According to recent reports, finance minister is of the opinion that all commitments with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), including increase in petroleum development levy, should be implemented at all costs.
Obviously, the minister had to take the hard, unpopular decision to take the country out of the quagmire he found it in, and all decisions in any case are finalised by the prime minister after consultation with the federal cabinet. So, what is the point of being critical against an individual?
The two ruling coalition leaders hardly sound convincing in their criticism of the option to go for the bitter pill for a disease that has been caused by mismanagement over the last many decades during which they, the two leaders concerned, have themselves been in power.
The two leaders throwing tantrums and expressing opposition to the finance minister, who is doing a commendable job in seriously trying circumstances, is just too much to digest.
What one can find fault with, however, is another decision by the federal government. Though there is a lack of clarity on the matter, privatisation of some loss-making public-sector entities is on the cards. The federal government is said to have hurriedly passed the Inter-Governmental Commercial Transactions Act ostensibly to facilitate trouble-free sale of state-owned assets or shares therein to attract foreign investment that is desperately needed.
The Act provides that henceforth, by issuing a notification, the federal government can exempt any agreement from regulatory compliance. Moreover, no court should entertain an application, petition or suit against any process or act undertaken or done, intended or purported to be undertaken or done under the ordinance.
Also, no court should grant an injunction or entertain any application for injunction against any process undertaken, intended or purported to be undertaken for a commercial transaction or agreement under the ordinance.
We know that after the Reko Diq disaster, adequate protection was needed to attract foreign investment, but the Act seems to be taking the matter a bit too far. And we know that one of the two leaders cited above is based abroad, and the other is spending time abroad for some time.
We also know that years ago, efforts were made to sell Roosevelt Hotel for much less than what estate developers were offering at the time.
With all this background that our ‘leading’ politicians have, it is clearly not advisable to trust them, or those like them, with such unbridled powers anymore.
S.R.H. HASHMI
KARACHI
