KARACHI:
For the last several months, Pakistan has been facing a political and economic crisis. Dwindling foreign exchange reserves, low GDP growth, and rupee devaluation have led to a host of issues. Many industries and companies have been forced to halt operations due to challenging economic conditions. The ever-increasing inflation is crippling the masses with unemployment constantly rising.
In Pakistan, an economic crisis comes around every few years because the economy does not produce enough, spends too much, and is reliant on external support. Every successive crisis is worse than the last one because the country is unable to repay previous loans and the debt keeps increasing. Internal political instability and the floods worsened the economic crisis. Global upheavals such as the rising food and fuel prices in the wake of Russia’s war in Ukraine have had a spill-over effect in Pakistan resulting in one of the greatest economic challenges the country has ever witnessed.
Yet the government is engaged in politicking and has pushed back on the IMF conditions which have stalled the release of a $1.1 billion loan tranche. Politics will likely consume much of Pakistan’s time and attention in 2023 as it did in 2022. The country’s sudden divergence towards political instability last spring did not end with the dramatic no-confidence vote and the subsequent ouster of former Prime Minister Imran Khan. Instability and polarisation have only heightened since then. Khan has led a popular opposition movement against the incumbent coalition government staging a series of large rallies across the country. For politics-obsessed Pakistan, the biggest question is who will win the next general election. Regardless of the outcome, one thing we can ascertain is that the direction of the country is unlikely to change.
Muhammad Yaseen Saleem
Lahore
Published in The Express Tribune, February 18th, 2023.
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