Daily Times

The jury is still out on whether the ever-empowered caretaker setup was able to take good care of the economy while battling a myriad of challenges on the toughest possible terrain.

Some applauded their clear emphasis on dealing with the deadweights, passing the costs along the infrastructural chain and ensuring IMF remained on board. But there are others who continue to ask discomforting questions about the unnecessary expenditure costs. Back in January, State Bank of Pakistan had noted a staggering increase of 197 per cent in the government borrowing from local banks, which had touched Rs 3.12 trillion on December 23, 2023, while data from Public Sector Development Programme emphasised that almost half of the money earmarked for the entire year had already been consumed.

Today, the latest assessment by IMF rubberstamps these concerns as it criticises Pakistan’s development strategies for carelessly green-lighting an overwhelming 30 per cent rise in the expenditure for ongoing projects in the name of inflation. There’s a lot that needs to be unpacked here. Why is it that an administration believed to operate without the shackles of political agendas resists the need to stay within its constitutional mandate and let the next elected government plan out the best possible way to deal with the financial aspects of infrastructure projects?

Many in the interim setup needlessly took an unprecedented interest in myopic projects that had little to do with their sole purpose of existence: oversee the exchange of power. It goes without saying that Pakistan has yet to learn the fundamentals of planning, especially when talking about its dabblings in the public sector. The absence of a detailed, multi-year cost breakdown means the relevant ministries have no idea about the actual price tag of the project they try hard to get approved.

Usually, this translates to frequent delays and uproar against budget overruns but if some masterstroke puts someone who’s lost sight of the ball in charge, it means financial revisions that would impact hundreds of projects for many, many years. *