No matter how you try to wrap your head around it, it still seems strange that the country’s trading and business elite, at least a part of it, would go complaining to the army chief. Stranger still that the prime minister would assure them of a ‘fear-free business environment’ the same day. It just goes to show, at the end of the day, that the economy has become a major cause of concern for everybody. And it will take more than the usual assurances like ‘all will be well soon’ to calm anxious nerves this time. Inflation is still rising, jobs and earnings continuing to shrink and GDP projections are reduced to the low two-point-something mark.
Sure, everybody knew that a painful period adjustment was long overdue. And there’s more than a grain of truth and the PTI claim that it’s all Nawaz Sharif’s and Asif Zardari’s fault. Yet PTI fought tooth and nail to earn the right to run this country. It must play the cards it has been dealt; and it’s not like it did not know what it was getting into.
The important thing now, since the harshest steps have apparently already been taken, is to figure out just what will trigger growth going forward. It seems, fortunately, that the government has realised – even if a little late – that perhaps extreme fiscal and monetary tightening was bad enough and the business community could have done without the sword of accountability hanging over its head for now.
That explains all the talk of another strategic u-turn, one which will see some tax relaxation for sectors like real estate, etc, in addition to allowing other excess that the accountability bureau can run after another day. For now, it is far more important to get the economy going. And if Imran Khan can’t do it, people will clearly start looking for alternatives.
