Pakistanis ought to watch what is happening in Sri Lanka very closely as an abject lesson in how quickly an out-of-control current account deficit and a freefalling currency can unwind the real economy and lead to political and civil turmoil, curfew, even deaths and an ultimate, disgraceful exit of the sitting government. Sri Lanka’s economic problems are eerily similar to our own, except perhaps that they didn’t seem quite as imposing and owed to different factors. The pandemic, which we survived pretty well, turned out to be their undoing. It cut tourism revenue and remittances, which in turn sparked inflation and a run on the currency. And before anybody knew it, Colombo had to put import controls in place to protect the trade balance. But in this time food and power shortages, low wages and high prices had driven the people crazy enough to spill out onto the streets. They kept the protests silent till the Rajapaksa brothers, who lorded over the country as president and prime minister till the latter was forced to quit after Monday’s violence, ordered their own supporters to sort out the disgruntled bunch that had camped outside their offices; and that too with force. That led to retaliation from the protesters, of course, and soon enough there were riots up and down the country; despite the government’s attempt to enforce a curfew. Senior officials were surrounded and harassed by ordinary people; one even shot a couple of protesters before taking his own life. And a number of high-ranking officials had to watch helplessly as mobs gutted their homes. Things have continued to deteriorate despite the recent decision to default on the country’s $51 billion debt and a call for a unity government. It’s pretty clear that people cannot help mend the economy by tearing the country apart. Yet the public’s behaviour is understandable and it is precisely what to expect when governments themselves run the economy into the ground. It’s also no surprise that the opposition is not at all interested in the half-hearted offer of a so-called unity government and will settle for nothing short of a fresh election. All things considered, Sri Lanka should have that election, so people can at least feel that a representative government is trying to put the pieces back together again. *