Our economic mess

Years of mismanagement, poor governance, lack of accountability, wasteful indulgence, rampant financial impropriety by successive governments, state corporations, traders and powerful institutions, have driven Pakistan into an economic mess that leaves us with no option but to concede and accept IMF funding.
Given the irresponsible attitude of our civil, military and political establishment, the conditional penalties and oversight, can be used to our advantage, if sense and loyalty prevails. Shaukat Tarin has no other option except to seek IMF endorsement, since other channels are hesitant and the whole world itself has been engulfed by recession.
There is also a crisis of credibility within Pakistan, because we have failed to provide a credible accounting for utilisation of these funds in the past decade. The shameful tolerance for corruption, plunder of state assets and planned default of bank loans, has further eroded our credibility. Look at the most recent Bank of Punjab heist, where the major criminals have been allowed to leave the country or given relief.
Billions of US dollars repatriated by loyal expatriate Pakistanis were allowed to be funnelled abroad by those who after making tax free fast bucks in real estate, stock exchange and corruption, were eager to seek immigration abroad. Funds obtained as aid from foreign donors and tax payers money ended up in developing real estate that was subsidised for allotment to the paid servants of the state, only to be sold by them at market price to highest bidder.
Government considered it prudent not to subsidise education, health or in developing basic infrastructure, but was very keen to give expensive state owned land for golf courses at subsidised rate. Disinvestment of state owned education institutions of repute has made education itself beyond the reach of poor and lower middle class citizens of Pakistan.
The last two decades have witnessed a deterioration of human resources, which is vital for development of any country. Countries like Japan, which have minimal natural resources owe their development to investment in human resources, science and technology. Boards of state owned corporations were run by directors who didn't understand and could not control the risks of businesses that they were running, which is evident from the balance sheets of PEPCO, Railways, PIAC, KPT etc.
The collapse should make clear to the government, parliament and wider public, that the changes which have taken place in the international financial market require an urgent reappraisal of the way in which the state has been managing its business. There has to be a substantial rethinking of the regulatory approach within Pakistan, as the events have demonstrated all too obviously that existing national regulatory structures and approaches are no longer appropriate.