Over the last five years, one question that has remained of integral significance amongst political contentions has been; was former military chief Pervez Musharraf better than this current ‘battered but not shattered’ democracy? You can easily find a group of people who believe that his ‘martially-democratic’ epoch from 1999 to 2008 was better than the current democracy we have. There is no doubt about it; his policies were a huge turn on for economic developments and they deserve extolment. But on the way, Mr Commando made some mistakes which instigated a series of social and political turmoil. Even if I try to use sasti (insubstantial) Pakistani political arguments, I cannot refute the fact that during the Commando’s era, economic conditions were much, much better. The economy, in general, was doing great; there were more jobs and businesses were recording higher profits. “I remember the Musharraf period was great in terms of business and political peace; we were hiring extensively as compared to now. Actually, not only us, the software industry, were hiring, but job-seeking graduates were more comfortable at that time about getting jobs as compared to now. That’s my observation”, Salim Ghauri, chairman and CEO at NetSol Technologies told me in a brief conversation. According to the reports by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Pakistan was the third fastest growing economy after China and India during that era. In 2002, the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) was declared the “Best Performing Stock Market of the World for the year 2002”. Our industrial sector registered 26.5% growth on average. Manufacturing and construction sectors recorded a 30 year and 17 year high, respectively. The highest increase in tax collection of around Rs1trillion was injected in government revenues. Amazingly, Pakistan railway was making profits. Other indicators include a drastic decrease in poverty. CNG fuel, information technology and especially the telecommunication sectors registered massive growths, and the dollar was just at Rs60. Musharraf even played a significant role in transforming the infrastructure of this country. Four dams (Subakzai, Gomalzam, Khurram and Tangi) were constructed during his period. He initiated the plans to work on seven motorways in different areas of Pakistan; some were completed during his period and others remained under construction. Advanced Gawadar port, Kachi Canal Project, Lyari Expressway and a 650km long coastal highway are also among the many achievements of Musharraf’s period. Pervez Musharraf can also be hailed as the liberator of the media; being a dictator, he was the only one who seemed confident enough of himself and his countrymen to have given Pakistani’s the freedom of speech as well. He took major steps to empower the Pakistani women in our local and national assemblies and his aggressive education policy contributed to major positive riffles in Pakistan’s education system; our literacy rate improved by 11% during his period. Nine well equipped engineering universities and 18 public universities, all over Pakistan irrespective of ethnic orientations, were made during his time. Several technical colleges and institutions also spurted during his reign. Pakistan’s launched its first satellite, Paksat-1, in his time – Musharraf made it happen. His remarkable words cannot be forgotten: “Pakistan’s space programme is now ahead of India after the formal launching of Paksat-1 and this is due to the hard work of our scientists, and I am sure Indians would take another 30 months to do the job.” It was during his time that after years, the issue of Jammu and Kashmir was on the front table for talks.
Posted on: Fri, 26 Jul 2013 18:51:28 +0000
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