The plan to fix Pakistan

Whilst the people of Pakistan suffer from food, electricity, gas, fuel shortages and the worst security and corruption environment in the country, most of the political parties are still busy politicking. In this electric environment where the debate has turned towards whose jalsa is the biggest, the resolution of the issues of people have been eclipsed. The questions being asked are: If the government is so dangerous why couldn't all these mega jalsas have taken place at d-chowk Parliament House Islamabad, so that it would have been forced to resign, thus liberating the poor awam immediately and preparing way for elections? Was this just a noora khushti, or bargaining tactic? Many have started wondering, if the political parties actually have a plan to fix Pakistan, or are they simply masters at blame game criticism and chaos creation. Many are wondering how the system will ever survive, if those in charge of politics have not been able to make the system strong and accountable. The system, which is a parliamentary democracy, has inherent checks and balances so that if there is a corrupt government, Parliament through the opposition plays the role of policing the system. However, it seems that the reconciliation politics has left crooks reconciling on the size of the pie to be gobbled. There has hardly been any policing of the system. There is nothing wrong with the system. There is something wrong with the will to use this system for accountability of governments by oppositions. Having witnessed enough inaction and blame games inside Parliament for the last three years I feel it is high time that sincere political friends from all political parties, experts and youth, meet urgently to discuss Pakistan's fix its. I have, therefore, personally taken the initiative and organised a roundtable conference (RTC) today, November 3, in Islamabad, titled The Plan to Fix Pakistan. All of Pakistan is invited to watch the proceedings live on my website at 3:00pm (www.marvimemon.com/?p=1228). Your comments will be welcome on twitter marvi_memon and facebook. The objective of Pakistan's first solution-oriented RTC is that it should encourage a healthy debate in the country on the fix its so that pressure can be built by the civil society on political parties on policy direction. There is no political party out there, which is talking solutions. Most of them are indulging in blame games and future election manifesto promises, which all sound the same. It is the urgent need of the hour that we assess how big a mess we are in and examine how we intend getting out of it. If we dont do this someone else will do this for us and we will be left high and dry. To get out of the mess, we need a plan that is a reformist agenda. To build that many RTCs are required. Secondly, the combination of youth-experts-politicians as equal stakeholders in the policy debate is a new trend that needs to be encouraged so that there is connectivity between them. This will be the first time that the youth, representing all units of the federation, will be giving policy direction to other stakeholders and learning from them about all the key issues facing Pakistan. The experts, who are masters in their field, will also be sharing their fix its for the action plan ahead. The feedback of experts is invaluable, because they are neutral non-political people, who only have as priority their areas of expertise.We intend also getting political leaders from each province to sit together as equal stakeholders in the new Pakistan. That is the only way the concept of Naya Pakistan can take root when each province is given equal importance for the resolution of their issues. The conference will start with presentations by youth delegates from each province on the crisis areas facing the country. This will be followed by expert presentations on the main issues such as economy, education, health, foreign affairs, water, energy, law and order, terrorism, media issues, judicial reform, electoral reform, democracy in parties, institutional corruption, national integration and provincial harmony. The last segment of the conference will leave the floor open for politicians to give their views on how they intend fixing these crises through unity of purpose. At the end of the RTC, we hope carving out a reformist agenda, which has consensus for action. This is only the beginning. The idea is to work with all of Pakistan for creating the awareness to come together for all of Pakistan, leaving aside our many differences. I am convinced that those who have a vision and a will to fix Pakistan will actually fix it, despite the political musical chairs. The writer is a former Member of the National Assembly of Pakistan.

The writer is a Member of the National Assembly of Pakistan.

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