Defending the economic performance of the Musharraf led government on a TV channel an economist associated with the previous regime has repeated the claim that the middle and lower middle classes had expanded under the military ruler and that the gap between the poorest and the richest was the narrowest as compared to other countries. Asked if he really thought the gap had narrowed over the years, he insisted on comparing the trend with other countries in the region. He also quoted figures which according to him showed the Musharraf led government had made strides in producing electricity. Statistics have been employed by successive governments to hoodwink people. The practice becomes all too common towards the fag end of an administration which is losing popularity on account of its failure to deliver. It is at this moment when those managing the economy start churning out figures of unprecedented development. The propaganda is launched with such vehemence and for so long that the rulers themselves become victims of their own propaganda. Statistics turn into blinkers. The problem with the people however is that they can neither eat statistics when the prices of food go beyond their reach, nor light their bulbs with them during outages, nor heat the rooms with their help when the gas supply suddenly breaks down. The rulers and the people thus start living in two worlds, the first in the idyllic ivory tower made of statistics and the other in the rough and tumble world where they have to confront harsh realities of everyday life. Marie Antoinette who is reported to have said during a famine that Frenchmen should eat 'cakes' if they could not get hold of 'bread' was definitely wearing blinkers. So was Ayub Khan who called on the people to eat 'potatoes' if 'wheat' was scarce. Ayub Khan concluded that what was needed to gain the people's sagging confidence was to repeat the statistics manufactured by his economic managers day and night. In 1968 his administration decided to celebrate the achievements of the Green Revolution and the Decade of Progress. For months the state controlled radio and TV aired programmes eulogising the economic boom they believed had changed the masses' lives. The propaganda failed to convince thousands of jobless people and the common man afflicted by inflation. The year marked the beginning of the anti-Ayub movement that was to end in his removal in March 1969. Every regime has its own economic spin masters who prettify the economic imbalances and the squalor created by their policies. Ayub Khan and Zia had Mehboobul Haq. Under Ayub, the economist advocated pro-big business policies maintaining that soon the benefits would trickle down to the common man. When this failed to happen and instead gave birth to poverty, inflation and large-scale unemployment, he justified the policies through the dictum that economic exploitation is necessary for development. Under Zia, Mehboobul Haq advocated seeking more and more foreign loans maintaining that these were necessary for development. As a consequence the next government landed in the clutches of the IMF. Earlier, statistics fed into the ears of ZAB by his economic wizards about the benefits accruing from nationalisation had encouraged him to order the take over of smaller industrial units like rice husking mills and cotton ginning factories that the government could not simply afford to manage. Besides, their nationalisation sent alarming bells ringing in the business community which then got determined to go all out against the PPP government. The common man doesn't need to read Gunnar Myrdle to be convinced of the inadequacy of the process of statistics collection in South Asia. He has enough personal experience to conclude that from lies and damned lies the politicians often move to the next stage called statistics. In the present government Mr Rehman Malik has a special knack for creating statistical illusions. What he has been saying about Balochistan might put a blinker on the eyes of President Zardari but is likely to add to the already considerable store of disaffection in the province. He told the Senate last month that on demands of Baloch leaders, 36 FC checkposts were removed and the pending debt of Rs 75 billion was written off. What is more Mr Zardari 'okayed' a package of Rs 46 billion for the province. Of 270 missing persons in Balochistan the government recovered (i.e. released) 94. What else could the ungrateful Balochis want? He rubbed further salt in their wounds with another type of statistics. 1,000 Baloch students, he said, had received (military) training from the Soviet Union which supported BLA. What effects the statistics had on those they were meant to convince can be gauged by the resentment shown by some of the Baloch senators at the floor of the House, particularly Malik Baloch and Hasil Bizenjo. E-mail: azizuddin@nation.com.pk