“Okaaay.” “What brought on that long drawn out sigh?” “The International Monetary Fund (IMF) contacted all three national political parties to get them to agree to its version of a charter of the economy.”
“Its version?”
“Well see The Samdhi’s version of the charter of the economy was real scary – I mean the guy has a long history of artificially controlling the external value of the rupee, which is a disastrous policy – in 2013 to 2017 the over-valued rupee led to the historically highest ever current account deficit of 20 billion dollars and in 2022 The Samdhi must be held responsible for nearly 4 billion dollars in lost remittances.”
“Thank God no one supported his inane policies but…”
“The Pakistan Peoples’ Party has a history of using state owned entities as employment agencies for the jiyalas, a policy that accounts for major losses of all such entities, so that too is a no-no.”
“What about the period 2018 to 9 April 2022? I mean the incentives to the real estate sector and a bunch of tycoons…”
“Correction: support to prominent names in this sector was extended by all civilian governments and let’s be honest, military dictators too have a soft corner…”
“Shush, then there is the refusal to tax the traders for political reasons, and don’t forget the massive rise in current expenditure to keep the stakeholders happy at the cost of the general public and the economy…”
“There you go, at least the IMF staff are economists right? So they are not going to steer us towards…towards the same-o same-o”
“But the Fund staff insists on following conventional economics that does not apply to this country. I mean inflation is not controlled by adjusting the policy rate in Pakistan, and agreeing to achieve the objective of full cost recovery by passing on the buck onto the consumers rather than through structural reforms designed to improve governance has pushed many below the poverty line and…”
“So who can sort out our economy?”
“Not the revolving finance ministers, or former governors of the State Bank of Pakistan with a long career in multilateral agencies, but an academic preferably working internationally who will undertake empirical studies prior to engaging in any policy and who has the capacity to think out of the box and…”
“Aint happening my friend. I hear the selectors, be they civilians or institutional, are looking at the resumes of only those who failed this country in the past.”
“Oooops.”
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023