Grim economic realities

As pointed out by Business Recorder op-ed writer Dr Masood Khan and others, prime minister Imran Khan in his press conference in Lahore on 7 October, spent a great deal of time stressing his desire to seek friends’ help to place a sizeable deposit in the SBP to tide over the foreign exchange needs of the country. Only reluctantly, he conceded that if those efforts were not successful, the government would seek a programme from the IMF. According to Dr Khan, who happens to be a former Secretary Finance, “[W]ith such sustained ambivalence, the dramatic announcement is both a sigh of relief and cause for wariness. Before we discuss the possible reasons for the decision, let us express an unqualified appreciation for the correct decision no matter how much late in the day it was decided. There was no other way to move forward in seeking to stabilize the economy.”

There is no doubt about the fact that Imran and his team members have been working harder to fix the country’s economy. But the PTI government has no magic wand to arrest the slide in a matter of days and weeks. It is therefore heartening to note that the prime minister has made it clear to the nation that the steps taken by the government would take at least six months to yield desirable results. Moreover, the government reluctance to rush towards the IMF for a bailout package or whatever has stemmed from its approach to the country’s economy which is vastly different from PML-N’s and PPP’s.

Lahore Tehsin Javed