Shahbaz Sharif’s election as PM was widely hailed by the business community which expressed confidence in his ability to stabilize the country’s crumbling economy. The new PM however is not required to please the business community alone ignoring the concerns of the agriculturists, the salariat and millions of rural and urban poor. Razak Dawood’s theory of total concentration on accumulation of capital, helped the construction lobby earn billions but the profits failed to percolate to the public at large. What will be needed is a just balancing of interests of all sections of society. The Prime Minister will also have to prove by his actions that his promise to bring the socio-economic development of smaller provinces at par with Punjab was no demagoguery.
Equally challenging would be to satisfy the international financial institutions. We have been told by the PML(N) leadership that the new government would restart negotiations with the IMF for balance of payments support. On Wednesday the World Bank slashed Pakistan’s growth forecast to 4.3percent. The Bank maintains that last-ditch energy subsidies by the outgoing government put an additional burden on thr budget and threatened the IMF programme. The PTI had taken the decision to win the sympathy of the common people overburdened by the rising prices and service charges. The new government too cannot afford to ignore the common man and would therefore have to devise means for his uplift without reneging on the agreement with the IMF which amounts to walking on a tightrope.
An urgent task is to start preparing the new budget. Mr Sharif has formed a National Economic Advisory Council (NEAC) consisting of leading industrialists and economists to find a way out of the prevailing economic crunch. What is needed is the selection of a new finance minster without delay assisted by a team not representing powerful lobbies, but individuals who are well cognizant of the country’s social and political issues. The PM needs to pay heed to what prominent Pakistani economist Atif Mian said last week. Mian hoped that the incoming government will learn from what happened to the economy under Imran Khan and what they themselves had done wrong in their previous tenures.
