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Pakistan Politics: General Elections 2018 Update; Party Manifestos - PTI vs. PML-N

• Both major political parties, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) have released their party manifestos, which make several usual promises.  While former Govt. PML-N’s deliverables can be compared with its earlier made pledges, people will eye KPK Govt.’s 5-Year performance as a benchmark to scrutinize PTI’s promises, we believe.
• PTI’s 2018 manifesto starts off with ensuring equality of rule of law and transforming governance while PML-N’s manifesto highlights the party’s legacy of focusing on economic growth and world class infrastructure.
• Although there are a fair amount of similarities in PTI and PML-N's manifestos, their approach towards addressing certain key economic issues is fundamentally different. For instance, PML-N has stressed the need to privatize State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) while PTI has pledged to revive these institutions through corporatization and transfer of their ownership to a Wealth Fund, modeled along the lines of ‘Khazanah Nasional’ fund of Malaysia, as per the manifesto.
• On water scarcity of Pakistan, a much talked about issue these days (under the directives of Supreme Court, an account has recently been set up to collect funds for the construction of Basha Dam and Mohmand Dam) both parties stress the need to implement a National Water Policy with special emphasis on construction of Bhasha and small dams and a need to devise a system to conserve water.
• In response to PTI and PML-N’s manifestos, a leading local newspaper ‘DAWN’ ran headlines in its Economy section as follows: ‘Populism versus pragmatism’ and ‘Manifestos duck the IMF question, silent on external account challenges’.
• While both parties did not reveal their intentions of going into IMF program, they did however, discuss external account challenges to some extent as well as some possible measures (long term) to address this concern like promotion of trade including incentivizing Pakistan’s infant IT sector and unleashing the country’s Agro potential to name a few.
• Contrary to market expectations where market participants believe PTI, if comes into power, will discontinue previous Govt.’s policies, the party in its manifesto has stressed successful execution of CPEC related projects with more transparency.
• Both parties have highlighted several challenges faced by Pakistan and briefly discussed solutions to address those concerns. However, providing solution on paper is one thing and actually delivering the result is another. Parties usually make promises before coming into power and once in power, they rarely follow the given roadmap wholeheartedly.
• For instance, Dawn while commenting on PML-N’s 2018 manifesto wrote, ‘an independent look suggests that much of what was promised remains undelivered. In 2013, the PML-N had made the provision of employment a top priority — a goal it struggled to achieve in its five-year term.’
• In other undelivered promises, PML-N fell short of their pledge to implement an effective foreign policy and to strengthen bilateral relations with regional countries. This was also evident from their inability to appoint any autonomous Foreign Minister for most of their term, despite continuous pressure from opposition parties.
• PTI released its party manifesto with following key agenda items: 1) transforming governance, 2) strengthening the federation, 3) bringing inclusive economic growth, 4) uplifting agriculture, building dams and conserving water, 4) revolutionizing social services and 5) ensuring Pakistan’s national security.
• Transform Governance: PTI starts off its manifesto with stressing on equality of rule of law along with accountability of the government by empowering and giving full autonomy to National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and other institutions. PTI further plans to empower local governments to ensure swift decision making and power at grass root levels. Other measures include depoliticizing and strengthening police, reforming criminal justice system and improvement in civil services.
• Strengthen the Federation: PTI’s manifesto further elaborates its plan of bringing reforms in FATA, providing economic empowerment to youth in Baluchistan, and uplifting 35mn people out of poverty line in South Punjab. The party also vows to make South Punjab a separate province after national consensus. Furthermore, PTI’s manifesto also speaks about development/rights of Karachi, Gilgit Baltistan, minorities, and overseas Pakistanis.
• Inclusive economic growth: PTI aims to achieve inclusive economic growth via increasing tax net through delegating autonomy to Federal Board of Revenue (FBR). Moreover, other key areas of focus are to: create 10mn Jobs over 5 years in key sectors (SME, housing, ICT, health, education, green economy and tourism), act as a facilitator to build 5mn low cost housing units (1.5-2mn urban and 3-3.5mn rural), have business friendly policies, revitalize SOEs and complete CPEC. The party also pledges to diversify exports, increase export destination and to make the textile sector more competitive globally.
• Uplift Agriculture, build dams and conserve water: Reduction of input cost and access to cheaper finance are few of the key points in PTI’s manifesto for unleashing Pakistan’s potential in agriculture. The party has discussed construction of dams to improve management of water as well as highlight pointers to revive the fisheries industry of Pakistan.
• Revolutionizing social services: PTI will promote social services for all, where focus remains on health for all, education for all, and drinking water for all. Moreover, promotion of sports, addressing population growth, and integrating disabled society into mainstream is in core agenda of party.
• Ensure Pakistan’s National Security: Lastly, a more proactive foreign policy, multilateral treaties, and ensuring sustainable relations with eastern and western neighbors are guiding principles of PTI’s external reforms policy. On internal challenges, PTI will focus on policy formation to reclaim ungoverned spaces of state, unearth links between active/passive terrorists, and eradication of terrorists through joint military-civilian action.
• PML-N released its party manifesto with following key agenda items: 1) sustainable economic growth, 2) world-class infrastructure, 3) caring – human capital development, 4) inclusive development, 5) governance and national security.
• Sustainable economic growth: PML-N will focus on raising GDP growth to over 7% and increasing investment to GDP ratio to 22-25%. The manifesto does not clearly state on how to deal with the country’s external account crisis and only mentions industrial growth will be targeted to grow by 8-10% while export growth target will be 15% annually. Regarding taxation, the manifesto states that tax to GDP will be targeted to grow by 3ppts (currently around 10-11%) while fiscal deficit is targeted to average below 4% (from expected 6.5%-7.0% in FY18).
• World-Class Infrastructure: The PML-N manifesto puts due importance to infrastructure as had been the case when the party was in power. Power sector to be the continuing focus with addition of 15,000MW by 2025. Other than power, roads and railways to benefit with creation of world-class railway system and connection of roads, towns and villages by completion of CPEC routes and up gradation/enhancement of road infrastructure.
• Caring – Human Capital Development: This includes measures for health and education where the party manifesto aims to achieve universal primary educational enrollment by 2023. The party also aims to increase funding for higher education and to setup new centers for research and innovation. Provision of universal health access for preventive and primary healthcare are also given priority.
• Inclusive Development: PML-N maintains its secular ideology and states that the party believes in peace and tolerance and all provision shall be made for minorities to practice their religion and to safeguard women and vulnerable groups.
• Governance and National Security: PML-N will make strides to reform justice system to provide speedy and affordable justice to all. PML-N will take necessary steps towards constitutional amendments to strengthen the role of parliament for good governance and oversight. Regarding foreign policy, PML-N govt. will aim to fortify ties with China even further, develop relations with Russia and will continue to build relations with United States.