Direction dilemma

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government last week presented the second mini-budget of the current fiscal year in the National Assembly.

But the brewing political storm seemed to have taken the focus off the issue for which the session was called.

Before Finance Minister Asad Umar took the floor of the house to table the budgetary proposals, the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif stood up to launch a scathing attack on the government over the brutal killings of a couple, its daughter, and a friend in front of three minors by the Punjab Counter Terrorism Department’s brutes in Sahiwal.

The treasury members were visibly angry over the opposition’s onslaught as it happened in the presence of Prime Minister Imran Khan who appeared in the National Assembly after a gap of more than three months since the house was sworn in five month ago.

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi put up a mild defence of the government.

But the tempers ran high when the finance minister presented the budget as his voice was drowned out in the noisy protest of the opposition led by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) lawmakers.

The opposition leader was expected to open the debate on the budget on the following day with a hope that the supplementary finance bill would be passed after the debate.

However, in an unprecedented move the speaker of the house prorogued the house apparently over the exchange of barbs by the government and opposition leaders on social media and outside the house.

Taking a strong exception to the opposition’s tirade on Prime Minister, his special assistant Naeemul Haq, in a series of strong-worded tweets, warned the opposition leader of facing risk of revoking his production order for the lower house session by the speaker if he did not call off his denunciatory demeanour.

If the government and opposition continued with their behavior then the parliament is not expected to deliver any worthwhile business.

The onus of bringing the political temperature down rests on the government as it, because of absence of a comfortable majority, badly needs support from opposition to pass any legislation.

It seems that the hawkish elements within the government and the ruling party are dominating in the decision-making processes.

Interestingly, there are also signs of fissures within the ruling coalition and at a time when they needed cohesion to resist any pressure from the opposition the dissenting voices within their own ranks have started growing louder and louder.

It is therefore, incumbent upon the ruling party, particularly prime minister himself, to patch up differences within the ruling coalition and also make efforts to bring temperatures down with the opposition.

Economy of the country needs all-out focus of the government and it can only be done if political issues are managed properly.

Ironically, there has been no serious effort on the part of the government to reach out to the opposition to listen to their grievances and take steps to redress them as it would only create a congenial political environment that could ensure smooth running of the parliament as well as the government.

The government has not yet told the nation as well as the parliament about its strategy to deal with the economic challenges and the information has only come out in bits and pieces.

The government is close to completing its first half year in office but is yet to share with the nation that how much money it has targeted to raise from the friendly countries to address the balance of payment challenge.

Speaking at a press conference, the finance minister said the financial support from China is being finalised and it is expected to be unveiled in a couple of weeks.

Though he has assured time and again that there are no risks of an imminent balance of payment crisis and the government is not in a hurry to conclude a bailout deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) but such assurances have hardly placated uncertainty in country’s stock and money markets.

Businessmen do not put in their money for short-term investment especially amid volatility and uncertainty.

And this uncertainty is not restricted to external sector only, there are also questions as to what is the government’s strategy to plug the revenue gap of nearly Rs175 billion appeared at the end of the first half of the year.

Moreover, a slight increase in exports should not be a source of comfort for the government as it needs a big boost to exports to drastically reduce the current account deficit in the short-term.

Though, there is no clear word from the government but if one looks at the proposals launched in the mini-budget, it seems that this government, like its predecessors, is more interested in spurring the growth by giving incentives of the businessmen and would wait for these measures to start producing results to ease pressure of employment and jobs before it introduces structural reforms like streamlining taxation and energy sectors.

However, many of the proposals made by the finance minister would take effect from the start of the next fiscal and apparently that was the reason the government did not push for the early approval of the budgetary proposals by the National Assembly and prorogued the house.

While the government might be complacent that country would not face any difficulties following receiving financial assistance from friendly countries, but in view of the political developments inside the country as well as in the region, it’s hard to predict the situation after five or six months.

Therefore, instead of relying too much on feel-good instincts the government needs to be realistic in making decisions and its decision-making should be based on ground realities rather than on risk-taking. Moreover, as the time passes by, it will become difficult to take bold decisions. The first few months are crucial for a government to set a direction for it and then follow it steadfastly by making small and little adjustments as and when needed.

However, a directionless journey runs the risk of heading to a wrong direction that could ultimately prove disastrous.

It is, therefore, incumbent upon the government that without wasting any time anymore it should set a clear direction as well a roadmap to take the country where it wants to take it.

The writer is a senior journalist based in Islamabad