Daily Times

Constantly bewildered by political incompetence, Pakistan’s economic troubles keep inching towards a point of no return with every passing day. Despite tooting his own horn over a “responsible budget,” Federal Finance Minister Ishaq Dar is yet to offer a clear blueprint over how he would help the sinking ship get back on track.

And while the business community chants the recipe to attract investment and build trade linkages in unison, the state is not ready to read the writing on the wall. Geopolitics would have to take a backseat for geoeconomics to prosper. There’s no denying that.

It is for this reason alone that the government’s success in procuring Russian oil (despite the jury being out on its feasibility) should be heralded as a step in the right direction. Getting its hands on discounted crude shipments has come as a much-awaited respite from Pakistan’s acute balance-of-payment crisis.

The fact that we are ready to part ways with the historic dollar-dominated payment policy is an even greater sign of the tide finally turning in our favour. But as the petroleum ministry seeks an ingress into the Azerbaijani market for cheaper LNG cargoes, one can’t help but wonder how long would Pakistan wait before it considers the options available in its immediate neighbourhood.

If hawks were to be believed, no relations with India can be pursued until and unless the acute territorial dispute is resolved. The Sino-Indian example speaks volumes about how no military conflict–however lethal–was able to shake the edifice of bilateral trade.

Yes, the Kashmir predicament needs to be put to rest once and for all, but Pakistan cannot simply choose to close its borders to the biggest market of fresh fruits, cement, gypsum and sesame seeds. In return, millions spent on importing raw materials from costlier locations could also be saved.

Extraordinary circumstances call for extraordinary measures and maybe, unprecedented inflation (over 29 per cent), languishing currency and precariously low foreign reserves were all that were required for sanity to take hold. *