“Pakistan is healing” was one of many slogans seen across government-affiliated social media accounts in the wake of an important meeting held a few weeks ago by the National Economic Council. Some key phrases from the Prime Minister included “enhanced productivity” and “economic self-reliance” as he took to Twitter to announce the effectiveness of the discussions. However, is this optimism regarding our economic trajectory currently justified? In a recent talk at Princeton, renowned economist Atif Mian stated something that we should all have realised by now: “An economy is embedded within a society.” When our Ministry of Finance is slightly less occupied with writing rebuttal essays to disparage him by saying he knows nothing about “pragmatic economics”-perhaps, we could learn from this. It is not a well-guarded secret that political volatility across the country has reached an alarmingly unprecedented high. At a time when a unified economic front is a desperate requirement, intolerance to opposing views on both sides of the divide keeps growing – at the cost of the bigger picture. Looking at the stock market alone, the PSX has lost market capitalisation by a staggering amount of $77 billion in the past six years. Among the factors responsible for this – it would be prudent not to overlook global shocks such as the pandemic and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict. However, the bottom line is that our economic health often feels like an afterthought, dwarfed by constant political bickering. Like all others, our financial markets operate not too dissimilarly to a serious love interest – they demand a clear plan for the future and they certainly do not like to be neglected. Therefore, as a collective society, we must understand that to cultivate a happy home we need to compromise, listen to the other perspective and plan for the future together. At a time when a unified economic front is a desperate requirement, intolerance to opposing views keeps growing. The foundation that must be laid to build ‘self-reliance’ is obvious enough. Kristalina Georgieva (Managing Director of the IMF) told us simply in a recent interview that the fund is emphasising improvement in tax collection and a more equitable distribution of subsidies. Unfortunately, our tax-to-GDP ratio remains somewhere around the 10 per cent mark compared to the 19 per cent average for the Asia-Pacific region. Furthermore, taxes are heavily focused on imports and tax exemptions are granted at the seemingly random discretion of the federal government. The government is rumoured to be set to launch a fresh assault on importers via the imposition of a further 25 per cent tax on luxury imports. If this is truly isolated purely to commodities deemed to be luxurious then this might indeed be a reasonable move as part of their effort to drastically increase tax revenue. However, we simultaneously also need to acknowledge the vital need to help facilitate raw material imports necessary to compile any subsequent exports. At least until such a time that those inputs can be domestically produced. In the long-term many experts believe that our financial recovery is contingent on a transition from a consumption-based economy to one focused on investment. To achieve this successfully, our elite must swallow some bitter pills but we are fixated on ‘healing’ so surely we will happily take our medicine? A prime example of this would be reforming the tax incentives on land and urban properties. In a rapidly evolving global market – landlords can no longer be the focal point of our economy. Instead, we must incentivise investment in future-proof assets with a high return on investment potential. Whether this takes the form of solar farming or the implementation of artificial intelligence to increase productivity in businesses – we must seize the future or risk being permanently paralysed in the past. Alongside the above, we must also not allow our fundamentals to slip out of sight. To truly envision a brighter future for Pakistan, many dimly lit flames that have not been allowed to shine must be saved from fading away. Translation: the importance we currently allocate to educating our people must increase exponentially. This includes better implementation in both providing basic literacy to impoverished children and helping workers already contributing to the labour force to upskill. The current allocation of roughly 1.7 per cent of our GDP for spending on public education must rise and we must learn to swiftly reprioritise. To summarise the point with a factual comparison, unlike us – India spends a higher proportion of their GDP on education than they do on defence. Returning briefly to the present for more immediate considerations – inflation measured specifically for the food category was most recently recorded at a whopping 48% annual rate. We have spoken in detail about the elements required for our economy to grow but growth requires nutrition – something that many Pakistanis are currently struggling to purchase amongst the dramatic price hikes. So, how do we start fixing these fundamentals? The answer is robust, structured and independent policy making. Pakistan may even wish to look towards Chile as an example. The Chilean economy is currently overseen by their “Autonomous fiscal council.” This is an independent legal body filled with technical experts and is entirely free from the discretionary changes that come with rotations in government and Finance ministers. Economic policy free from stunts for the sake of electoral optics – doesn’t that sound like a dream come true? Common medical knowledge dictates that for wounds to heal – infections must be treated first. Pakistan’s potential is vast and we will rise from the ashes eventually but we must first learn that pointing fingers and passing the parcel with the blame is counter-productive at the stage we have now reached. If we redirect the same energy to discussing the solutions rather than the problems then all hope is not yet lost. The writer is an economics graduate and a London-based finance professional.