It was only a matter of time before international rating agencies downgraded Pakistan’s outlook, and Moody’s Investor Services is the first one to change it from stable to negative. Such, unfortunately, are the fruits of fiddling with economics for politics for far too long when the economy does not have what it takes to stand on its own feet. The PTI government’s ridiculous subsidy in its last days, and the present government’s utter paralysis in the face of it, which combined to derail and then delay the IMF bailout program, have now cost us in ways that will make shoring up reserves even more difficult in the months and quarters to come. Other notable rating agencies will also do what Moody’s has done very soon, no doubt, so Islamabad can count on foreign investors shunning it even more and international lenders demanding steeper interest for live-saving loans that we’re addicted to. Yet even this is not big enough a crisis to force the country’s political elite to put their heads together and find a way out because they’d still much rather be at each other’s throats in a power tussle that is growing more toxic by the day. PTI has no qualms about what its protests do to the economy and, ultimately, to the lives of ordinary Pakistanis it claims to fight for. The PML-N coalition, on the other hand, also has little appetite to make painful decisions that are desperately needed if its interests are not protected first. And so this circus goes on. The first order of business must be creating the right environment for the IMF program to restart. That will take some pressure off the reserves, encourage other lenders to engage with us, and keep rating agencies at a distance for a little while longer. If all this is not done, the economy will not develop the depth needed to whether this balance of payments (BoP) crisis and the country will most definitely begin tumbling towards default. *