(Qasim Mumtaz, Lahore)
Before I start to talk about capitalism I have to define it that actually what this term is and from where it started its journey. Capitalism is actually an economic arrangement grounded on private ownership of mean of production or basic resources of production and ultimate goal of capitalism is to make profits. According to historians and economists there are multiple variants of capitalism including laissez-faire capitalism, welfare capitalism and state capitalism. My point of discussion will revolve around “laissez-faire capitalism”. According to historians in early modern Europe “Netherland” was the first totally capitalist country in the world. Now come to the main point that what is laissez-faire capitalism. Laissez-faire capitalism is an economic system in which government does not have control over markets and the prominence of property rights. Sadly Pakistan is the country where capitalism exists and government has no control over it. The main reason of capitalism in Pakistan is that circulation of money and resources that are used to produce products are in some specific hands and this existence of inequality in case of distribution of wealth are the major reasons of this system in Pakistan. In favor of capitalism I will say that there are also pros of this system like efficient allocation of resources, efficient production, and dynamic efficiency but only in the developed countries or the countries where law and order are implemented strictly in respectable manner. In under developed or developing countries like Pakistan where law and order situation is also not up to the mark this system should really does not have any place to exist. Pakistan is a country where government has no control on some big hands having unfair access on means of production; basically Pakistan is not a capitalist country but components of laissez-faire capitalism do exist in Pakistan. Feudal system in province Baluchistan, Sindh and some parts of Punjab is the example of capitalism. Then these feudal lords are also part of government so they will surely give favor to this system. In the era of 2008-13 government, IMF lend money to Pakistan and that money went directly in hands of those feudal lords sitting in assemblies. Now if I talk on the behalf of people of Pakistan that money wasn’t meant for them because that wasn’t spent on them. In fact, authorities sitting in assemblies grabbed that money for their own so-called “usage” and luxuries and regained for their election campaigns. Sometimes I found that big organizations like IMF and World Bank are involved in capitalism in Pakistan. The way to get rid from this evil is to introduce a proper check and balance system on institutes like IMF, State Bank and other financial institutions who are actually involved in the allocation of resources of money. In conclusion I must say that 1st of all there should be socialism in Pakistan and distribution of wealth should be on basis of equality because capitalism is the root cause of poverty and capitalism is the only reason that poor are becoming poorer and rich are becoming richer due to the unequal distribution of wealth in Pakistan.