Economic Instability and Pakistan’s Future

At the moment, Pakistan is striving to come out of the economic crisis created by three and a half years of previous government. PDM government has assumed power for an undefined period of time would have to struggle to solve the problems created by domestic inadequacies as well as international market.

The increase in petroleum prices by RS30 per liter demanded by IMF, after Imran Khan originally offered a subsidy on the product is going to make everyone’s life, from poor to salaried middle class, very hard. The changes that come with every government makes it very complicated to create a stable economic policy for Pakistan due to inconsistency. Across the country are so many half-finished dispersed projects begun by one government but the new government refuses to complete and instead begun its own development plans. This is not a stable economical state.

Shaukat Tareen, the fourth and last finance minister of PTI under the tenure of three and a half years himself admitted that lack of planning by previous governments have left the economy in mess. There are really only handful of ways left to build up the resources which Pakistan urgently needs as millions faces slow starvation and 50 percent of children who are stunted and have growth issues are proof of this. The Rs2,000 cash as an amount of relief offered by PM Shahbaz Shareef to 14 million families, is very less in this age of inflation.

The real issue is how to add considerable resources to what we have. We have accumulated a huge debt we cannot cut on debt servicing, we cannot cut on our defence sector, so it leaves us to cut back on administrative expenses where it means to cutting down on official positions because every official does not need to be driven in a luxury car with red flag and hundreds of escorts. There is also huge wastage in departments which can be cut back on to help save money.

Currently the federation needs to come together to resolve the water disputes within Sindh and Punjab, while Balochistan too cries out for water. Pakistan now ranks among countries with severe water sarcacity because of the lack of developed programmes to conserve rainwater although environmentalist have suggested to build small reservoirs and other systems to harness water even from sea. We need to curb our population in long run to provide resources, as we cannot manage even now.

We know that PDM government will not be able to manage much. It would be a miracle even if two biggest parties, PPP and PML-N survive together for long. We need to show reality of our provinces to all the people in Pakistan, which the textbooks are unable to portray. We need to find ways to build this unity and put in place an economical plan which all provinces can participate in. The real work of leaders after all is to build the country and forget about past disputes.