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Money Matters

Clock is ticking

By Zeeshan Haider
Mon, 09, 18

Imran Khan has completed his first month as Prime Minister of Pakistan. It is too early or rather unfair to pass any judgement on the performance of his government which still needs some more time to settle on the saddle.

Given the enormous challenges ranging from deep-rooted economic woes to mis-governance, one feels shy of being judgmental even if the government was being led by an experienced hand, let alone throwing the book at the performance of a political party which has never been in power at the centre to manage the affairs of the entire country.

Moreover, it would be unrealistic to expect immediate results and solutions to the problems faced by the country as it needs sustained and long-drawn-out efforts to stem the deep-seated rot.

Prime Minister Imran Khan, therefore, was fully justified when he asked reporters to be patient at least for three months to judge his government’s performance. To be fair, one should wait for much longer.

But after having said it all, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government leaders should keep in mind that their performance would be scrutinised more strictly than others because they have been claiming the moral high ground against their opponents throughout their election campaign, rather much earlier than this.

Even a slightest of deviation from Khan’s avowed goals and objectives like meritocracy, accountability, and transparency would not only be exploited by his opponents for political gains but also be strongly protested by his well-meaning supporters, particularly well-educated and young people.

Khan is not expected to do wonders and miracles as there are no quick-fixes to the problems afflicting the country but one would like his government to calibrate its priorities properly to ensure it is moving in the right direction.

For more than a year, a debate has been raging in the country that the economy – particularly, the burgeoning current account and fiscal deficits – was the biggest challenge facing Pakistan and the new government has to worry about it before anything else.

Interestingly, Khan has cherishingly been idolising Western form of democracy where opposition acts as a government-in-waiting and plans out its strategies to cope with challenges long before coming into power. The opposition there acts as a shadow government which not only takes government into power to task for its mistakes but also comes up with an alternative solution to rectify those blunders.

It seems the government leaders are more inclined towards showing bravado and announcing populist decision to counter opposition onslaught instead of addressing pressing issues of the country.

Khan, as well as his aides, has singled out debt amassed by the previous government as the most important problem for the country and have now-a-days been identifying the prized state-owned properties that could either be disposed off or used for commercial activities to generate revenues to get out of debt trap.

Even if one principally agrees with such preposition, this activity may be beneficial for the country in the longer run but it could not address the most immediate problem faced by the country – the balance of payment crisis.

Right now the government has to unveil its plan on how it would narrow the growing twin deficits, which could lead to the balance of payment crisis.

Has it made up its mind to invoke International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout program or has it managed to raise money from other sources to remove pressure from the already depleted foreign exchange reserves?

Finance Minister Asad Omar has said time and again that Pakistan should have taken this decision much earlier but ironically he has not yet given any clues that he is any closer to reaching this crucial decision.

The government leaders seem to be in a limbo in this regard.

The government looks inclined to avoid IMF bailout, particularly after US Secretary of State Mark Pompeo’s strongly-worded statement that Washington would rigorously scrutinise any IMF deal, but it is facing a dilemma that whether it would be able to raise roughly 10 billion dollars from other sources, particularly from China and Saudi Arabia, to skip this option.

The matter is understood to have been discussed during the recent visit of Chinese foreign minister to Islamabad and the prime minister is expected to take a visit to Saudi Arabia where he would raise this issue as well.

It is hoped that after these deliberations, the government would have a clear idea about what it needs to do to cope with this challenge.

However, in the meantime, there is no harm in sounding out IMF that would help policy makers to reach a decision.

The government needs to formulate a coherent economic policy and it should instruct its ministers as well as advisors to avoid making bombastic statements and airing their personal opinions in media in order to avoid unnecessary doubts and confusion in the mind of people.

The recent interview of a prime minister advisor in the foreign media with regard to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) created an unwarranted controversy inside Pakistan and unnecessary worries in China about the future of the economically and geo-strategically one of the most important projects for the country.

The government took great pains to dismiss the impression created by the news report that it is in the process of either reviewing the entire gigantic project or putting it on hold for a year before it reviews it.

Khan needs to advise his aides to handle such delicate issues with utmost prudency and caution.

The honeymoon period for the government would soon be over and its leaders need to avoid unnecessary bravado and instead should adjust themselves to the ground realities.

Holding predecessors responsible for every bad thing happened to a country is a popular pastime for a new government and it could be justified to a certain extent but it could not inordinately exploit this rhetoric to win public sympathies.

Sooner or later, a government has to take requisite steps to clean up the mess created by its predecessors before despondency starts trickling in among the people. The sooner it does the better it is.

The writer is a senior journalist based in Islamabad