The presentation of the Budget has led to the resumption of the government-opposition blame game on who is responsible for the economy’s parlous state. Each says that it was because of the other side. The opposition claims that the massive need in the coming fiscal year for foreign exchange is not just the current government’s fault but tasty of the government preceding it, which again were the current coalition’s components. The current coalition claims it inherited this need from the present opposition’s massive forex borrowings. What neither side seems to realize is that the ordinary Pakistani, who is after all the person most affected, as he will have to shell out the taxes to pay off the debt, and bear with the inflation that has been caused so far. That man in the street is not bothered about who is to blame; he has to live with the reality of expensive food, unaffordable fuel and electricity out of reach.
It does seem as if the proposal for an economic compact between the parties, an agreement to establish continuity in economic policy, is needed if the country is to break out of its current debt trap. At present, every new government tries to reinvent the wheel, claiming that the previous government made a misshapen wheel. Perhaps the best example was when the PTI government began its tenure in 2018 by presenting a fresh budget to replace the previous budget, apparently just because it had been presented by the previous government. However, it does seem that any such agreement will have to await a fresh election, and even then overcome the PTI’s reluctance to talk to those it has designated as ‘corrupt elements’. The present assembly, the present government, would like to protect its policy decisions, but it is not really in a position to do so, because it may find that it has presented the only budget it can preside over.
If it presents next year’s budget, it will be before going into fresh elections. If it loses the election, it may see that budget replaced if it loses the election. As a first step, the major parties must agree that there will be a ’Charter of the Economy’, as Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif has called it, afterwards, and that the corruption or honesty of the other side will have nothing to do with negotiating it. Without this, the ordinary Pakistani will continue to sink in the economic quicksand that prevails.
