AIRLINK 196.38 Increased By ▲ 4.54 (2.37%)
BOP 10.11 Increased By ▲ 0.24 (2.43%)
CNERGY 7.75 Increased By ▲ 0.08 (1.04%)
FCCL 38.10 Increased By ▲ 0.24 (0.63%)
FFL 15.74 Decreased By ▼ -0.02 (-0.13%)
FLYNG 24.54 Decreased By ▼ -0.77 (-3.04%)
HUBC 130.38 Increased By ▲ 0.21 (0.16%)
HUMNL 13.73 Increased By ▲ 0.14 (1.03%)
KEL 4.60 Decreased By ▼ -0.07 (-1.5%)
KOSM 6.19 Decreased By ▼ -0.02 (-0.32%)
MLCF 44.85 Increased By ▲ 0.56 (1.26%)
OGDC 206.51 Decreased By ▼ -0.36 (-0.17%)
PACE 6.58 Increased By ▲ 0.02 (0.3%)
PAEL 39.77 Decreased By ▼ -0.78 (-1.92%)
PIAHCLA 17.20 Decreased By ▼ -0.39 (-2.22%)
PIBTL 7.99 Decreased By ▼ -0.08 (-0.99%)
POWER 9.20 Decreased By ▼ -0.04 (-0.43%)
PPL 178.91 Increased By ▲ 0.35 (0.2%)
PRL 38.93 Decreased By ▼ -0.15 (-0.38%)
PTC 24.31 Increased By ▲ 0.17 (0.7%)
SEARL 109.27 Increased By ▲ 1.42 (1.32%)
SILK 1.00 Increased By ▲ 0.03 (3.09%)
SSGC 37.75 Decreased By ▼ -1.36 (-3.48%)
SYM 18.83 Decreased By ▼ -0.29 (-1.52%)
TELE 8.53 Decreased By ▼ -0.07 (-0.81%)
TPLP 12.14 Decreased By ▼ -0.23 (-1.86%)
TRG 64.76 Decreased By ▼ -1.25 (-1.89%)
WAVESAPP 12.11 Decreased By ▼ -0.67 (-5.24%)
WTL 1.64 Decreased By ▼ -0.06 (-3.53%)
YOUW 3.87 Decreased By ▼ -0.08 (-2.03%)
BR100 12,000 Increased By 69.2 (0.58%)
BR30 35,548 Decreased By -112 (-0.31%)
KSE100 114,256 Increased By 1049.3 (0.93%)
KSE30 35,870 Increased By 304.3 (0.86%)

It was not very long ago that Federal Finance Minister Miftah Ismail said the government would try its level best not to raise the prices of petroleum and products though it was bearing a loss of Rs 30 per litre on petrol and Rs 70 per liter on diesel.

According to him, no government has ever sold petrol in loss. Interestingly, however, the nation has seen not one but three hikes in the prices of petroleum and products in a matter of two months during the ongoing tenure of the present government.

In my view, however, the finance minister ought to have appeared realistic in relation to country’s state of economy, which is in tatters, to say the least. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government had laid an economic landmine for its successor by not raising the prices of petroleum and products in accordance with the global market prices. It is, however, needless to say that the country is in the throes of a profound economic crisis.

It is said that Pakistan is one step from Sri Lanka which is now facing the worst economic crisis since its independence in 1948. Not only is the island nation facing unprecedented levels of inflation, it is also witnessing near-depletion or complete depletion of foreign exchange reserves. Our situation is not much different from Sri Lanka’s.

Naseer Husain (Islamabad)

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022

Comments

Comments are closed.