There is ample discussion about technocrat setup in the country to meet the current challenge of defaulting economy. The discussion unfolded on Tuesday when the former Chairman Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR), Shabbar Zaidi said that the talks are underway for bringing in the technocrat setup in the country. Since then the discussions and speculations regarding technocrat setup are surfacing everywhere.
However, the response from political parties shows that there is no reality in this discussion. The first response witnessed from the former Prime Minister and Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan who has first time given the statement that he is no more seeing the general election to be held in near future. He considered the discussion regarding technocrat setup as a threat. The ruling parties are also negating these speculations as the federal minister for railways, Khawaja Saad Rafique categorically rejected the mantra of bringing the technocrat setup in the country.
Federal minister for interior, Rana Sana Ullah has also categorically rejected this discussion. Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) attempt to build up the narrative of a potential technocrat setup is aimed at stoking political instability and uncertainty, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said. It was stated by the federal minister while responding to a statement of PTI Senior Vice-President Fawad Chaudhry, who had earlier said: “It’s a joke to bring a government of technocrats for two-and-a-half years.”
Similarly Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) is also not in the favor of technocrat setup in the country. So, the response from all the political parties regarding technocrat setup is same. All the political parties are on the same page in this regard. But, the discussion that has been unfolded in the country needs a proper explanation as there are a number of questions which are being raised in the minds of people.
Technocrat setup is basically a setup of the government where the key positions in the government are given to the technocrats who are well trained and experts of their fields. Bringing such a system in a country always means that the political parties either have failed in running the state or have no eligibility for doing that. So, at this point such a system is usually introduced in the country with the backing of armed forces and establishment. Technocratic set ups are usually brought when the state is in a great trouble either due to some issue related to economy or others.
Pakistan is currently facing the worst economic situation. Foreign exchange reserves have come down to historical low. So, due to the defaulting economy a number of speculations are surfacing on media and social media. This is the reason due to which the discussion on technocrat setup has been unfolded. But, the question here is that whether technocrat setup is the only solution of the issues being faced by the country currently? So the answer is a big no. The reason is that all the three types of the government including Parliamentary system, presidential system, and technocratic system have been failed in Pakistan. The reason is only that the backend handlers remain same in all the cases. So, the technocrat setup is not the solution. Instead of bringing technocrat setup the political parties should wisely utilize the reserved seats for the technocrats.
Published in Daily Country News, December 30th, 2022.
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