Daily Times

Hamza Shahbaz is no longer the chief minister of Punjab. The bench comprising three judges of the apex court decided in favour of Pervez Elahi to be the CM of Punjab. Henceforth, he will wear the ‘Crown’ and ensconce himself on the ‘Takhte Punjab’. The confusion about the CM slot of the politically vibrant province of the country is over. And to top it off, the bench decided the new CM to take oath immediately. If the governor wasn’t available for the purpose, the president would conduct the oath-taking ceremony.

A day before the decision by the three-judge bench, the coalition of ruling parties announced a lack of confidence in the bench and asked for a full court hearing. The bench of three judges turned down the demand and decided in favour of Pervez Elahi. The decision will have serious consequences for the PML(N) government in the centre. Imran Khan-dominated government in Punjab will most likely make Shahbaz Sharif’s government in Islamabad untenable. Also appointing Hamza Shahbaz as CM Punjab was not a wise choice. There were more mature and seasoned politicians in the party available for the slot who could handle the crisis-like situation in the province more efficiently. And why promote the dynastic rule in such a blatant manner?

Nawaz Sharif was prudent enough to see through the gambit and fully understood why the party was being lured to come into power after Imran Khan was voted out.

In fact, Mian Shahbaz Sharif should have stayed out of power after the fall of the PTI government. At the time when Imran Khan was voted out of power, PML(N) enjoyed immense support, especially in Punjab and to a reasonable extent in other provinces. By acceding to his compelling desire to be the prime minister, Shahbaz Sharif didn’t realise his government would have to take unpopular decisions to obtain an IMF loan.

The decision to raise the prices of power, fuel and gas had to make the middle class and poor of the society most unhappy. Not to talk of the ordinary citizens, even many among the educated lot don’t understand the intricacies involved in meeting IMF conditions to get loans.

A large number of people think that obtaining foreign loans has become a compulsion for the country not so much to promote health and education in the society as to pamper the upper layers of society to maintain their high standards of living. We know what percentage of the budget is allocated for the basic services – health and education in the country. The Economic Survey of Pakistan 2021-2022 pointed out that only 1.77 per cent of GDP was spent on the education sector; compare it with a country like Nepal that spent four per cent of its GDP during the same period.

To learn how the World Bank and its affiliates keep the borrowing nations in bondage forever, I suggest every aware citizen read the book, “The New Confessions of an Economic Hitman” by John Perkins. An excerpt from the book is worth quoting: “The (IMF) loans make a handful of wealthy and influential families in the receiving countries very happy, while assuring long-term financial dependence and therefore the political loyalty of the governments around the world. The larger the loan, the better. The fact that the debt burden placed on a country would deprive its poorest citizens of health care, education, and other social services for decades to come was not taken into consideration.” Is our situation any different?

Nawaz Sharif was never in favour of the PML(N) forming a government either in the province or the centre. He was prudent enough to see through the gambit and fully understood why the party was being lured to come into power after Imran Khan was voted out. The party was to be used for negotiating the IMF loan by meeting its tough conditions and clearing the mess Imran Niazi’s government had left behind.

The party’s popularity among the people suffered enormously when it followed IMF dictations to raise the prices of utilities. When the PML(N) government implemented the IMF agenda, the prices of all household commodities of daily use shot up. The ‘wealthy and influential families’ mentioned in Perkins’ book wouldn’t have felt the pinch of high prices but it badly hit the middle and lower middle classes of the society. Those living below the poverty line, may the Almighty grant them succour.

The writer is a Lahore-based columnist and can be reached at pinecity @gmail.com