Periscope on Pakistan

Reality checkThe current issue of The Economist quotes a Western diplomat as saying there is a quot;whiff of uncertainty in Islamabadquo...

Reality check
The current issue of The Economist quotes a Western diplomat as saying there is a quot;whiff of uncertainty in Islamabadquot; over what the present government is doing or rather, not doing.

There is similar concern being increasingly voiced in columns in national dailies. Apparently, there is growing unease over the glacial pace at which the military regime is moving. Many Pakistanis who expected a blitzkrieg to be launched on October 12 are understandably disappointed. Those who gleefully talked about building new cells in our jails to accommodate Pakistan8217;s army of defaulters are now very despondent, as are those who saw the new dispensation ushering in a brave new world.

Surely these people should have known better. If General Zia could not get taxi drivers to fix their meters in his seemingly unending tenure, it seems a bit much to expect his successor to put the whole country right in two months. An old friend, now a senior member of the Army XI, said recently:
quot;Yar, give us sometime!quot; Since I had no expectations at all, I am not in the least bit disappointed. As it is, the country is at a virtual standstill. Since the Chief Executive has still not given us any kind of timeframe or blueprint, we are unclear as to what he proposes to do. The problem is that so is he. True, he did give us a wish list in the form of his seven-point agenda, but that was more a noble declaration of intent than a clear plan of action. Nationalised banks may have got back a few billions of their outstanding loans and a score or so of defaulters are languishing in jail. And that, apart from its avowals of good intentions, is about the sum total of what this government has achieved in two months. In management theory, there is something called administration by earthquake8217; in which a newly appointed chief executive takes drastic action and makes radical personnel changes at every level. The idea is to shake up the organization and get everybody on his toes. None of this has happened since October 12.

Apart from the dismissal of Nawaz Sharif8217;s cabinet and the shuffling of a few secretaries, it is pretty much business as usual. Most of the ex-PM8217;s handpicked ambassadors and corporate heads are still in place and doing very well, thank you very much. One problem is that the very people who are capable of reviving the economy are currently under great pressure as a result of the accountability drive. Sadly, the industrialists whose names grace the list of defaulters and who are today on the exit control list are some of our biggest employers and who have in the past been at the forefront of industrialisation. Although many of our top businessmen are robber barons, we need to acknowledge that without them, we would not even have been where we are in terms of industry and finance.

No doubt General Musharraf is now in the process of absorbing this lesson. In his recent address to the nation, he asked for more time. Sorry, general, that is the one commodity we are very short of.

8212; Irfan Husain