Interview with Dr Asiya Saif Alvi — an analyst
[box type=”shadow” align=”” class=”” width=””]Profile:
Dr Asiya Saif Alvi is a dynamic young political analyst from Lahore. After finishing her school and college education, she went to Islamabad for Masters from Quaid-e-Azam University. After doing her Masters, she joined a local college in Lahore for teaching. Simultaneously, she got admission in Government College Lahore for her MPhil in the political science department. Meanwhile, she quit her job of the college and started working at the Virtual University of Pakistan. After doing her MPhil, she got enrolled in the PhD program in the University of the Punjab. While doing her PhD, she worked as a Lecturer in the UET Taxila for one year and then moved to Lahore College of Women University. After six months, she selected as an assistant professor in the Department of Politics and IR in the University of Sargodha. In the University of Sargodha, she has attended more than a dozen National and International conferences.
The University of Sargodha, where she is serving at present, sent her to China in 2017 for a teaching diploma. She has written more than a dozen research articles in Pakistan’s renowned journals.[/box]
PAKISTAN & GULF ECONOMIST had an exclusive conversation with Dr Asiya Saif Alvi. Excerpts of the conversation are as follows:
It has been two years since Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) came in power. Today there exist two popular thoughts about PTI’s performance as yet. One blames PTI for having been “an unmitigated disaster” (Shehbaz Sharif, former chief minister of Punjab, Pakistan) and that it “has given us the worst economy in our country’s history, foreign policy failures from Kashmir to Saudi Arabia, democracy & human rights suffering, unemployment at an all-time high, transparency international has said corruption is higher than before” (Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party). The other popular opinion says that PTI has emerged as a savior in this by far corrupt and inertia-stricken system. That it has not only rooted out corruption, it has also uplifted the image of Pakistan before the entire world.
Surprisingly, both the popular opinions are correct if analyzed in depth. The two-year odyssey of PTI presents a potpourri of successes and failures, ups and downs, brilliant initiatives and blunders.
Let us analyze first, the failures, downs and blunders committed by the PTI government, so far. Fairly speaking, the PTI tenure is imbued with failures, which the leadership does accept. Neither any new project came up during the last two years, and nor any project initiated in the last two years, neared completion. Other than the current account deficit, there does not exist any other macro indicator that has shown any signs of improvement. In fact, all the economic indicators gravely worsened during the last two years. In short, the people of Pakistan are much worse off now than they used to be in mid-2018, and are left with nothing to hope for in terms of any improvement in the rest of the five-year term.
Another issue, which has tainted PTI’s image, is that it failed to contain the outbreak of Polio. It is rather unsettling to say that even in 2019, Pakistan recorded more than 80% of all the cases in the all over the world. The number of the polio-stricken reached soaring 147 in 2019. The crippling disease continued to persist even four years after claimed to have been eliminated from the country. The polio resurgence indicated grave failure at PTI’s part to protect the citizens from that contagious outbreak which, even the poorer countries had managed to root out.
Moreover, never in the past did it occur that our relations with India worsened to a point where it went completely rogue as it did on August 5, 2019. India announced the revocation of the Articles 35-A and 370 of its constitution ripping Kashmir off its special status of being a disputed territory. It was a huge failure on the part of PTI government’s foreign policy making strategies and employment of soft power. By hook or by the crook, the earlier governments never let Kashmir get simply snatched away. An unnecessarily harsh accountability regime is also one of the main failures of this government. Especially the executive pillar of the state was so unduly held accountable that those who once used to serve honestly yet boldly by avoiding red-tapism, are now hesitant to work like before due to the fear of an overly enthusiastic NAB (National Accountability Bureau).
Every cloud has a silver lining. The PTI government has achieved things that never in the entire history of our country could be. There was no foreign minister of Pakistan for a long period of time during the tenure of the last government, because of which our country’s stance could was not aptly conveyed to the world. This “diplomatic isolation” was ended by the efforts of the PTI government – reaching out to friendly states and improving bonds with the international community. Now, “a dramatic shift can be seen from diplomatic isolation to effective representation”. Prime Minister Imran Khan ‘internationalized’ the issue of Kashmir and because of this, the world today is well aware of the violation of rights of Kashmiris in the occupied area, by the Indian armed forces. Kashmir issue is as old as Pakistan, however, somehow, it was “intentionally kept on the back burner” all this time.
Pakistan also took the initiative to develop “economic partnership” with the African countries, with the population of 1.3 billion people. The ‘Look Africa Initiative’ has been launched and is expected to increase manifold in the continent, trade and investment. The African region is still by far untapped and possesses immense potential for Pakistan to switch its focus from the Arab world and liberate itself from their dependency.
Moreover, the government launched a number of different support programs for the citizens of Pakistan. Under the ‘Emergency Cash Assistance Programme’, the government provided cash to the lower-income families who were hit by the health crisis. It was indeed for the first time that any government had announced a relief program in order to support masses.
Along with this the government also launched cheap loans to help out small traders so that they may not have to fire the staff because of funds’ scarcity. The government also managed to provide relief to the traders by paying off their bills for three continuous months. As a result of such initiatives of the government, the economy grew despite the fact that Covid-19 crisis was sweeping away the economy. Due to such policies of the government, economic observers and organizations such as Moody’s, Bloomberg and Fitch had updated Pakistan’s rating.
Another major success of this government was the inauguration of ‘Kartarpur Corridor’. With its inauguration, not only has Pakistan opened a new avenue of great economic significance, it has also increased our country’s ‘soft power’ across the border. Today a huge chunk of our foe country’s population – Sikhs – has a soft corner for Pakistan.
The strict accountability regime of this government has taken over corruption with an iron hand. It would not be entirely wrong to say that at the upper levels of legislature and executive, corruption has been rooted out. Along with this the strict tax regime, introduced by the PTI, has also given a strong push to the crippled and dwindling economy of Pakistan.
The past two-year tenure of the PTI government is full of ups and downs. The most important thing is that it’s survival in the faces of Fazal-ur-Rehman led agitation, a potential martial law during that sensitive time, and the Covid-19 pandemic reflects PTI’s resolve to stay and serve in whatsoever way it can.