This is apropos a Business Recorder news item “Miftah gives a detailed account: How country saved itself from bankruptcy” carried by the newspaper on Sunday.

According to it, Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue, Miftah Ismail, has claimed that the incumbent coalition government has explained how the country saved itself from bankruptcy and is expecting $4 billion from friendly countries to bridge the external sector gap.

There is little or no doubt that the incumbent government has worked harder to help the country avert a sure default on debt. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-led coalition government’s ambivalence with regard to the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF’s) conditionalities had apparently forced the Fund to delay its lending.

That the previous government was displaying a contradictory approach to the IMF programme is a fact. Be that as it may, all the political parties, including Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf that previously ruled the country, must protect and preserve the ongoing IMF programme in the larger interest of the country and its people. They must not lose sight of the fact that both Moody’s and Fitch, the rating agencies have revised their outlook on Pakistan to negative from stable.

Sultan Mahmood (Islamabad)

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022