to be on merit and within a specific time limit - the constitution to be amended for this. No 'relief' or immunity to anyone.

 

[araz]

The protagonists and antagonists vary per view.

For Imran Khan , two problems - the military and the Nawas group.

Going by what many have posted here, the military has one problem - ImranKhan group.

Nawas group has one problem - Imran Khan group

Given that there isn't much ImranKhan do, especially since population is widely split between Nwas and IK sides.

Binding force can only come from people. If IK and Shariefs have Pakistan's interests in mind, they will get together in this opportunity, push the military to background and after such united show of force for 6 months, hold elections.


This should ofcouse be done in a way that does not create enmity between military and people but I have never seen a better juncture where real democracy can gracefully and honorably right size military power.

All that needs to be done I think is for Sharief and IK to jointly ask Bajwa to resign (and a handful of others). This will restore power to the government, whoever gets to to run it.

No disrespect meant but this is total lack of understanding of the dynamics of Pakistan and its politics. IK and Sharif/Zardari are chalk and cheese their interests vary and thrusts are indynamically opposite directions. It is like asking Kasmiri liberation party to ally with RSS. DONT MAKE SENSE AND WONT HAPPEN.
We do need elections NOW. We need assurances that the political setup established as a result of free and fair elections will be accepted by one and all. This will give one party the right to guide the nation in a direction of its choice. 4 to 6 epections will sort out the dust from the grain. Pakistan will have better leadership and will move forward.
The army has a role in governance but this needs to be defined and the reasons for interference defined to prevent further blame.
A

 

[Super Falcon]

Ban on imports 90 percent invest in human capital and start a two child policy for next 50 yrs compulsary decreasing a population is a big deal establishment involvement in civilian govt matters put to end forever Islamic extremist mullahs dealt harshly invest in domestic production highest policy for goods quality control increase exports stop in necessary perks of govt unnecessary travel ban for govt official Hajj free ban for any one in govt and invest in nuclear electrcity

A bullet to the head of all 'haram-khors', corrupts, thieves, 'lifafas', and robbers in institutes all across the board. This program should be implemented for the next five years to purge the filth.

No politicos with ownership of any business in his name or within his blood relatives should be allowed to contest in elections - all across the board.

Dual nationals, are not to be allowed to contest for any public/government offices in Pakistan. If someone's family/blood relatives are also settled in foreign countries - they are also not allowed to contest in Pakistan for public/government office.

Every case in the courts to be on merit and within a specific time limit - the constitution to be amended for this. No 'relief' or immunity to anyone.

Put atleast 8 carores bullets directly in heads of iletrate people too a cancer for society

Ban on imports 90 percent invest in human capital and start a two child policy for next 50 yrs compulsary decreasing a population is a big deal establishment involvement in civilian govt matters put to end forever Islamic extremist mullahs dealt harshly invest in domestic production highest policy for goods quality control increase exports stop in necessary perks of govt unnecessary travel ban for govt official Hajj free ban for any one in govt and invest in nuclear electrcity


Put atleast 8 carores bullets directly in heads of iletrate people too a cancer for society

We need prosper ecnomicical power on Germany ideas

 

[VCheng]

The army has a role in governance

How so? Please clarify that comment and its legal basis.

 

[araz]

For this discussion, let us first start with some prerequisites.

The present situation is not just weeks and months in the making, or even years. This has been decades in the making, and will likely take as long as that to resolve. However, there are a few steps that can be taken in the short term to reduce the likelihood of further deterioration. The next thing to consider is the actual authority of the PM of Pakistan as it exists in reality, and not as the portrayal. For anything to be effective as suggested below, there must be changes that allow the PM the full spectrum of authority to be available to deal with the responsibilities of the position. Whether this is possible or not is another discussion entirely.

There are four important aspects to the present crisis: financial, economic, social, and defense.

Dealing with the financial crisis is fairly straightforward: agree upon the appropriate IMF program, and then successfully complete it, a feat that has never been achieved before. Let there be the determination not to let the difficulty of the adjustments be used as an excuse to not meet the specified goals, specially on the political front. It would be important to have everyone realize that even if the adjustments are done stepwise and not all at once, the long delayed pain will be fairly acute and sharp, no matter what. There is no way around this for anyone.

The economic crisis is much deeper that just the current imbalance of the government's books. To put it bluntly, it is an absolute disgrace just how pathetically low the economic output of a nation of 230 million has become. To begin tackling this, get the energy sector in order by dealing with the circular debt and letting free market mechanisms take hold rather than bureaucratic mismanagement, and giving the few remaining sections of the economy that produce exportable tangibles a free reign for needed inputs on a war footing.

The longer terms fixes require huge social changes: provision of health, education and justice. Two basic requirements are needed across changes of government so that consistent progress can be achieved: goal-oriented management, and appropriate funding. Making consistent policies in both domains will need commitment from all parties not to reverse any agreed upon steps upon change of government for short term political gains.

The last item is perhaps the most difficult and relates to defense of the realm. Is Pakistan ready to grow from its present demented mindset of being nothing more than a security state to becoming a state that benefits its citizens? What is needed to begin this transition is perhaps beyond the scope of the present discussion, but is included here just to highlight the importance of such a transition to make all of the above possible in an enduring manner.

A really good topic worth discussing.
In short.
A. Address the people of Pakistan and inform them with numbers and charts where the country is and what is required.
B. In the short term I agree we need to go to the IMF as China and Saudis have linked their aid to IMF certification
C. Ration petrol to 10 litres per REGISTERED AND TAXED CAR. This should apply for all except emergency services and transportation.
D. Ban cars on the road 3 days out of 5. Encourage bicycles and E-bikes for the lazy people. More work should be done online from home to save enrgy. Labour force transportation becomes the responsibility of the factory and they can avail transportation laxity for these buses. Remove all such facilities from govtt employees as well. Should make a-significant dent in import bills.
E. Get oil from Russia at discount even if we pay the Chinese 5% to reroute it via China-to save us any embarrasment.. wheat can be procured from Russia
F. Look at other major imports like cooking oil and find local substitutes. If enough is present ban imports. In the intermediate term try increasing production of oils locally.
G. Limit the amount ofsugar cane that can be sowed instead concentrating on wheat and other staples for local use/ exports.
H Give farmers subsidies to improve water preservation techniques and introduce newer techniques to improve per acre yield. Give farmers cash prizes for improving yields.
I. Increasing use of bio gas units in villages to limit use of gas. Gas can then be diverted to industry. If we produce more than local need then sell to surrounding villages.
J. Tree plantation to prevent climate change and soil retention
Energy production.
K. Bring online hydroelectric units. Smaller locally produced units on rivers to produce electricity locally. If locals provide resources and labour incentivise provision of electricity to them.
L. Whereever possible solar/wind power generation should be used .
M. As soon as possible discharge IPPs even at the expense of paying them off(most contracts expire in 2025 I gather).we should be able to produce enough to preferentially provide to our industry. Daytime provisoon of energy should be limited to home users advising them to go solar. Excess energy can be bought from them to compensate them.
Revenues:
N. tax collection reforms with limiting contact between tax collectors and people. Self assessment schemes can be started on audited accounts. 5% accounts cqn be checked randomly. For industry growth of tax can be limited--- for instance target of growth is 4% for the year. If they produce 10% The 6 percent even though it is audited is tax free. This will give people incentives to produce more.
Government Industry.
O. Privatize all industry including PIA/Railways/power generation/gas provision/steel mills. The government should sell them energy taking care of supply lines , they sell to the public and recoup their profit. ( COST CONTROL PLUS COMPETITION ALLOWING PEOPLE TO SWITCH BETWEEN PROVIDERS WILL TRANSLATE INTO COSTS BEING LOWERED). Govtt provision and collection will be assured as well as tax on the earnings of these companies.
Police reforms and law and order.
P. My own assumption is that government should be a/quadruca rather than troica including Judiciary as the 4th arm. You will give judiciary teeth by putting law enforcement under their remit. All investigative authorities can bring cases against culprits butproof provision should be assured. Judicial reforms/to reduce length of cases time barring cases to be heard adjudicated upon. Lawyers should be punished for time wasting and the court reserves the right to adjudicate based on evidence available. For corruption/terrorism, summary courts with equivalent powers to high courts should be constituted. Their procedings can only be challanged in the SC. Rapid justice is the requirement. Tax frquds may also be via similar courts.
Beaurocracy and police reforms
Q. Police commisioners to be selected by the people. Can be a layman but answerable to the public for crime spree in the city.
R. Current CIVIL services exams should be scrapped. Instead Relevant departments should hire people with specific education background and train them with courses within the departments. High standards dhould be maintained and if someone does not perform he/she can be fired in the training period. Once trained they should have similar rights as army officers ie house on retirement concessionary food costs etc. Each person hired for a city remains there unless he decides to move to another city. Beaurocracy should be stremalined and numbers reduced with robust computerization. Strict laws give these individuals powers to persue the criminals and upon investigations pass on cases to relevant courts for adjudication. Like in UAE once a case is filed it can only be withdrawn by the officer filing it. This protects from interference. Court proceedings for such cases will be filed by different departments protecting the filing officer. The government cqn employ any lawyer on no win no fee basis. Courts will ask culprits to pay charges of govtt lawyer. Any corruption unearthed by officers will carry a 5% commission to the unearthing officer on receipt of money.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT.
Local govtt set up with Nazim being responsible for upkeep of city. Funds are handed to local govtt instead of PA.
A few things that come to mind
A

 

[Menace2Society]

Dismantle the Zardari and Sharif network.

I would organise an org chart of everyone that is married into these families and remove them all from their jobs if they are influential.

 

[lastofthepatriots]

Pakistanis are champions in defaulting, forget about balancing a budget.

 

[Sugarcane]

The first thing need to be done is to pack the bags of East India Company Executives aka. Brigadier and above. Unless we get ride of them, nothing else will work.

 

[JamD]

A really good topic worth discussing.
In short.
A. Address the people of Pakistan and inform them with numbers and charts where the country is and what is required.
B. In the short term I agree we need to go to the IMF as China and Saudis have linked their aid to IMF certification
C. Ration petrol to 10 litres per REGISTERED AND TAXED CAR. This should apply for all except emergency services and transportation.
D. Ban cars on the road 3 days out of 5. Encourage bicycles and E-bikes for the lazy people. More work should be done online from home to save enrgy. Labour force transportation becomes the responsibility of the factory and they can avail transportation laxity for these buses. Remove all such facilities from govtt employees as well. Should make a-significant dent in import bills.
E. Get oil from Russia at discount even if we pay the Chinese 5% to reroute it via China-to save us any embarrasment.. wheat can be procured from Russia
F. Look at other major imports like cooking oil and find local substitutes. If enough is present ban imports. In the intermediate term try increasing production of oils locally.
G. Limit the amount ofsugar cane that can be sowed instead concentrating on wheat and other staples for local use/ exports.
H Give farmers subsidies to improve water preservation techniques and introduce newer techniques to improve per acre yield. Give farmers cash prizes for improving yields.
I. Increasing use of bio gas units in villages to limit use of gas. Gas can then be diverted to industry. If we produce more than local need then sell to surrounding villages.
J. Tree plantation to prevent climate change and soil retention
Energy production.
K. Bring online hydroelectric units. Smaller locally produced units on rivers to produce electricity locally. If locals provide resources and labour incentivise provision of electricity to them.
L. Whereever possible solar/wind power generation should be used .
M. As soon as possible discharge IPPs even at the expense of paying them off(most contracts expire in 2025 I gather).we should be able to produce enough to preferentially provide to our industry. Daytime provisoon of energy should be limited to home users advising them to go solar. Excess energy can be bought from them to compensate them.
Revenues:
N. tax collection reforms with limiting contact between tax collectors and people. Self assessment schemes can be started on audited accounts. 5% accounts cqn be checked randomly. For industry growth of tax can be limited--- for instance target of growth is 4% for the year. If they produce 10% The 6 percent even though it is audited is tax free. This will give people incentives to produce more.
Government Industry.
O. Privatize all industry including PIA/Railways/power generation/gas provision/steel mills. The government should sell them energy taking care of supply lines , they sell to the public and recoup their profit. ( COST CONTROL PLUS COMPETITION ALLOWING PEOPLE TO SWITCH BETWEEN PROVIDERS WILL TRANSLATE INTO COSTS BEING LOWERED). Govtt provision and collection will be assured as well as tax on the earnings of these companies.
Police reforms and law and order.
P. My own assumption is that government should be a/quadruca rather than troica including Judiciary as the 4th arm. You will give judiciary teeth by putting law enforcement under their remit. All investigative authorities can bring cases against culprits butproof provision should be assured. Judicial reforms/to reduce length of cases time barring cases to be heard adjudicated upon. Lawyers should be punished for time wasting and the court reserves the right to adjudicate based on evidence available. For corruption/terrorism, summary courts with equivalent powers to high courts should be constituted. Their procedings can only be challanged in the SC. Rapid justice is the requirement. Tax frquds may also be via similar courts.
Beaurocracy and police reforms
Q. Police commisioners to be selected by the people. Can be a layman but answerable to the public for crime spree in the city.
R. Current CIVIL services exams should be scrapped. Instead Relevant departments should hire people with specific education background and train them with courses within the departments. High standards dhould be maintained and if someone does not perform he/she can be fired in the training period. Once trained they should have similar rights as army officers ie house on retirement concessionary food costs etc. Each person hired for a city remains there unless he decides to move to another city. Beaurocracy should be stremalined and numbers reduced with robust computerization. Strict laws give these individuals powers to persue the criminals and upon investigations pass on cases to relevant courts for adjudication. Like in UAE once a case is filed it can only be withdrawn by the officer filing it. This protects from interference. Court proceedings for such cases will be filed by different departments protecting the filing officer. The government cqn employ any lawyer on no win no fee basis. Courts will ask culprits to pay charges of govtt lawyer. Any corruption unearthed by officers will carry a 5% commission to the unearthing officer on receipt of money.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT.
Local govtt set up with Nazim being responsible for upkeep of city. Funds are handed to local govtt instead of PA.
A few things that come to mind
A

You began your post with in short. And even though your post might not appear short, it is short relative to what it is trying to address. Which brings me nicely to the rather disappointing responses on this thread that reflect how the majority thinks: Pakistan's problems have simple solutions like "isko mardo, isko lagado, isko tangdo". Who will convince people that Pakistan's problems are not simple and require nuanced thought as in your post? The space for debate has been shrinking constantly.

There is one action that I'd like to include in your plan: introduce a rational tax on real estate that significantly taxes empty plots. I think this is a major problem in Pakistan where a very large portion of capital is diverted to something as nonproductive as plots. This action will increase government revenues in the short term, and divert capital to productive sectors in the medium and long term. Of course this action will be super unpopular and no reason to think that our elite (all kinds) who own plots over plots would ever willfully do this.

 

[araz]

Dismantle the Zardari and Sharif network.

I would organise an org chart of everyone that is married into these families and remove them all from their jobs if they are influential.

You canmot dismantle corruption unless you strengthen institutions. Strengthen institutions and these goons will disappear. People expect courts to adjudicate without any real power or protection. How is this even going to be possible? So think of solutions ahort of hanging people. Otherwise the vacuum will be taken up by other goons. Zardari and Nawaz are not long for this earth. The real question is to look after Pakistan so we leave a safe thriving country for our children.
A

 

[araz]

You began your post with in short. And even though your post might not appear short, it is short relative to what it is trying to address. Which brings me nicely to the rather disappointing responses on this thread that reflect how the majority thinks: Pakistan's problems have simple solutions like "isko mardo, isko lagado, isko tangdo". Who will convince people that Pakistan's problems are not simple and require nuanced thought as in your post? The space for debate has been shrinking constantly.

There is one action that I'd like to include in your plan: introduce a rational tax on real estate that significantly taxes empty plots. I think this is a major problem in Pakistan where a very large portion of capital is diverted to something as nonproductive as plots. This action will increase government revenues in the short term, and divert capital to productive sectors in the medium and long term. Of course this action will be super unpopular and no reason to think that our elite (all kinds) who own plots over plots would ever willfully do this.

Thank you for your post. I think as the literate people of our country it is/our responsibility to contribute towards its development. We are the leaders and we should lead and force others to think along lines. What I have thought of is nothing new but we see it in our lives in the West.
There is plenty of corruption here as well but it does not affect the daily lives of the people. Ithink people have the wrong concept that somehow angels will descend from heavens and sort all our ills out with the wave of a wand. These are going to be painful steps that a growing nation has to take and believe me they will be painful. We have huge inequality between the rich and the poor. I heard of people booking Porsches in Pakistan but despite decent salary I cannot afford to buy one in UK. SO I am forced to ask how can people afford this in Pakistan. The answer is too much wealth which in turn means lack of taxation on a significant portion of these rich elites. Iam forced to ask why is it that the rich have aeroplanes and yachts while the poor carries his 5 children on a motor bike.
The Pakistani nation is industrious and will ralpy but needs leadership. Imran may not provide it but at least he is honest though devoid of ideas. It maybe that we find another leader in 10 years.
The main thing is keep exchanging ideas and passing on to the people. Someone might read and listen and see sense in what we are writing. Even if 20% of our ideas are taken up as practical steps we will hopefullyhave a nation which is progressing and on the path to recovery.

 

[Mahmood-ur-Rehman]

The protagonists and antagonists vary per view.

For Imran Khan , two problems - the military and the Nawas group.

Going by what many have posted here, the military has one problem - ImranKhan group.

Nawas group has one problem - Imran Khan group

Given that there isn't much ImranKhan do, especially since population is widely split between Nwas and IK sides.

Binding force can only come from people. If IK and Shariefs have Pakistan's interests in mind, they will get together in this opportunity, push the military to background and after such united show of force for 6 months, hold elections.


This should ofcouse be done in a way that does not create enmity between military and people but I have never seen a better juncture where real democracy can gracefully and honorably right size military power.

All that needs to be done I think is for Sharief and IK to jointly ask Bajwa to resign (and a handful of others). This will restore power to the government, whoever gets to to run it.

This is one problem not two