The government does not seem to show any concern that its stewardship of the economy has not produced any result other than a worsening of the economic woes that are harming the country. If there is a focal point on which the crisis can be blamed, it is probably the power shortage, which has not merely meant inconvenience, even suffering, for the ordinary consumer, but has actually meant unemployment for the many thrown out of work by the closure of factories shut down by loadshedding. That closure has also meant that Pakistan’s ability to export has been affected, as the failure to fill orders means, in an already highly competitive environment, that exports will not take place. This is behind exported textile commodities being worth $12.357 billion in the fiscal year ending June 30, compared to $13.788 billion in the previous year, a decline of $1.431 billion, or 10.38 percent. Textile exports also went down by 17.70 per cent during June 2012 against the same month last year, losing over $200 million in that month alone. Apart from the power crisis causing lost orders, there had been cuts in the prices of Pakistani goods, which meant that the dollar value had gone down even if exports were being made. This decline in the powerhouse of Pakistani trade is probably behind the international ratings agency Standards&Poor maintaining its previous rating of it as negative, which came after it had downgraded its sovereign rating.
Perhaps one reason for this negative outlook has been the failure of the government to control its freespending ways. The federal government had borrowed no less than Rs 1.17 trillion for budgetary support, which reflected not just the failure of the Federal Board of Revenue to meet its target, but also that of the government to either identify new sources of revenue or to bring about a suitable cut in expenditures. At times of financial crisis, governments are supposed to buckle down and cut expenditures. Instead, the present government has set a negative example right from the very top, with a bloated Cabinet succeeding the previous one. The present Cabinet claims continuity, while the previous claimed the prevalence of coalition politics. Both are merely excuses to do nothing while the situation goes out of hand.
The federal government should keep in mind the country’s need to export to pay for its imports. These imports are not luxuries, but include the fuel that keeps the power stations going, and they generate the power to enable the country to make the goods it sells abroad so that it can survive. In other words, the government has to think of how it plans to end the current loadshedding crisis. It will not be enough to ensure the supply of power during sehr and iftar, because power shortages no longer just mean inconvenience, but actual joblessness. The government must look at its own actions, and must economise on its spendings, and it must eschew the funding of luxurious lifestyle at taxpayers’ expense that has become characteristic of it.