All’s not rosy

I firmly believe that whatever efforts the sitting government makes on any front – foreign relations, ease of doing business within and with the outside world, economic matters etc – the eventual aim should be to provide relief to the common citizen. Sadly enough, with every passing day the people of this country are facing a serious economic issue. The prices of all the essential commodities have skyrocketed beyond their reach. Everybody is finding it extremely difficult to make both ends meet.

On the other hand, the rosy economic picture being painted by the PM and his team of ministers is totally misleading. How has our improvement in ‘ease of doing business’ or stock exchange going up or Moody’s ratings affecting the daily living standards of the people of Pakistan? Every now and then we find new taxes, to please the IMF, without any corresponding increase in salaries. Suffice it to say that the government has miserably failed to control the inflationary trends. As per its election manifesto, it was supposed to provide jobs to the unemployed and provide suitable accommodation to the poor. According to a recent survey, thousands of people have lost their jobs in the last one year as many companies have either shifted abroad or closed many of their branches since they are finding it difficult to do business due to unfavorable conditions here.

Cdre (r) Sajjad Ali Shah Bokhari

Islamabad