Leaving philosophical and religious thoughts aside, if we look at the bitter ground realities, we can see that every human being is striving for having more and more control. It is a control struggle that keeps us busy in doing so many things. We try to diagnose our problem. The problem is the distance between our desired destination and our present position. It is said that identification of a problem solves half the problem. A true understanding of our problems is the first step for development in any field. Wisdom guides us in fixing our goals for a better position and for having more control over the environment. There is no status quo in the life of nations. Either they are developing or declining. For protecting our freedom and living with honor, we need to compete with others. If a nation doesn’t compete and develop, it will face the fate of slavery of those nations that compete in economics, science, and technology and develop faster.
If we think that some thousand people of the administration can take us to the destination of development, it is wrong. A cart of 22 crore people can’t be driven until and unless every one of us uses its full strength to pull it ahead. Are we developing as a nation or going in reverse is a question of a common man, but he is always confused with the statistics offered by the governments? Let us look at our economic realities in a way easily understandable by the common people. Earning bread and butter is still a problem in many parts of the world. In our country, a lot of improvement has been observed during the last half-century. We are lucky for having good manpower, fertile agricultural lands, mineral resources, and good four seasons. Unemployment is a global problem. The main reason for this is that everyone cannot always find a job of his/her own choice. It is rightly said that learning something is not enough in this rapidly changing world.
You must also learn to unlearn and relearn. Young people never bother to research about emerging needs of the job market while selecting their disciplines and getting training for certain jobs. In our society, educated people consider many good businesses and jobs below their standard and waste a long time in search of their favorite job. Their degree doesn’t help them whereas illiterate people are earning handsome incomes from petty businesses. Without entangling in data, we can easily understand the process of development by very simple indicators that have been also agreed upon by the economists. First thing is infrastructure of roads; second is urbanization; third is ample job opportunities; fourth is advancement in science, technology and industry; fifth is education and health facilities; sixth is justice; seventh is security; eighth is bringing down the gap of rich and poor, and ninth is larger fulfillment of the human potential.
We must remember that development and civilization travels with the roads. Not only motorways of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) program are rapidly completed but side roads have also been doubled within the past some years. It is observed that whenever opportunity of business and jobs is enhanced, prices of immoveable property are raised. In Pakistan, we observe that prices of property are going up everywhere. Markets are showing full capacity businesses and in agricultural sector, per acre production is going up steadily. In science and technology, we have made proper use of our human resource in defence and are fully prepared to face any type of aggression. Nevertheless, on the civil side, due to certain reasons, we can’t make use of our valuable human resource. There are millions of degree holder young people waiting for job opportunities. But there are neither jobs nor any guidance for them. Looking at the urbanization, in this regard, perhaps we are the fastest among the developing countries. That means people are getting better living conditions and better livelihood opportunities.
The coalition government of Prime Minister Imran Khan has done so much for health and education opportunities, but it has failed in providing free compulsory education for all. Justice and security of life’s position is pitiable. Gap between poor and rich is widening day-by-day. No effective plans are made for the youth’s capacity building and for imparting them compatible skills to come updated for the needs of new era. In general, leaving corruption, law and justice aside, one can say that in general we have sound footing for development. There is a need of behavioral change and entrepreneurship spirit. Mineral and agriculture resources are there. Industry is running on sound footing. Markets are earning better than anywhere else in the world. We are trying to get out of energy problem. Everything else is set ready for the bright future of our economy. Nevertheless, we need to know the ways and importance of crushing corruption with heavy hands, and bring justice to the door steps of the aggrieved ones.
