With entire attention of the government focused on the Panamagate case, one can safely conclude that economy and other issues would take a back seat for a while.
The government leaders and ministers believe that the Panama Papers case is a conspiracy to destabilize or to topple the government.
The government reaction to the three major incidents in the past two weeks is testimony to the fact that they appeared to have lost interest in their work.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif spent the last ten days of the holy month of Ramazan in religious pilgrimage to Madina Munnawarra and left for London to celebrate Eid with his family right on the day when two deadly bombings hit the country.
Forteen people, including several policemen, were killed in a terrorist attack outside Baluchistan police chief office in Quetta. Within hours, two bombings were carried out in Parachinar, the main town of Kurram tribal agency, in which over 70 people were reportedly killed.
While everyone expected the prime minister to cut short his visit and return to his country to share the grief of the people but he preferred to stay put in London.
It was only the tragic incident of explosion of the oil tanker in Ahmedpur East in Punjab that forced prime minister to return home after spending his first day of Eid in London.
After landing in Lahore, the prime minister went straight to Bahawalpur to enquire about the well being of injured people in the oil tanker tragedy and give compensation to the families of victim. However, he conveniently ignored the plight of grieving people of Parachinar and Quetta which triggered very angry reaction against the government on social media as well as on mainstream media.
This indifferent attitude of the government to the plight of the backward and neglected areas of the country showed that right now Panama papers case is the first and foremost priority for the government and its leaders.
Prime Minister, his sons, son-in-law, brother and chief minister of Punjab, and of his cousins have already appeared before the Joint Investigation Team set up by the Supreme Court to tell their side of the story while his daughter, Maryam Nawaz, is summoned to appear before the team on July 5.
The JIT is to submit its final fortnightly report on its investigations with the Supreme Court on July 10 and by then some other figures could be asked to appear before it.
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, who is the central figure in the Huddaibiya Papers Mills issue, might also be summoned by the JIT before it concludes its investigations.
The emergence of reports that the record of Chaudhry Sugar Mills owned by the Sharif family had been tempered at the Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan could create serious problems for the ruling family if they are proven correct.
Zafar Hijazi, the chairman SECP and a close confidante of the finance minister, is reported to have distanced himself from any wrongdoings saying that he was not aware of any such development.
In such serious political situation, how could one expect the government to focus its attention on the real problems faced by the country, though arguably, the government is needed to perform its duties and obligations faithfully regardless of what is happening around it.
Though there has been talk that elections could take place later this year, even if they happened when they are due i.e. in the middle of next year, the political situation in the country would remain tense and polarized.
If there the court decision went in favor of the government then the opposition, particularly Tehreek-e-Insaaf, is most likely to come onto the streets to force the government to step down and hold early elections and in case of adverse decision, there could be a strong reaction from the ruling party and this is what its leaders have been indicating all along.
In such a situation, the economy of the country would be the main loser.
Independent economists as well as international financial institutions have been saying time and again that over the past four years Pakistan has done a lot to bring about macroeconomic stability despite the fact that its performance on some key issues like taxation and energy reforms, exports enhancement, privatization of loss-making units etc was not up to the mark.
They warned that there are big challenges for the Pakistani economy in the years ahead and it is feared to lose the gains it had made so far if country again plunged into political chaos as happened in 2007.
The State Bank of Pakistan in its third quarterly report for the fiscal year 2016-17 which ended at the weekend noted that the economic indicators were showing encouraging signs as the GDP growth registered highest figure of 5.3 percent in a decade.
The report prominently noted the revival of agriculture sector, the backbone of the country’s economy, which had registered negative growth in fiscal year 2015-16. Inflation has also remained well below double-digit.
However, the central bank, like IMF and other financial institutions, has warned that declining exports and remittances, depleting foreign exchange reserves and burgeoning current account deficit caused by high imports and less exports as well as ever rising circular debt would remain major challenges for the economic managers of the country.
Though the government tried to dodge the criticism over rising imports by saying that this increase was because of the import of machinery related to the CPEC but the central bank in its report maintained that these imports could not be financed completely from non-debt creating foreign exchange inflows, like exports, foreign remittances and foreign direct investment.
These imports are to be financed from the borrowed money which would eventually increase the already piled-up debt burden on the country.
The central bank in its report maintained that continuity and consistency in the economic policies, especially those related to investment and industry would be vital to ensure sustainability of the growth momentum.
However, with the government mired in serious political issues, one does not expect it to implement its economic agenda in the remaining part of its tenure and economic issues might not figure high on its priority list in that period.
Moreover, some of these challenges are to be met with some painful and difficult decision and it is unlikely for a political government to take such politically risky measures while it is heading towards elections.
It seems the finance minister has been mindful of these fears and challenges for the economy of the country and that was why he was insisting that the political parties should forge a charter of economy on the pattern of the charter of democracy to prevent another economic crisis for the nation.
However, his appeals appeared to have fallen on deaf years but this has been attitude of his own party in 2007.
Politicians, be in a developed country or in a third-world country like Pakistan, should not be expected to sacrifice their political gains for the sake of any other consideration.
But in a country like Pakistan whose country has been in a constant state of shambles for decades, the political leadership should have to look passionately that what needs to be done to take the country’s economy out of this permanent predicament.
But until now there are no indications that our political leadership is ready to give serious thought to such consideration.
Economically speaking, the country will go back to square one if political situation turned from bad to worse.
It means that whichever party that came into power after general elections have to undergo the same exercise of taking loans from the foreign financial institutions to avert yet another financial crisis.
In short, there are no signs that Pakistan will come out of this vicious circle in the near future.
The writer is a senior journalist based in Islamabad