Is economic turnaround in sight?

Courtesy:-  Mian Saifur Rehman

Two things appear to be quite fascinating — rather somewhat inspiring — in Punjab’s ‘Apna Rozgar Scheme’. According to Chief Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif, it is the country’s biggest welfare scheme of its kind and that it would provide respectable jobs to the youth of the province.

Indeed the term ‘biggest’ is encouraging as much heartening is Shahbaz Sharif’s commitment to the citizens’ respectability factor.

This combination has most often been found missing in many societies where the poverty-stricken beneficiaries would be subjected to hassle, non-transparent methods and discrimination, giving them a feeling of being at the mercy of the benefactors.

‘Apna Rozgar Scheme’ now formally inaugurated by the Punjab CM, Mian Shahbaz Sharif, has been aptly described by several commoners as benevolent intervention by the state to rescue the downtrodden and exploited classes from morass and impoverishment. No doubt, the main role in the area of economic expansion in the modern economies is usually played by the private sector, but the state (or for that matter the provincial governments enjoying considerable financial and administrative autonomy) just can’t and must not leave the deprived people at the mercy of circumstances. The circumstances ought to be given a direction and proper government support to ensure that the national resources are judiciously and fairly distributed to provide protection to those without resources or with lesser resources. This is what is expected of the state, which has to play the role of a tender-hearted patriarch caring for all, especially those who don’t have enough resources at their disposal to survive and sustain themselves.

A number of commoners in the street, when interviewed, stated that the most ideal thing about ‘Apna Rozgar Scheme’ is its transparency by way of which even those applicants have received the keys of vehicles who had no access to the influential people or to the corridors of power.

This correspondent too got a few chances to visit the ceremonies of this type where transparent balloting would be held in the presence of senior journalists through computer with not the slightest chance of vehicles and low-income houses going to the undeserving people.

It seems that now the governments have embarked vigorously and determinedly on the path of public empowerment more so the empowerment and self-development of youth with Punjab government taking the lead and motivating the other provinces to follow suit. Obviously, no province or party would like to lag behind in this healthy competition set into motion by the Punjab administration. The beneficiaries therefore are going to be the people of Pakistan starting from the people of Punjab.

Now coming to the ‘size and volume’ factor of this economic-amelioration and youth-empowerment plan, it can be verily called a colossal exercise that is very organised, fruitful and well-timed despite its wide network that involved several kinds of activities to be completed with exceptional speed as speed is the main priority and passion of Shahbaz Sharif, as also acknowledged openly before journalists by foreign dignitaries. Of course, starting a scheme that envisages distribution of 50,000 vehicles, simultaneously maintaining complete transparency is an uphill task.

The allocation of funds has been another challenge but, according to official figures, a huge amount of Rs31 billion has been allocated for this scheme.

It would have been a disaster had a similar scheme started three years ago by PML-N government met failure but the fact is that the previous scheme remained successful and its recovery rate is said to be 99.99 per cent. At that time, 20 thousand ‘Bolan’ and ‘Mehran’ vehicles were distributed among the youth on merit, valuing Rs10 billion whereas at present, commercial vehicles ‘Ravi’ and ‘Bolan’ are being distributed.

The CM’s claim looks quite valid that this scheme will not only result in generation of hundreds of thousands of new job opportunities but also directly benefit more than three hundred thousand persons with indirect benefits also accruing to hundreds of thousands of families.

In this entire exercise, another step needs mention that was taken by the Punjab government in the best interest of the public i.e. the vehicles’ applicants. It is so that unlike many governments of the past, Punjab government has got reduced more than two billion rupees in the package of 50,000 vehicles by holding negotiations with the manufacturing/assembling company. This has been rarely done in the past when people’s welfare schemes initiated by the governments had no focus on obtaining concessionary relief and passing it onward to the public.

And talking about relief, merit and transparency, another talk of the town is Land Record Management Information System. It is not the cost of the project (Rs14 billion for 36 districts and completion time of June 2015), it is rather the freedom from the whims and excesses of ‘patwaris’ and revenue officials that is in view. And that is a moment of rejoicing for the people who have seen blood feuds and lifelong family disputes and enmities in the wake of counterfeiting done with impunity and whimsically by a large number of revenue functionaries. One can even call it a declaration of independence from the culture of public exploitation that was not only confined to huge bribes but also stubborn nexus-formation among ‘patwaris’ with the patronage of influential personages.