There is a whiff of change at the citadel of PML(N). Though Vice President Maryam Nawaz’s camp may rant and roar about playing centre-forward, former CM Shehbaz Sharif is back in the game. As senior Sharif extends an olive branch to PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and says hello to PDM chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the opposition parties are very likely to set their house in order. The very pubic spat between Islamabad and Rawalpindi landed as much-needed manna from heaven, right in its lap. Amid power shows all over the country and talks to muster support for the anti-government movement, the ruling PTI would be very naive to take a breather.
Nevertheless, any political storm–no matter how confident Mr Sharif may seem–would still be less back-breaking of a crisis. For, the nightmares are bound to get even worse. If the PTI’s voters are deeply concerned by the way their bills continue to soar high, it cannot pass the buck to Ishaq Dar’s rupee melodrama. Not anymore. Neither can the government keep referring to corruption sagas of the yore to defend the freefall of the Pakistani rupee. There are no plans in sight to slam the brakes on double-digits food inflation. The mega relief package heralded as a gamechanger was widely ridiculed after the overnight price hike in petrol. Power and gas tariffs are next in line to weigh excruciatingly on poor masses. To put it in layman’s terms, Islamabad does not need any external force to reshuffle the political cards. Its apparent failure to push the proverbial genies of sugar, wheat and even ghee mafias back inside the bottle can do the job well on its own.
More worrisome is the nauseating deja vu to Ayub Khan’s spinning of the economic hats. The uncanny resemblance is hard to look past. He, too, had proclaimed to steer his debt-ridden country out of its troubles. But just like today, prosperity was low-hanging fruit to a selected few. Going by the press conferences, Pakistan is on a steady track for its economy to grow nearly five per cent. The IMF programme is back on the table. But if life is all sunshine and rainbows, why is an average Pakistani contemplating how to put two meals on his table? Clearly, something sinister has been in the making. The turnover of the ’50s Green Revolution was said to have been circulated between some 80 families. In 2021, the carcass of Pakistan’s economy is being scavenged by sugar barons, concrete captains and Mister Bigs of the textile industry. The government has, indeed, delivered its promise regarding lifelines to large-scale manufacturers. May it be the automobile industry or the construction channel, big wheels are having a night on tiles. But when would these sweeteners trickle all the way to the common man is a quandary no one in the top echelons is ready to give their two cents on!
https://dailytimes.com.pk/838357/alarm-bells/
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