government has increased expenditures but did nothing for the people," Miftah Ismail
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00:00As-salamu alaykum, Dr. Miftah.
00:04Wa alaykum as-salam.
00:08You have written such a depressing column to refresh our memories.
00:12Your column on 31st December was published during the war.
00:15You point out that in the 1990s, Pakistan was the richest country in South Asia.
00:21Today we are one of the poorest countries.
00:24In 1995, the Human Development Index of the United Nations
00:29was 6 degrees ahead of India and 18 degrees ahead of Bangladesh.
00:36Today, we are 29 degrees behind India and 32 degrees below Bangladesh.
00:44Similarly, we are second in the world in terms of the number of newborns.
00:50You have written such a depressing column.
00:53Anyway, let's come back to today.
00:56Tell me, the targets that the government has planned.
01:00Let's come to digital first.
01:02Because that is very important.
01:04The whole country is fed up.
01:06They are saying that the digital economy is very powerful.
01:08We have to invest billions of dollars in it.
01:10They are still saying that there is 28% growth.
01:13The internet is not opening up in this country.
01:16Nothing is happening.
01:18There is no international payment system.
01:20Let's come to the digital economy first.
01:22Is it a doable target?
01:26No.
01:28Look, two things cannot happen at the same time.
01:31Restrictions on the internet and trade through the internet cannot grow together.
01:37Either you impose restrictions or trade through the internet.
01:40Let me tell you an incident from Islamabad.
01:42I was in Islamabad two weeks ago.
01:44A child came to meet me in a restaurant.
01:46I asked him, son, what do you do?
01:48He said, I do an online job.
01:50He works in a semiconductor company in America.
01:53He says that he has to install a proxy server and work on their server.
01:59Because it is their proprietary technology.
02:02But he says that we cannot do it.
02:04We cannot register a proxy or VPN here.
02:07People are facing a lot of problems.
02:10You keep seeing on the internet that our job is gone.
02:13Our contract is gone.
02:15First of all, there is no point in shutting down the internet.
02:17Because there are no statements from the government,
02:19the statements are not valid.
02:21The statements of the opposition and PTI are valid.
02:23And secondly, if you are imposing restrictions on our children on the internet,
02:27then what have you done for them?
02:29We cannot give them a job ourselves.
02:31In Pakistan, they do freelancing through the internet.
02:34They take jobs all over the world.
02:36They are sitting here who do not get visas.
02:38Now, if you shut them down,
02:40then you have to run this country only as your property.
02:45You have to rule the country.
02:47You have to serve the people of the country.
02:52You have to serve them.
02:54You have to make it easy for them.
02:56This cannot happen, no matter how much we talk about it.
02:59I was watching something very interesting.
03:02For the past year and a half, we have been hearing,
03:06it is better to count the government of PDN2.
03:10These were the same people who were running the government then and are still running it.
03:14They are saying that the size of the government should be reduced.
03:17The size is not decreasing.
03:19It is increasing.
03:21Interestingly, when we were talking yesterday and the day before yesterday,
03:25S.N. Iqbal said that we only get 10,000 Arabs after the NFC,
03:31when we give money to all the provinces.
03:33And that goes into our interest payments.
03:36We take everything in loans.
03:40Loans have increased exponentially.
03:43They have gone into trillions.
03:45But I was seeing that instead of reducing it in MEC, it has increased.
03:49Just look at the internet.
03:51When they were talking, what did they announce?
03:53National Center for Brand Management.
03:56These are the world's national centers for brand management.
04:00These are the countries' products and private sectors that make their own brands.
04:03Anyway, National Center for Brand Management.
04:06Quantum Computing National Center has been announced.
04:09Nanotechnology National Center has been announced.
04:12New Manufacturing National Center has been announced.
04:15In the past, they said that they had made centers for AI, cloud computing,
04:20auto robotics, big data centers, and all these national centers.
04:26No one knows what those centers have done, what the results were, and what not.
04:31These four centers are being made.
04:35What did they say?
04:37We have to increase revenues, increase taxes, and we have to do this.
04:41Can the government be small or not?
04:44The federal government spends 8.8 times a year.
04:49So, why don't we have these savings?
04:53Why don't we start cutting from here?
04:56The government should have a plan to do anything.
05:02There should be a plan and an intention, but first of all, there should be a plan.
05:06They didn't have a plan.
05:08This year, they increased their net expenditure by 22%.
05:13Current expenditures have increased by 22%.
05:16Now that you have 12% inflation, what is the point of increasing it by 22%?
05:21Secondly, they have increased the expenses of the Ph.D.P. by 65%.
05:26Even after reducing it, it has increased by 65%.
05:29So, they are not reducing it from anywhere.
05:31We give 12,000 rupees to the provincial government, which I have also written in the article.
05:3512,000 rupees means that every Pakistani, whether he is a child, an old man, a poor person,
05:40or a rich person, gives 50,000 rupees to every provincial government.
05:44And the provinces don't give us any service.
05:47We don't get any benefit from it.
05:49We have only done the concept that the government should be for the government,
05:54and not for services.
05:56So, they have increased the government.
05:58They have increased the government's salaries.
06:00They have increased the expenses.
06:01I have no objection to increasing the salaries, but they have increased the expenses.
06:04The Ph.D.P. has kept 600-700 billion rupees.
06:06They have spent it on their MPs and MNAs so that they get some political benefit.
06:10So, there is no concept.
06:12Whatever they had said, that we will reduce the ministries, they didn't do it.
06:15They had said that we will devolve some ministries, they didn't do it.
06:18They didn't make a commission for the NFC award.
06:20They had talked about the National Finance Pact, they didn't do it.
06:23They didn't spend a single penny.
06:25Today, I was reading in the newspaper, in ProfitPK, that the variable cost of generating electricity is 7 rupees.
06:31And the average tariff that is coming to the consumer is 45 rupees.
06:34The government charges you 500 times more than the variable cost of electricity.
06:39A country cannot run like this.
06:41But this is not serious in running a country.
06:45In Punjab, I have an objection.
06:49In Punjab, the MPs' salaries have increased by 400%.
06:52The ministers' salaries have increased by almost 900%.
06:55So, there is an objection on the salaries.
06:57But tell me, isn't this a simple thing that we are being told such small stories?
07:03Simply, give the local governments the power, give them money, devolve the subjects,
07:09make roads, education, all this.
07:12Why are these plans being made with such big names?
07:15Why can't simple solutions be made? Isn't that a solution?
07:19Today, as we speak, in KP, there is a lot of bloodshed, tears are flowing.
07:25The local MPs are asking for money for themselves,
07:28that give us our budgets, the provincial government doesn't do it.
07:31The rest of the governments have done the same.
07:33Isn't this a local, grassroot level solution,
07:35instead of making 1800 centres and creating a scene?
07:42Look, just to take one example,
07:44Google is making a quantum computer.
07:46That too, at least 10-15 years back.
07:4810-15 years back, Google is making a quantum computer.
07:52There won't be two people in Pakistan, who are in Pakistan right now,
07:55who can work on quantum computing, or who understand quantum computing.
07:59I assure you.
08:00Now, if you make this centre, you will make a building,
08:03it will be inaugurated, everything will be done, jobs will be created,
08:06Chaprasi will come, Naib Qasid will come, additional secretaries will come,
08:09joint secretaries will come, Dalai's cars will come,
08:12the cars will be given to the secretary, jobs will be created,
08:16and the work will be the same as what the Agricultural University has been doing since 1970.
08:21Not a single penny of work has been done.
08:23The work will be the same as what the four institutions,
08:25the institutions of AI have done for us, not a single penny of work has been done.
08:28The work will be the same as what the institutions of Big Data have done for us,
08:30not a single penny of work has been done.
08:32So, it will be like this.
08:33So, these are their hobbies, without thinking, because they are someone else's money.
08:38If it was the money of the people, if they had invested their own money,
08:40then they would not have made any such centre.
08:42If it was the money of the people, they would have said,
08:44make this centre, where will the money come from, Allah is great.
08:46You know, the PM has just gone to China,
08:49give him a train worth 8 billion dollars,
08:51how will you return the money from the train?
08:53But Allah is great, we will see later.
08:55The way we have installed electricity, Allah is great.
08:57So, they don't think.