Waiting for a miracle?

We can’t get out of our repeated balance of payments crises unless we earn enough dollars to cover our import bill. The unfortunate reality is that the economy cannot be put on a sustainable growth trajectory without carrying out deeper systemic reforms. And our governments do not have the will and capacity for such reforms.

The PTI made tall promises about ending corruption, strengthening institutions, improving tax collection and reviving state-owned corporations but delivered nothing. The only defence PTI supporters have is that the party inherited a fractured economy. It still does not explain why the PTI failed to take any concrete steps towards carrying out structural reforms, which might have prevented the economy from landing in yet another crisis. It is now the PML-N’s turn to take the fall for what it has inherited from the previous government. The party will be required to boost exports by $10 billion in just 17 months if it thinks that it can avert the present crisis and chooses not to dissolve the assemblies. The country needs a newly elected government that has the time and political space to make tough decisions.

Aqil Sajjad

Tucson, USA