The swift official action across Punjab last week to seize illegally held wildlife, mostly lions, made headlines. But the episode once again became a powerful reminder of a yawning gap, exposing a continuing, long-term failure to enforce the state’s writ in Pakistan.
Notwithstanding the seizures of illegally kept wildlife, Pakistan remains a country with huge gaps in enforcing the law of the land. In the past, the illegal presence of endangered animals in domestic homes has been discovered as well. Yet, the recurrence of this trend says much about the failure to end the practice. Eventually, it is just not surprising that some of Pakistan’s most promising brains chose to migrate abroad, willingly cutting off ties to their native land.
In another well-publicised event in recent days, local officials in Karachi have jumped into the fray to bring ‘those responsible to justice’, after at least 73 people were killed in the Gul Plaza tragedy. The fire raised multiple questions, notably the quality of construction of commercial buildings across Pakistan’s largest city, and the failure to build up the capacity of essential services – especially its fire-fighting services – to match Karachi’s population growth.
In daily lives across Pakistan, such events are a powerful reminder of a country run mostly to promote the interests of the elite. In sharp contrast, matters surrounding the lives of low to moderate-income Pakistanis have received little more than lip service under successive regimes. It is therefore not surprising that periods of relative success for Pakistan’s economy have left significant chunks of the population on the margins of society. Clearly, this provides a striking contrast which exposes the heart of Pakistan’s dilemma – a failure to sustain a balanced progress during eras of higher economic growth. Eventually, this journey has, time and again, made the already empowered even more powerful, while the already disenfranchised have been pushed further towards the periphery.
Fixing the malaise that has made parts of Pakistan practically ungovernable requires the country’s ruling elite to join hands as never before. Their pursuit of a common goal of stabilising Pakistan requires their full backing of at least three areas at the centre of the government’s performance.
First, a comprehensive review of government performance at the grassroots must also examine exactly where the breakdown began. In recent decades, successive governments have focused on choices that instantly won them praise and favour with influential lobbies. In sharp contrast, impoverished communities and individuals without the means to receive even a minimum subsistence income have struggled whenever they have needed services that they must have received as a matter of right. Second, a comprehensive approach to improving the writ of the state must be built from targeting outright criminality to areas central to successfully administering any modern-day state. In Pakistan’s case, a blatant disregard for rule of law has led to increased economic crime. These range from tax evasion to an outright refusal to pay their dues.
In this journey, a former prime minister’s role in introducing two categories of tax compliance – ‘tax filer’ and ‘non filer’ – said much about the failure of previous governments to reform Pakistan’s notoriously corrupt tax collection system. The end result was a rush of prospective investors towards some of Pakistan’s larger cities, armed with ‘filer’ IDs that allowed them to buy real estate at a reduced tax rate. But it is still not clear exactly how much of a lift went into creating a sustainable mechanism that would improve annual tax collections.
But aside from forcing individuals to pay their dues, it is equally vital for Pakistan to establish a long-term commitment to reforming its tax collection system and using it judiciously. For years, Pakistanis have complained of a continuing decline in the quality of government-provided healthcare and education. This decline, in large part, has flowed from a weak system of reforming tax collection.
Finally, it is essential for all of Pakistan’s main political players to come together and give their stamp of approval to a reformed tax collection system. In the past, powerful individuals were known to use their clout to avoid paying their dues. But Pakistan’s repeated failure, year after year, to meet its annual tax collection targets has, over time, endangered the country’s very independence. In sharp contrast to Pakistan’s strategic position as the world’s only Islamic country armed with nuclear weapons, it has increasingly faced an increasing vulnerability on its economic front. Reforming the economy must become Pakistan’s agenda number one, without which it will remain short of gaining a respectable position on the world stage.
The writer is an Islamabad-based journalist who writes on political and economic affairs. He can be reached at: [email protected]
