The warning bells are ringing from all sides amid political crisis in Islamabad. The whole world is watching developments in Pakistan and friendly countries like China and the United States are looking the events with concern. The Indian prime minister, who is spitting venom against Pakistan since his Bharatiya Janata Party has come to power,is also worried about the situation in Pakistan.However, the Pakistani politicians remain unfazed and are not ready to hear the voices of logics and reasons and seems to be preferring to live in reveries. Economy is not a priority at any level in the government circles.
As inflation is increasing, the cost of living is also increasing. Reports suggest that the World Bank has asked the government to rid the country of the independent power producers and rental power producers in 10 years because the projects rely heavily on the expensive imported oil and are causing inflation. The dilemma of the situation is that no one in the official circles could identify the number one issue of Pakistan. The law and order is deteriorating, economy is sinking, poverty is on the rise, inflation is unbridled and monster of energy crisis is haunting our industrial setup. Pakistani rupee has started melting again with every passing day. The government has only option and that is to seek more loans from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank for debt servicing and running day to day official functions. But ironically, it has failed to curtail expenditures of the presidency, the prime minister’s house, the governor houses, chief minister houses and Chamba houses. When the government needs money it squeezes the businessmen in the name of broadening tax net. A small and medium level businessman is always a scapegoat for the official machinery to sacrifice him on the altar of their interests.
There has been a continuous increase in inflation for the last many years, battering the rupee value and increasing not only the prices of every kind of edibles, but also energy in the country. However, inflation touched — 6.99 percentin August– the lowest in the last over a year. Earlier, inflation based on consumer price index (CPI)reached the lowest ebb in June 2013, when it was recorded at 5.9 percent,the lowest in many years. However, inflation is projected at 8 percent for 2014-15.The politicians have made a mess of the politics and the economy and if they have to do anything, they have to learn from their past mistakes.
