Some days ago it was reported in this newspaper that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had granted leeway to the government of Pakistan in curbing its fiscal deficit and permitted an increase of Rs130 billion in the defence budget. Apparently, the ever-present ‘security concerns’ facing Pakistan – and therefore, the ‘free world’ at large – are serious enough for the IMF to waive its usually stringent requirements and allow an increase in military spending. Alas, the IMF is not as gracious when it comes to expenditures on the social sector.
Pakistan’s external debt has soared over the past three years. It seems a very long time ago now that the then prime minister Shaukat ‘Shortcut’ Aziz pronounced that Pakistan had broken the begging bowl once and for all and that there was no longer any need to acquire loans from the international financial institutions (IFIs). In fact, the state’s coffers are in worse shape than ever, and it is literally a daily struggle to make sure that the government departments continue to function.
In September 2009 and then again in December, Pakistan Railways’ management did not release wages on time, and only after the intervention of the ministry of finance was the ensuing stand-off between workers and management prevented from becoming a major confrontation. Hundreds of contract workers in innumerable government departments ranging from the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to Allama Iqbal Open University protest on a daily basis because they are subject to completely arbitrary treatment by their employers, and often do not receive salaries at all.
Once upon a time such insecure employment was the preserve of the private sector only, but under the pressure of the IFIs, the third world governments such as ours are adopting contractual labour practices in a big way. The situation in the first-world, where welfare states once guaranteed jobs, health, housing and education, is only a little bit better, especially in the wake of the financial collapse.
And so, it is unfortunate that the reaction to the agreement of the IMF and government of Pakistan on the ‘necessity’ of increasing the defence budget should be so muted. Mainstream political parties, particularly the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), should be at the forefront of all efforts to decrease non-productive expenditures, but in practice it appears as if those who we elect simply do not have the will or power to resist the dictates of the powers-that-be, including the IFIs, the US and other western governments, and our very own military establishment.
Indeed, more than half of the Rs130 billion will go towards increased salaries for the men in khaki. There is no indication of whether all ranks of military men will benefit, but either way, the average increase of Rs10,000 in wages is far in excess when compared to any increment that is granted to employees of civilian departments. Evidently, inducements must be offered to military personnel so as to keep the so-called ‘war on terror’ on track whereas it matters little whether the hundreds of thousands that staff civilian departments have any incentive to improve, or at the very least, maintain a minimum level of service to the public (daresay there is a link between the failure of the state to meet the basic needs and the rise of militant Islamism).
Surely it is time to ask why the white elephants such as defence and debt servicing are never put on the IMF’s – and therefore the government’s – chopping block when all and sundry are extolling the virtues of controlling the fiscal deficit. In the United States, intelligent voices have started to make noises about the relationship between the social and economic conditions of working people and the gargantuan defence budget; it does not take rocket science to recognise that there is a direct trade-off between spending money on bombs and spending money on meeting people’s needs.
It is unfortunate that the Pakistani media apes its American counterpart by not allowing such voices to gain the kind of audience that they deserve. There is a lot of hyperbole about American interference in our affairs and the violation of our sovereignty, but no one appears willing to accept that our own love-affair with nuclear bombs and military might is directly correlated with our inability to provide for ourselves and not have to rely on the largesse of the imperialist powers.
It is true that, from the very outset, imperialism has patronised the military establishment and ensured that Pakistan remains a garrison state. And this is precisely why only Pakistanis themselves can be relied upon to change the nature of the state and thereby the priorities that shape our public expenditures. Until and unless we insist that notional ‘security concerns’ and nuclear bombs are nowhere near as important as providing for people and creating a peaceful society, we will neither decrease our dependence on the IFIs and western governments, nor move beyond the cynicism and opportunism that have become so commonplace across the length and breadth of the land of the pure.
If nothing else, the sheer hypocrisy of the IMF and its sister institutions should be exposed. It is telling that IMF missions do not even bother to come to Pakistan anymore to negotiate with our finance managers, but instead summon the latter to the desert paradise of Dubai. Presumably the IMFers are worried about the ‘security situation’; it is the teeming 170 million in whose name the IMFers conduct their ‘development’ experiments that are left to deal with the fallouts of neo-liberalism and imperialist war.
With the resignation of finance minister Shaukat Tarin, Pakistan’s elected government has established the dubious record of having gone through three finance ministers in barely two years in office. The search for the fourth will be straightforward: the candidate will need to be fluent in neo-liberal speak, be familiar with the IMF, World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB) bureaucracies, and know how to lie to his own people about ‘development’, ‘progress’ and the ‘national interest’.
Source: http://www.thenews.com.pk, Wednesday, March 03, 2010 written by Aasim Sajjad Akhtar
The writer is an activist-academic who teaches at Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, and is closely affiliated with working-class movements. Email: amajid@comsats. net.pk
