This is apropos a Business Recorder news item ‘Pakistan to welcome investment from UAE: Dar’ carried by the newspaper on Friday.
In my view, the incumbent finance minister may be stating the obvious, but the current economic crisis in the country requires a host of similar or dissimilar steps to defuse it as early as possible.
The presentation of a ‘mini-budget’ months before the start of new financial year (effective from July 1, 2023) by him clearly indicates the woeful state of state’s coffers, to say the least.
It is quite unfortunate that all civilian administrations following the exit of Gen Musharraf (retd) and his regime have done little or nothing to arrest the gradual slide of foreign direct investment (FDI) or its inward inflows. The current state of economy requires our policymakers to attract as many as foreign investors as possible.
Last but not least, alluding to the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) government, the finance minister, who belongs to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), has demanded the formation of a commission to investigate which government has brought the country’s economy to this pass.
Little does he, however, appreciate the fact all the successive governments, including PTI’s, since the 2008 general election have contributed to the country’s economic woes in equal measure.
In other words, the governments of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), PML-N and PTI cannot absolve themselves of the economic ‘sins’.
Khawar Habib (Karachi)
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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