Daily Times

Ordinary Pakistani men and women are used to sharing the back-breaking burden of whatsoever is borrowed or squandered by their state. Small wonder, there! But to see the government pass the sweetener further down the chain when it feels comfortable again is always a pleasant surprise.

The Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) government’s announcement about aligning public transport fares and the prices of essential commodities with rates effective in July 2023 in the wake of a massive drop in the petroleum price deserves appreciation in the strongest of terms. It is a commonly known fact that even when it is economically optimal to adjust prices to meet demand, the market seems reluctant to do so. By reducing the price stickiness, the provincial government would, in turn, push other businesses to follow suit and finally offer some respite to the masses. Experts proclaim that the ongoing series of wins in the currency market and fuel price reductions by the caretaker government would do nothing other than lay hands on some political space against mounting pressure over sky-touching inflation.

Ad-hoc economic policies do little but buy an extremely narrow window, which, if not followed by an appropriate financing plan, become a perfect recipe for utter disaster. Despite an unprecedented win for the Pakistani rupee and ever-so-ferocious crackdowns on the smuggler mafia, little appears to be going in the right direction. While the limited mandate of those sitting in Islamabad does hold true, these indicators tend to cause more alarm than relief when thinking about a game of chickens awaiting us in the long run.

At the risk of sounding repetitive, Daily Times would implore all political players to blow the dust off their decision-making skills and step into the ring with a carefully deliberated upon master for the next few years. Pakistan is in no shape to stomach a slight blow to its finances. It would take a lack of dependency, based on a healthy tax system and clearance from debtors, for our affairs to finally come out of the doldrums. *