Despite the tallest claims of the incumbent government, the economic woes of the common man are increasing with every passing day and people, especially the salaried class, is finding it difficult to survive.
Prime Minister Imran Khan has acknowledged that inflation has made life more than arduous for the common man and has been claiming that the prices of petroleum products in Pakistan are among the lowest in the world without making a comparative analysis between the per capita revenue for numerous countries.
In this regard, surging inflation has impacted all sectors of our economy, primarily the industrial sector as production costs rise due to the sector being largely dependent on imported raw materials and energy. Additionally, prices have seen a substantial increase due to the massive depreciation of the Pakistani rupee against the greenback.
The incumbent government sometimes blames the past rulers for plunging the country into heavy debts and on the other hand, it has borrowed record loans in its tenure so far. Sometimes COVID-19 is held responsible for the downfall of the economy by the prime minister and on the contrary Adviser to PM on Commerce and Industry Abdul Razak Dawood had been claiming the record exports and record recovery of the country’s ill-fated economy.
Here is the basic question which comes in the common man’s mind without being trapped in the number games, if the economy is growing as per the claims of the government, they why we have to go to IMF, China, Saudi Arabia and sometimes to UAE for a bailout package?
The current account deficit was being told by the ministers on a daily basis that it is in surplus, but now when it is touching a record high, no one is ready to admit the failure of the economic policy. The gas crisis, fuel crisis, sugar crisis, flour crisis, medical crisis and the list is too long, why the government is not taking responsibility for the failure in controlling the said crises? If the past rulers are to be blamed for the current economic turmoil despite being in power for more than 3 years, then PML-N should have blamed PPP and PPP would have blamed the then military dictator General retired Pervez Musharraf and similarly the founder of the nation would have been blamed for transferring economically weak country to the new leadership.
Another economic indicator, that shows the failure of the government is inflation which is touching record 20pc, while the prior actions, which the IMF wants the government to take and that must be included in the budget for the present fiscal, involve slashing tax exemptions, boosting tax and non-tax revenues, cutting development expenditure, increasing electricity and petroleum prices, etc to bring more ‘pain’ for the common man. These demands are to be executed before the IMF board gives its approval for the revival of the program and releases the funds that Pakistan needs so desperately to reduce the pressure on its external sector.
The government should not lie about the economic condition of the country and it should admit that the already ill-fated economy has been shifted to the ICU by the bad decisions.
