Fantasy island

This refers to President Arif Alvi's annual address to the joint sitting of parliament where he said that due to the prudent policies of the incumbent PTI-led government, the country's economy was on an upward trajectory. He claimed that the growth rate had reached 3.94 percent during the fiscal year 2020-21. He went on to say that exports increased to $25.3 billion dollar, and remittances collected were six billion dollars more than those of the last year.

The speech indicated that the country's economy was strong, and the extraordinary increase in the exports indicated that the rupee was sound against the US dollar despite its dwindling position in the open market. As far as remittances are concerned, they are no panacea to a faltering economy. Had everything been so on track and perfect, people would not have borne the brunt of multiple problems in the shape of abject poverty, high inflation, massive unemployment, and electricity and gas shortages. The president should have shared cogent suggestions and effective guidelines with the government for improving the ailing economy and controlling inflation instead of unhesitatingly endorsing the economic policies of the current government. It is time the president realised the problems people were facing and came up with solutions to help them.

Guldar Ali Khan Wazir

Zhob