Is the worst over?

Last week, while speaking to the journalists in the federal capital, Prime Minister Imran Khan declared there was no economic crisis in the country for now and the challenges that his government was confronted with were very much manageable.There could not be any good news than this for the country, which just four months back was on the verge of default. But it was not the first time for the country to have come to this pass and it seems it would not be the last.Over the past three decades, there had been several occasions when the country reached the brink of default and it took some fire-fighting measures to avert the worse. Once it was averted, it returned to the state of complacency; abandoning the badly needed reforms to put the economy on sound footing.When this government came into power after July elections, the country was facing an imminent balance of payment crisis.After indecisiveness, which lasted for several weeks, the government eventually decided to explore the possibility of seeking help from the friendly countries.After securing generous funds from Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates (UAE), Finance Minister Asad Umar jubilantly announced that the country was not facing any balance of payment crisis for the current fiscal year.The million dollar question is whether the government has chalked out its future course of action to avoid recurrence of the same in future, particularly during its five-year term.Ideally speaking, the home-grown reforms needed to address the long-standing problems faced by the economy should have been ready to take off by now and the government should have focused its complete attention on the implementation of these reforms.But it seems the government is gradually turning its focus to other issues than the economy.While speaking at the ambassadors’ conference in Islamabad, the prime minister underlined the need for economic diplomacy and urged the country’s diplomats to facilitate overseas Pakistanis, who are a big asset for the country.But can the Pakistani diaspora across the world be mobilised through such sermons? The government needs to draw up a comprehensive plan to galvanise support from these Pakistanis.Because of his illustrious cricketing career and his charismatic personality, the prime minister enjoys a lot of goodwill among overseas Pakistanis.He needs to personally reach out to them and seek their support for nation building.The government needs to come up with innovative ideas to gather support from the Pakistani diaspora. If it failed to take timely action the euphoria that was created after Imran Khan’s election as Prime Minister would die down and the country would lose a golden opportunity to galvanise support from this important segment of the country.The government needs to chart up a comprehensive plan for the economic recovery, vigorously implement it and then wait patiently for the results. If the incumbent regime’s response to the massive rupee devaluation is any guide, one could find that their reaction to major economic issues is kneejerk. There is a lack of a concerted plan of action to deal with such important issues.A phenomenal increase in exports is one of the major challenges for the government as it has to play a crucial part in turning the economy around. So far however they have not come up with any idea on how this target can be achieved. Exports cannot be increased by only offering incentive packages. The need is also to make our products competitive and to explore markets across the world to sell them.Prime minister very rightly told diplomats that Africa was still, so far, the best untapped market for Pakistani exports, but there was a need to come up with a plan of action to make inroads for Pakistani products in that huge emerging market.Before coming into power, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had announced to set up a wealth fund to revive the loss-making state-owned entities. The finance minister last week said a plan for the revival of Pakistan International Airlines and Pakistan Steels would be ready by the end of January, but there has been no progress on it as yet.It should be kept in mind that Saudi Arabia and the UAE’s contribution of $3 billion each for the balance of payment support were just for one year. The government’s measures needed to start producing results by that time so that there would be no crisis when these friendly countries withdrew their support.The government needs to work on a war-footing to address these issues as the crisis might have been put off but it is not fully over as yet. Political stability is a must for the country to get out of its economic woes. However, just four months after the formation of a new government, political tensions were rising on the national horizon amid fears that these tussles would worsen with the passage of time.A political crisis seems to be brewing in Sindh, of which country’s commercial hub Karachi is the capital. The federal cabinet has put the main leadership of the Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP), which rules Sindh, as well as senior leaders and bureaucrats of the provincial government on Exit Control List (ECL) after unveiling of a joint investigation report in fake bank accounts case.Though corruption is a major hurdle, any drive aimed at checking malpractices and graft must neither be seen as a witch-hunt for the political opponents nor must it scare away investors.In the past, several anti-corruption campaigns were launched in Pakistan, but these eventually turned out to be victimisation drives against political opposition, which not only hindered national development but inflicted huge losses to the national exchequer.Amidst growing vows of the government leaders for the recovery of billions of dollars stashed away by the affluent Pakistanis in foreign banks, the International Court of Arbitration in London has announced imposition of heavy fines on the National Accountability Bureau for cancelling contract with a firm for the recovery of the same wealth in 2003.The government needs to act prudently and realistically in this regard and should avoid repeating the past mistakes which do no good for the country and the nation.The writer is a senior journalist based in Islamabad

from The News International - Money Matters http://bit.ly/2AoVPGV