Pakistan's economic indicators

Whatever the rationale of tall claims of an economic turnaround by Musharraf regime's financial wizards, the ground realities are different. Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves stand at $11.5 billion at the end of May 2006. Its total trade balance shows a deficit of - $11.2 billion, while the current account deficit stands at - $4.8 billion.
Both these deficits are for the last 12 months and do not account for foreign debts. Large bulk of foreign exchange reserves are due to remittances by lower middle class Pakistani expatriates, instead of exports.
Except for Turkey no other country in the "emerging markets" has such an alarming deficit, where the total foreign exchange reserves are far less than its deficits.
With such a crisis, one fails to understand the hype of a turnaround, and our never-ending appetite for luxury imports of limousines, televisions, cellular phones, the latest technology Boeing airplanes, and palatial state-owned luxury villas for the elite.
Our State infrastructure for development of education, health, provision of clean drinking water, reliable public transport system are almost non-existent. They only exist on paper and in political speeches. Law and order have never been so worse.
Public confidence in the judiciary is low. Senior officials of police and other uniformed services feel insecure, which is evidenced by the large security escorts that accompany them on public roads.
The government needs to reassess the ground realities, so as to restructure their policies. Except critical imports for setting up key industries, armaments for defence and other infrastructure, the rest should be drastically cut.
Pakistan's economic priorities need to be reviewed. The present economic managers, dominated by MBAs, bankers etc, need to be replaced with economists, engineers, PhDs in social sciences, who have an eye on investing in human resource development, ensuring a prosperous future, instead of quick-fix mechanisms.
Our railways and other public transport system are in a mess. Over 7000 people have died in road and rail accidents in the last six months, but that has not moved the establishment in Islamabad, because neither it nor its kith and kin travels by rail.