Mehmood Ul Hassan Khan
United we stand, disunited we fall. It is the lesson of ancient wisdom and modern civilization too. Nations tend to be doomed when disunity prevails. Unity is strength and disunity is now spreading like an epidemic disease in the country. Political heat, humidity and stupidity have reached near its peak. Culture of political dialogue, statesmanship and diplomacy are inching towards “point of no return”. Such are the sad affairs of statesmanship.
Vultures of power have already enhanced tally of controversies. Now August 14, the Independence Day seems no more to be a day of unity, peace and stability. All efforts are being carried out to make it a day of disunity, protest, and disability. Everyone from top to bottom across the board (government & opposition, pressure group and so-called religious factions) is dying for the sanctity of “Democracy”, “Constitution” and “State”. And unfortunately majority of them even do not know the true spirit of democracy, constitution and statehood. That is why, words have lost their meanings, promises have become fictions, and performances have been turned into processions and protests. Confusion, confrontation and conspiracy are order of the day.
Revolution, democracy, basic right, constitution and state are the common words of every “Shiekh Chilli”, conspirator and 
schemers who are anxiously waiting to receive “green signal” from the establishment to derail the system.
Merchants of green revolution, true democracy, and qualitative life, provision of basic rights, justice, and equality are desperately making efforts to pollute the innocent minds of their followers and supports alike. Dreams of common people have been sabotaged because of greediness, mental inflexibility, personal taboos, and oratory of so-called leaders or ladders. Because, Pakistan, governance, happiness, freedom and privileges do not only belong to political leaders even common people have a say in the system.
Leaders with big bungalows, luxury automobiles, unaccountable bank balances, clout of security guards, and last but not the least privileged life style holders are crying/dying at the mercy of common people. So-called sympathizers of poor even do not know the meaning of poverty, basic necessities of life and helplessness. On the other hand, tug-of-war between the “purified souls” and “sacred cows” is at its highest level.
Now, economy is crumbled Stock Exchanges have been badly crashed. Uncertainty flies high. Soft image is dashed to the ground. Doom and gloom are making inroad everywhere. Political system is under performed and paralyzed. Society is divided. Ethnicity is wreaking havoc. “Minus Plus Formulas” are becoming the wandering souls in the country. Intelligentsia is at cross-roads. Artificial intelligence is deciding the fates of common people. Collective wisdom, indigenous merit, productivity, progress and prosperity are all at stake.
The government, its allied parties and opposition parties in parliament, except the PTI, are on the same page and are in an agreement to protect democracy, the constitution and parliament. Even government is ready to accept the demand for electoral reforms and for this particular issue, a 33 member committee has been constituted and the reforms will be worked out and implemented in the next four years so that in the next election, no party could dispute the outcome. The reports of UNDP and FAFEN has already denied large-scale rigging and termed the 2013 elections the most transparent so far in the electoral history of Pakistan.
Common people, the silent majority is at the receiving end. Jugglers are making every effort to making this country jungle of their 
own dreams. Outcome of this may have dangerous consequences. Libyan state is diminished. Syria is at the verge of collapse. Iraq is now brutally divided. Afghanistan is still in search of safe-heavens and businessmen and investors like migratory birds have already flown from Jordan, Algeria, Bahrain and Kuwait. Persistence of political vagueness may harm the entity of our state. Think and think fast please!
The encouraging thing is that political leadership has huddled and tried to avert the imminent chaos and anarchy. It is feared that economic growth would be put into a nosedive if political situation remains uncertain in the days to come.
Macro-economy indicators are healthy and positive. The latest reports of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), World Bank, IMF and the last but not the least, Moody (rating) all show improvement in the national economy.
According to the report of the finance ministry (August, 2014), the year 2013-14 under the PML-N government experienced a 5.7 percent fiscal deficit against 8.2 percent in 2012-13, GDP growth of 4.14 percent against the revised GDP growth of 3.7 percent in 2012-13.
According to the said report, per capita income has increased to $2,340 in 2013-14 from $1,386, showing a growth of 3.43 percent. Revenue growth has increased by 16.44 percent to Rs2,266 billion from Rs1,946 billion, All international financial institutions (IFIs) are now willing to work with Pakistan on different mega projects of energy and infrastructure.
The foreign exchange rates have been stabilized through corrective measures and would keep the value of dollar at Rs99 and the future projections are also being fixed at this rate. The foreign exchange reserves stood at $7.5 billion in 2013 and now these have risen to $14.3 billion and would hopefully stand at $15 billion in December, 2014 this year. July-May figures showed that industrial sector grew by 4.2 percent against 3.9 percent in 2012-13. The growth in industrial sectors is witnessed mainly because of increased availability of electricity and better management of gas supplies.
Moreover, the government has managed to maintain the inflation at single digit i.e. 8.6 percent. The government took some significant steps to maintain the inflation at single digit against the projected figure of 12 percent.
The government succeeded to reduce budget deficit by 2.5 percent, and managed to find the fiscal space owing to which the development spending had increased to Rs425 billion in 2013-14 against Rs360 billion in 2012-13. The minister said that because of improvement in revenue growth, the government borrowing from State bank of Pakistan had reduced to Rs303 billion from Rs1,446 billion in 2012-13 owing to which the credit to private sector had increased to Rs378.8 billion against just Rs19.2 billion during period from July 1, 2012 to June 28, 2013 showing that the economic activities had gained momentum in the country.
The export grew to $25.13 billion from $24.46 billion showing the growth of 2.73 percent and imports increased $45.11 billion in 2013-14 from $44.95 billion in 2012-13 showing negligible increase of 0.35 percent. The growth in remittances also surged by 13.7 percent to $15.83 billion from $13.93 billion in 2012-13 which again showed substantial improvement in the macro-economy of the country.
Concluding Remarks
In democracy there is no point of return. Spirits of dialogue, diplomacy and accommodation must prevail otherwise there may be an atmosphere of chaos and disability. Democracy stands for delivery, equality, justice and freedom not for destruction, discrimination and injustice. It is not the deity of self-glorification and self-projection of personal taboos. It stands for collective wisdom and collective unity and must not the used for establishing dynasties. Massive political uncertainty is a wake-up call for the ruling elite. It must act above its personal desires in order to make this country a land of opportunity for all.
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