A pressure group has certain defined objectives or common interests that range from protection of rights, assets, thinking, or activities, etc. Pressure groups could be of permanent nature having an organisation with volunteers or paid professional staff, or formed for specific purposes such as putting into action a programme to respond to an event, decision, or policy or even created to affect fundamental changes in the thinking of the citizens.
In Pakistan, as in other countries, the business community also has organisations or committees that perform the role of pressure groups to protect, promote, and project the interests of its members.
These organisations may cater to the combined interests of the business community, such as Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry, or they may look after the interest of, for example, the automotive industry, the textile spinning mills or the rice exporters. At the same time, the various chambers, such as Karachi Chamber or Lahore Chamber, have to tread a fine line when it comes to protecting the interests of members. There is always a clash of interests between the industrialists and the traders.
It is more prominent in those areas where there is a serious competition between the domestically produced products and the imported goods. It becomes more critical when the local industry is susceptible to duties, taxes, and other restrictions while the imported goods find their way into the country and are sold comparatively at a lesser price due to the advantage of under-invoicing, smuggling, or misdeclaration.
A case in point is the tug-of-war between the local fabric industry and the importers of cloth through various channels. At the same time, there is a diversity of views within industries too, e.g. between the polyester filament industry and the weavers.
A similar disagreement is between the original equipment manufacturers (OEM) in the automobile industry and the car showroom owners. Generally, the pressure groups within the business community in Pakistan do not put up candidates for election as MNAs, MPAs, or even Senators. Although some businessmen have managed to get elected, they have usually gone through the process in their individual capacity.
There have been no reported cases of a trade association or a chamber nominating a candidate on an official level. Some businessmen have been appointed Ministers or even Governors, again in their personal capacity, rather than acknowledging them as leaders of any particular organisation. At many times in the past, the business community has taken cudgels against with government.
Certain campaigns by the business community have made formidable impact on the economic policies. The Fuel Adjustment Charge that KESC used to levy on its customers was termed discriminatory since the customers of WAPDA were exempted. The Karachi industrialists, spearheaded by SITE Association of Industry, initiated a media blitz resulting in the end to this discriminatory practice. This was done during the dark days of General Zia-ul-Haq.
Similarly, during Junejo's regime, the CBR came up with a novel idea to simplify the excise rules. This was another bureaucratic stratagem to stifle the working of industries. Again, the SITE Association of Industry, with the late Ejaz Shafi at the helm, took up the challenge. For nine consecutive days, hundreds of industries stopped production and a huge crowd of 500-600 industrialists would be present in the offices of SITE Association of Industry.
Today, if such an occasion arises, hardly a few dozen would come to register their protests. The notorious decision was withdrawn due to the pragmatic thinking of Premier Junejo who came to Karachi and accepted the contention of the industrialists. SITE Association of Industry became known as a powerful pressure group and earned the title of Voice of Industry.
A few years ago, CBR commenced the process of registering the industries, business establishments, retailers etc under the Sales Tax regime by using the services of the armed forces. A concerted campaign by retailers throughout the country put paid to this scheme. A pragmatic process was derailed due to the myopic thinking of the CBR hierarchy and because of the influence that the pressure group had on the streets and even on the non-elected policy-makers in the government.
Another worthwhile example of the success of a pressure group has been the joint effort of SITE Association of Industry, All Pakistan Textile Processing Mills Association, Pakistan Yarn Merchants Association, and Pakistan Silk and Rayon Mills Association.
The intensified campaign conducted by the leaders of these Associations through lobbying at every forum, through writing to policy-makers or in the newspapers, through speeches and presentations, and through various forms of persuasion resulted in the formation of the Committee for the Rationalisation of Tariff on Textiles and Raw Materials for the Polyester Industry under the leadership of Zubair Motiwala by the CBR Chairman.
The recommendations of the committee were accepted in toto and thus import duties were slashed, sales tax on textiles became a thing of the past, and CBR spurred into action to curb under-invoicing, misdeclaration, and smuggling. This is a vivid example of the effectiveness of a serious and genuine pressure group.
The denial of Most Favoured Nation status to India is also the success of pressure groups. The anti-Indian lobby is vehemently opposed to granting this status because they consider MFN to mean that the enemy is the best friend.
This nomenclature devised by someone sitting in the hallowed halls of a government building in Washington, has connotations that this lobby considers as anathema.
The other lobby is that vested interest that deals or facilitates undocumented trade between the two neighbours. The power of these two pressure groups has had such a forceful effect on the government that inspite of ratifying SAFTA, the MFN status has been denied to India.
However, the pressure groups within the business community have recently been under pressure themselves. The leaders among the trade and industry organisations have been infected by the effect of being close to the people in power. This has undermined to a large extent the role of these bodies. There is a general feeling among the traders and industrialists that more often than not, they are being taken for granted by the powers-that-be, and that the incentives given to the business community through changes in tariffs, through re-profiling of rules, or even through acceptance of even minor demands, are less of a generosity or benevolence, and more of the dictates of the global trade environment. The situation has evolved in such a manner that it is being depicted as a 'partnership' between the trade and industrial community and the government of the day.
The pressure groups within the trade and industry community is also vulnerable to political influences nowadays. What is happening is that there is a reverse syndrome in vogue in many instances. Criticism of a Minister is construed a personal affront rather than accepting it as a genuine disagreement with the policies. This has also affected the workings of many a pressure group within trade and industry. Furthermore, these organisations are also under the strain of dissension among their own members.
The desire by leaders in an organisation to 'rule' over its affairs has rendered many such organisations ineffective or futile bodies. This has impacted on their effectiveness and influence in propagating the objectives of that organisation. And, this is what hurts the cause of the members and allows other pressure groups to intensify their own influence and ideas.
The success of the pressure groups depends on the seriousness, genuineness, and determination of the leaders.
These leaders have to be courageous, pragmatic and must have a sincerity of purpose in order to achieve their objectives. Polarisation within organisations or within the business community would become counter-productive as it would create a vacuum that would be filled by inimical vested interests, such as those playing partisan politics, those that are affiliated with radical advocacy groups, and those that want to perpetuate a stranglehold over their turf.
Thus a unified and organised business community can be the epitome of an excellent pressure group that ensures that the country would be a prosperous, strong, and a viable nation.
[Presented at the Panel Discussion during the 3-Day workshop on public policy analysis at National Institute of Public Administration (NIPA), Karachi, on February 22, 2006]