It is that period of the time when the people are really uncertain about whether the government will survive of this upcoming Economic crunch that is going to bring unbeatable price hike or not?
The people want economic relief, as they are not interested in the game of counter blames of politicians. Can this debacle be averted? The entire society is worried about the deteriorating economic situation and rule of law.
The Chief Justice of Pakistan gave a very meaningful statement, which had a built-in light warning to the Parliament as under:
“It is unfortunate that parliament has not been paying attention to legislative matters. Up till now, we have already sent 70 reports to parliament and the law ministry. Provision of justice is not just the judiciary’s job — the legislature has to do its part,”
I as a legislator myself feel that our Parliament is failing to bring an updated legislation to meet the changing requirements and we are following the same old laws which were made to rule us. We now need to reform our laws to come up to the expectations of the nation by giving the country a proper criminal justice system to ensure the rule of law.
The selected application of laws has created polarization within the society. The elite class considers itself above the law as they think that they can beat the entire criminal justice processes and the nation has witnessed this happening. Here in this country, the law acts and takes its course as per the worth of the accused. People come in power and still remain powerless as power of rule of law rests somewhere else.
The governments are not run as per the law or mandate but it runs as per the desires of an individual. Presently the government is passing through the confused and almost powerless situation where it has failed to contain the fast deteriorating situation.
The fall of Pak rupees against US dollar, decrease in growth rate, sharp rise of inflation has negatively impacted on our growth in almost every sector. It is estimated that construction development sector will have to increase the prices of the houses up to minimum 20 per cent with already risen inflation rate.
Power sector will further demand to increase the prices with steep rise of the dollar.
I am sorry to point out that if with the fall of only one rupee our debt could rise by $ 1 billion then automatically the fall of Rs. 20 to dollar must have increased our debt by $20 billion
IMF has already played a trick with our Economic team right under the nose of the PM by putting its condition of getting Pak currency down before actually giving firm commitment. It is unfortunate that the confused government team is yet running after the colourful and deceptive lollipop by IMF. It is treating the Pak Economic team like a child by handling it with daily changing non-doable demands. Now IMF has linked the IMF loan with FATF and it may back out on the pretext of any likely worst decision against Pakistan.
Now keeping in view the reservations of President Donald Trump regarding CPEC, one belt one road project and questions of IMF on CPEC loan repayments by Pakistan we can rightly guess their intentions.
Let us hope that Pakistan gets this loan from IMF and God-forbid if IMF declines this tranche then what alternate do we have as the Middle East’s well-advertised financial package has not worked to meet with the tall claims of the government.
We as a nation are inching slowly towards bankruptcy as the government will be forced to further devalue the Rupee and further printing of currency will increase the burden on a common man.
PTI government’s favourite exercise of putting “price hike” into 3rd gear will adversely affect the common man. It was rightly stated that the common will cry with agony and the cries of common might echo collectively in the entire country. Eventually, the government may not be able to counter this collective hungry public, which may engulf the government.
The government must now be wise enough to take the Parliament into confidence and come up with some collective Economic Strategy to give relief to the common man before it is too late.
Since the biggest problem of our country is the rule of law as such the government must learn to deal adequately with the endangering situation of law and order. When in the past, if the strong government of Ayub khan could fall consequent to a tiny issue of increase in sugar price then how can this fragile government expects to survive of the many crisis it has created in every sector of economy including energy sector, petroleum sector, real estate development sector as well as the basic amenities of life due to the incompetency of the every department of the government.
The wheelers & dealers of this government need to halt this fast moving Economic Tsunami before it engulfs the government and the whole system.
The writer is Chairman of think tank “global eye” & former Interior Minister of Pakistan.
rmalik1212@gmail.com@GlobalEye_GSA
We as a nation are inching slowly towards bankruptcy as the government will be forced to further devalue the Rupee and further printing of currency will increase the burden on a common man.
