Ad infinitum
Some US $ 4.3 billion. This is the amount that Pakistan needs just to pay off the IMF debt.
Needless to say, in these tough times, this pound of flesh is going to hurt.
The solution? To seek another loan programme. A vicious cycle, one hears, that will go from bad to worse? Yes, if things don’t change structurally.
It was way back in 2008 that the incumbent government was forced to enter into the current loan programme. Though the principal opposition party, the PML(N), will decry the move now for political reasons, back when the new government was formed, the League’s Ishaq Dar was the finance minister. Flanked by Sherry Rehman, the then information minister, Mr Dar made it clear that the Shaukat Aziz/Salman Shah dispensation has recklessly spent the exchequer into oblivion. That it was imperative to get some cash flow from somewhere. No, he did not specifically name the Fund, but unless he believed in little green men, Mr Dar had meant the IMF or that other horseman of the apocalypse, the World Bank. Crying hoarse now is needless populism.
So what happened after the programme? Did the government mismanage its coffers? Yes. Matters constitutional, this government has shown a masterful ease at, despite the odds. And its ability to herd its flock of coalition partners, though it is too premature to call it out just now, will be remembered in times to come. But on the governance front, a mess. On the finance front, many finance ministers and even more finance secretaries have been in and out.
But, to be fair, all blame should not rest on the government’s shoulders. The opposition should bear some responsibility as well. Instead of delving into the specifics of public finance, it should be remembered that it all boils down to two things. Expenditures and receipts. The government’s efforts at curtailing the former – by lowering unsustainable subsidies – and increasing the former – by reforming the tax system – have been all but scuttled by the opposition parties and, in the case of the MQM, treasury benches members as well.
This is going to be an endless cycle that won’t stop until the parliament as a whole gets its act together. It is difficult to skip across party lines to stick together for a larger cause on an issue as large and possibly divisive as this. But this, more than any other issue, needs a combined session of parliament.
