Our leadership has largely ignored to focus on issues of national importance. With exception of building arms and ammunition, we have ignored every other aspect of national importance. Since inception, we have built only two dams namely Mangla and Tarbela, which are not even close to fulfilling our need for irrigation and energy. The Kalabagh dam was announced decades ago, but it never saw the light of the day because of the petty interests of our politicians. We kept borrowing from international lenders but never adopted the ways of austerity.
Our leaders kept their royal ways and wasted money due to poor governance and corruption. Without developing capacity and generating resources, the system could not bear the burden of the growing population and we kept falling into the debt trap. Heavy spending on defense and inefficient government set up led to the country becoming hostage to international lenders. We are now in a quagmire where we find it impossible to get out of it. On the one hand, we need money direly to keep our economy moving. On the other hand, we severely lack the capacity to return the loans and become self-sufficient. I am sure there can be a way out of this horrific situation if our leadership shuns personal differences and sits together to set the country in the right direction. If people see that the politicians are working selflessly for the betterment of the country, they will cooperate and will even be willing to accept tough measures. However, when people see our politicians constantly bickering and fighting for power, they lose hope and themselves become self-focused. I hope and pray that our leaders realize the kind of dire situation we are in and start working for the betterment of the country.
Raja Shafatullah
Islamabad
