There has hardly ever been a dull moment in Pakistani politics and economic matters. The political arena has lately been engulfed with many far-reaching political issues.
Earlier, it was the TLP march and negotiations with this proscribed organisation. Despite the government’s earlier stance of labelling it a terrorist organisation, TLP emerged victorious. The announcement of secret talks with the TTP also raised many eyebrows and ignited a fiery debate in the media and political circles.
Undeterred from political backlash from these developments, the government upended its resolve with unmatched urgency and hurry to push its unilateral electoral reforms through parliament. After defeat on a bill in the National Assembly and reservations of its allies, the government had to postpone the joint session of Parliament for a week or so. Despite the opposition’s fierce resistance to the electoral reforms, more specifically about using electronic voting machines, the PTI Government seems determined to push its reforms at the earliest.
The PDM has been doing its utmost to revive itself. It has already announced a series of rallies and public gatherings against the unprecedented inflation. A joint parliament session and the government’s resolve to ensure the passing of electoral reforms helped the fragmented opposition overcome its differences. Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and Shehbaz Sharif re-established contact and pledged to stand united against the proposed electoral reforms in the parliament.
Though the economy is supposed to be much less exciting than politics, this is not the case anymore. Economic scenes have been more explosive and mostly worrisome. The unprecedented inflation of food and non-food items has jolted the entire nation. Sugar prices have jumped from Rs90 per kg to Rs130 per kg in a span of a few weeks despite the new crushing season due to start in a few days. Similar supply jolts are being felt in wheat flour as well.
The latest weekly data by the PBS on essential food items reflects the highest increase on a week-on-week basis in the past three months.
The dollar has gained Rs18.19 in the inter-bank market and Rs20 in the open market since the beginning of the fiscal year 2021-22. During recent weeks, uncertainty over the IMF programme as well as the delay in Saudi support has heavily weighed on the foreign exchange market. Analysts believed that the situation was fluid and the dollar may keep rising against the rupee unless some strong measures are taken to stop this highly crucial exchange rate.
A fiasco in the timely procurement of LNG cargoes has sent chilling waves to the industry and household consumers. The government has already withdrawn its support tariff for the export industry from USC 6 to USC 9 per MMBTU till end March. The Minister for Energy warned the nation that the government may have to resort to rationing gas for household consumers.
The government is already under extreme pressure to increase petrol and diesel prices. This has already resulted in a spiralling increase in transportation costs. An increase in energy prices and the weakened rupee has forced the government to increase the electricity prices. Analysts fear another price hike in petrol and electricity prices if the government caves in to the demands of the IMF to do so for plugging the revenue shortfall.
The road to the approaching winter ahead is tough and rocky. PM Imran Khan has tried to control the damage by announcing a massive economic package of Rs120 billion. The ministers and spokespersons of the government have been vehemently denying any failure on part of the PTI government for price hikes in food and non-food items. It’s an international phenomenon, they repeatedly claim. PM Imran Khan recently instructed his team to highlight the achievements of the government and the steps it is taking to mitigate the effects of inflation. He has urged his team to articulate the government’s successes and proactive steps to reduce public anger.
To what extent the government’s initiatives can pacify the hard-hit masses due to the substantial price hike in food and non-food items is up to the people. However, the ripples in the political and economic arena seem more difficult to take away by merely blaming either predecessor governments or international factors. PTI needs to seriously reflect on its failures and challenges and adopt a more realistic posture rather than just blaming either the opposition or international factors to damage control in the political as well as economic arenas.