A late night lecture

I listened intently and with great interest the entire 90 minutes address of our Prime Minister on the night of August 19. However, I was disappointed when our PM exclusively thanked his PTI supporters thus appearing to be the PM of only his party and not of the entire nation. It would have been proper on his part to thank the entire nation for putting him into this coveted office. Second, I referred to the Pakistan Economic Survey (2017-18) to verify the veracity of the national debt burden. The figure showed that the total debt stood at Rs22,820 billion as at December 2017 and not at Rs28,000 billion – as quoted by the PM. It is approximately 66 percent of our GDP. According to Paul Krugman, a Nobel Laureate economist, when an economy is in either recession or slow growth trajectory, it may be wise to borrow even up to 100 percent of GDP for investment in infrastructure to create jobs and to pull the economy out of recession.

Third, the speech sounded more like a lecture on micro problems lacking a strategic depth to highlight macro policy challenges. Also, most of the issues highlighted are provincial subjects. Instead of dabbling in these issues, it would have been desirable to share his precise macroeconomic policies for achieving high growth, a clear delineation of foreign policy parameters including the resolution of the Kashmir dispute. Fourth, one was hoping that the PM as per his earlier commitment would dwell upon creating a unified education system and the time frame within which it could be achieved. There was no mention on this score at all. Last, he didn’t say anything about his 100-day plan to show his performance let alone the creation of 10 million jobs.

Dr Zafar I Qureshi

Lahore