The receipt of a letter of intent (LoI) from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) augurs well for the bailout facility, which continues to hang in the balance as the Fund’s executive board meets on Aug29 to decide on it. The word on the market floor is that this all put puts the final stamp on the $1.7 billion tranche that will stabilise national reserves and make it much easier and cheaper to go fishing for more debt. Yet even though this is good news for the government because it one step closer to its most urgent aim, there’s still no light at the end of the tunnel for the people that have sacrificed so much to bring he government this far in restoring the extended fund facility (EFF). That’s because on top of the subsides they’ve had to be deprived of and additional taxes they must pay so the government can stay solvent, there will now, for sure, be a mini budget very soon that will slap even more taxes on them. And the reason is that the government was just blackmailed by traders and retailers into taking back the fixed tax imposed on them through their electricity bills and this shortfall, like all others, will also have to be met by squeezing more out of ordinary, hard-working Pakistanis. So, while they will cheer that a Sri Lanka or Lebanon like situation has been averted, for now, a lot of Pakistanis will still end up looking and feeling just like a lot of Sri Lankans and Lebanese. The big question, then, is how long will the economy take to stabilise once we’re back in the good books of the Fund and therefore able to get all the loans that we need for the present fiscal? And the answer is sure to disappoint everybody, because it will take a very long time. We must first stand on our own two feet, then completely revamp production and manufacturing, while at the same time carve out more export markets, and then offer a new, value-added export basket to the world. We’ll be a lot better off as soon as we can get at least half of that going. *