It almost seems like people in Pakistan have entered into an Alfred Hitchcock’s film . Nothing is making any sense anymore. Not only the Rupee but the whole country is currently in a state of free float. It seems as if the country has become unhinged and now slowing tumbling down, rocking from side to side and taking somersaults as it floats in space in an eerie slow motion.
There are supposed to be five governments running the show in the Federation of Pakistan and a huge, massive, governance system run through bureaucracy, administration and circles upon concentric circles of authorities starting from the tehsil and district administration to provincial governments and federal ministries to the Prime Minister yet no one seems to be in charge currently. No body is willing to take the responsibility of the great mess that Pakistan is becoming. All the engines are starting to shut down and the wheels of the huge machinery are creaking to a halt.
Any country with a thriving economy and vibrant population runs on the healthy growth of its industry, trade, commerce and vibrant market dynamics and this in turn generates revenue through which the country gets the resources to run on. But in Pakistan, the economy has been hit badly by the policies of an incompetent government that has utterly failed to gauge the situation and handle it correctly. The mishandling of an already difficult situation has resulted in making it into a disaster, which has taken a life of its own and getting out of control.
There is not a single economic indicator that is showing positive upward trend. Despite brutal devaluation of Rupee against the dollar the export sector has failed to show any growth. The rising electricity and gas prices have dealt the manufacturing sector a huge blow. The price hike of construction material has brought the construction and property business to a grinding halt. Millions of people are at risk of sliding below the poverty line because of unemployment. The rising prices of oil, gas and electricity is making the everyday life of the common man miserable. People are clueless as to what the future holds and they also have no idea as to who will come to their rescue. The IMF team and its loan has taken the country into its clutches now and squeezing it tight with each passing day.
Yet the attitude of the members of the ruling party and the Prime Minister is of a complete and utter denial and they believe that living in denial will somehow make reality evaporate into thin air. The Prime Minister Imran Khan is now confined inside the high walls of his heavily guarded residence and office. He is unwilling to come out and face the opposition in the parliament. He is also unwilling to face the people at any public forum. What he does lately is to record hurriedly prepared, oft repeated speeches, aired in the late hours on the cable television. It is difficult to face the public of Pakistan after literally going back on every single word, every promise he made before being brought to power.
The Prime Minister has failed to manage the economy and publicly admitted that twice he came to know about the rupee devaluation from the TV news. He threw his right hand man, Federal Finance Minister, Asad Umar under the bus, without taking the blame for anything himself. He appointed the most incompetent people as ministers in departments which they knew nothing about. His close friend, the Federal Health Minister was caught red handed in taking kickbacks from the pharma industry and conniving with them to take the drugs and medicine prices to a record high but no action has been taken against him other than sacking him.
The Prime Minister kept repeating that the bane of all the problems facing the country were the loans taken by the previous governments but without losing a single moment after getting into the office, more loans was the only solution he and his brilliant team came up with to tackle the economy. He flew from one country to another, repeatedly saying that Pakistan was about to go bankrupt and that the previous governments had looted and plundered the country, gotten involved in money laundering and kickbacks and now PTI governments needs loans to stay afloat.
Nobody in the government including the finance minister realized that this narrative and strategy would negatively impact the economy as well as tarnish the image of Pakistan as a country for foreign investment. The government, however, succeeded in getting the loans of some five and a half billion US dollars in nine months and it has yet to disclose to the parliament as to where this amount has been spent.
The Prime Minister after his tall claims of austerity is continually using helicopters as his favoured mode of transport from his residence to office and private jets for flying to the Middle East and other countries and of course has no hesitation in taking his extended family as well as huge entourages for Umras to Kingdom of Saudi Arabia whenever possible.
Pakistan meanwhile has been plunged into chaos. The stock market is falling everyday, the rupee is in free float. The government still has no idea as to how to stabilize the economy or revive growth, the best idea they came up with was to literally clasp the whole country into the grip of more taxes slapped on the already high prices of petrol, oil, gas, electricity etc. The result was a storm of inflation that has flooded the country and the prices of all commodities have spiked to an all time high.
On top of that the worst kind of harassment has been unleashed on the business community and people have simply become scared to invest their money in property, stock market or any business venture. The Pak rupee is now gasping for breath and the economy is on a ventilator. The FBR is threatening to raid people’s homes to find foreign currencies and gold? Who would want to do business in this atmosphere is the real question.
Today the people are being harassed by the National Accountability Bureau and the Prime Minister is threatening everybody by saying that he is not going to spare anyone. This is not the jurisdiction of a Prime Minister, nor his responsibility, neither can he dole out sentences to anyone. There are institutions to deal with accountability and by all means they should work and be more effective. But the most important thing to realize is that Pakistan and its economy will not revive by threatening its people.
What the people need is encouragement, trust and confidence in the government which they seem to have lost today in Pakistan.