FINALLY, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved release of the 6th tranche of about $1billion to Pakistan but at conditions that would continue to haunt people of Pakistan for the foreseeable future.
Minister for Finance Shaukat Tarin, who made an announcement in this regard via his twitter account, is obviously happy and satisfied but the toughest conditions that the Government implemented for the tranche have significantly added to the burden of the common man.
Now that the IMF programme is back on track, it is time for the policy and decision-makers to make an in-depth and thorough review of what Pakistan got and what it lost because of its engagement with the global lender.
This is because, apart from issues impinging upon the political and economic sovereignty of the country, there are serious questions about any worthwhile improvement in the overall conditions of Pakistan despite getting numerous packages from the IMF.
This time round, Pakistan got approval for a mini-budget, granted autonomy to the central bank under the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Amendment Act, hiked power tariff and other prior actions that ultimately paved the way for completion of the outstanding review and release of the tranche from the IMF Executive Board.
The opposition has repeatedly been describing these measures as surrender before the IMF, vowing that it would reverse some of them on the first available opportunity.
Otherwise too, can we afford to take such hard decisions for an indefinite period under the false impression that our condition would improve with the prescription given by the IMF.
This has not happened so far and there is little hope that it would become a reality in future and, therefore, we should stop indulging in practices that compound woes of the people.
How can one expect any improvement in the life of the people or state of the economy through IMF programmes when taxes worth Rs.750 billion are imposed after the annual budget and development budget is slashed by Rs.200 billion?
People have been hearing for a long time from successive governments that this would be the last IMF programme but the commitment has not materialized.
The burden of foreign loans is rapidly increasing with the passage of time and only recently the country had to secure billions of dollars from Saudi Arabia on somewhat hard conditions and now it is seeking to get about five billion dollars from China.
There should be a thorough debate in Parliament on the issue of IMF programmes and burgeoning foreign loans and a viable strategy firmed up to address the challenge.
In the meanwhile, the Government needs to take urgent measures to offset the impact of the continued price-hike in the country.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Imran Khan, once again, acknowledged that global inflation was burdening the people, adding that steps are being taken to protect the common man from the effects of inflation.
He also thanked the members of the business community for raising the salaries of their employees on his request.
It is, however, strange that while the private sector has responded positively to the appeal of the Prime Minister in this regard, why the Government itself is taking so much time in announcing a similar raise in salaries of its employees and pensioners.
One can also understand the advice of the Prime Minister to the businessmen and industrialists to pass on benefits of increasing profits to the lower class.
The Government is also claiming that economic conditions of the country are rapidly improving – exports poised to climax to a record level; home remittances by overseas Pakistanis are reaching all-time high mark; and tax collection is on the rise.
In this backdrop, the Government should pass on the benefits to the people, especially under-privileged segments of the society and shun the tendency of slashing budgetary allocations for development that help create economic and employment opportunities in the length and breadth of the country.
There is no doubt, some of the policies and reforms undertaken by the Government would help improve the overall economy and ultimately conditions of the people but they should not be allowed to languish till materialization of this dream.
