Reforms threaten power |
In Pakistan’s case, reforms fail not because they are badly written — but because they threaten existing power centers.
Pakistan’s power sector has lost Rs6 trillion ($20 billion) over the past 10 years. Reform: cut line loses. Question: Why did it fail? Answer: Power centers threatened – IPP financiers, fuel suppliers, and local political patrons.
Pakistani consumers overpay Rs500 billion for sugar each year. Reform: deregulate, end administered pricing, scrap export subsidies, allow imports. Question: Why did it fail? Answer: A cross-party, cross-province alliance that converts regulation into rent. Deregulation doesn’t hurt farmers – it hurts cartels. Competition, not committees, will cut prices. Until then, households will keep funding rents — one teaspoon at a time.
Agriculture income tax. Question: Why did it fail? Answer: Provincial elites—large landowners—control assemblies. Power centers threatened: Feudal political class in Punjab and Sindh.
Pakistan’s state-owned enterprises........