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Money Matters

Consensus crisis

By Zeeshan Haider
Mon, 01, 19

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government is announcing the third financial bill of the current fiscal year this week.


The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government is announcing the third financial bill of the current fiscal year this week.

What prompted the government to announce second financial bill in less than six months of in power.

The government leaders deny the proposed bill envisages any new taxes on the people and say it would announce incentives to ensure ease of doing business in Pakistan as government is trying to woo private investors, both local and foreign, to bring their money into Pakistan.

Prime Minister Imran Khan broke his commitment of not undertaking any foreign tour in the first six months of his government and undertook seven foreign trips to shore up financial support for Pakistan to avoid balance of payment crisis as well as inviting foreign businessmen to explore business opportunities in Pakistan.

He has visited Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), China, Malaysia, and Turkey and is now leaving for Qatar for a two-day visit.

During his past visits, the Prime Minister interacted with the businessmen of those countries and invited them to put in their money into Pakistan assuring that his government would extend full cooperation to them in this regard.

The Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan paid a whirlwind visit to Pakistan amidst hopes that he would announce big business deals during his stay but made no such statement. However, before his arrival the UAE government had announced that it would give $3 billion for balance of payment support.

The government is now looking forward to the high-profile visit of the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salam early next month with hopes that several memoranda of understanding (MoU) will be signed to boost Saudi investment in Pakistan. Saudi Oil Minister recently visited Gwadar to explore possibility of a major state-of-the-art oil refinery there and an MoU is expected to be signed in Islamabad during the Crown Prince’s visit.

The PTI government’s efforts to attract private investment should be appreciated but there seems to be no firm and well-thought-out strategy with the government in this regard.

It seems the government is more interested in taking firefighting measures to keep things going than drawing a comprehensive strategy to deal with the economic challenges and revive the ailing economy.

The government has been successful in extracting sizeable money from the friendly countries to stave off the immediate balance of payment crisis for the current fiscal year but such measures could not save the economy for an imminent collapse unless it takes painful steps on its own to address the inherent problems in its own system.

Finance Minister Asad Umar has recently said the government had extracted help from the friendly countries, but it had sought money from them for the last time and from going forward it would take homegrown measures to fix its economy on its own.

Interestingly, the minister said the Pakistan would be going into a bailout package deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the last time, though the government is still not clear whether it would ultimately go for this option or not.

The government leaders say they are not in a hurry to sign any deal with the IMF right now as it has enough support from the friendly countries to ride out the current crisis.

If the government is confident enough that the current financial support is adequate to meet external liabilities for the current fiscal year than it is ideal for it to use this breathing space to put in place a comprehensive plan of action for the steps it has to take to resuscitate the economy.

The government has announced financial packages for exporters, but has not yet taken any practical steps to address the challenges faced by the exporters to make their products competitive and sellable in the international market.

Remittances from the overseas Pakistan are the second important plank of our economy. It is high time for the PTI government, particularly Prime Minister Imran Khan, to mobilise Pakistani diaspora living abroad to channel their money into Pakistan through official modes to boost remittances.

The seriousness of the government for mobilising overseas Pakistanis could be gauged from its efforts to raise funds for the construction of dams. Soon after coming into power, Prime Minister Imran Khan joined efforts of former chief justice Saqib Nisar for this cause and the dam fund was renamed as chief justice and Prime Minister’s dam fund. But, unfortunately, a little over Rs9 billion has so far been contributed to this fund despite a massive advertisement and publicity campaign. The overseas Pakistanis have contributed only one-ninth of the amount collected as yet.

It is time for the prime minister to reach out to overseas Pakistanis, living in the United States and Europe with whom he has had deep-rooted relationship since his cricketing days and motivate them to contribute vigorously towards efforts to revive country’s economy.

Instead of taking decisions piecemeal, the government needs to evolve a strategy that clearly envisages its priorities and then steps should be taken in line with those priorities.

The government is also required to launch a meaningful debate in the parliament to seek input from the opposition in this regard than devising and implementing its strategy without their help.

Unfortunately, with the steady rise of political temperature inside and outside the parliament, one wonders if one could expect a substantive and meaningful dialogue between the government and its opponents on these vital issues.

The government needs to sit together with the political opposition and draw up a plan to pave the way for the approval of legislation needed for the revival of economy.

There has been a call for a charter of economy so that economy should not become subject of political bickering among the political parties. The government, particularly Prime Minister and finance minister, should take measures to evolve such a consensus among the political leadership as it would help devise a national strategy to deal with the economic challenges faced by the country.

So far there are no indications that such steps are being envisaged but one hopes that better sense prevails on all sides and they take measures to take the country out of the present mess.

The writer is a senior journalist based in Islamabad