ASIF MAHMOOD
What are the causes of Pakistan’s economic crisis? Is this just a logical consequence of wrong economic and political policies or is it also a matter of foreign affairs and the angry US is bent on punishing Pakistan? Economic problems did not see Pakistan’s home for the first time. We have been going back to 1948 for loans and aid. This is not the first time that the IMF has imposed strict conditions. For years, conditions kept coming and things kept settling. Here lies the conundrum. What has happened that IMP has practically drawn lines from the nose of the Pakistani government?What we are witnessing today is an unprecedented haplessness. The Prime Minister says if the IMF does not impose more conditions, hopefully we will reach an agreement with it. The things are gone to that extent that the tax relief given to the salaried class was not only withdrawn in the second week by taking a ‘U-turn’ but also the tax rate was almost doubled. The price of petrol has skyrocketed and the game is on. Earlier, the Imran government enacted extraordinary ‘legislations’ to please the IMF. The SBP was made independent and an IMF official was appointed as its head. We have left the rupee at the mercy of the market and shaken the economy, but the IMF is still out of reach like a brutal loer. What’s the matter?Apparently, there are three main reasons for this, and the biggest one is American resentment. Whether right or wrong, the facts are speaking loudly that the United States thinks that Pakistan did not do well with it in Afghanistan and now it wants to retaliate in anger. It is now up to us to think over what we have achieved by fueling the ‘Afghan jihad’ to the ‘war on terror’. What a foreign policy it was that in both wars we sided with the United States and wounded our very existence and the social fabric , but at the end of the war we were the losers.This anger is not with any one government, it is with Pakistan. So if Biden had not called Imran Khan, he hasn’t yet contacted Shahbaz Sharif either. Apparently, the United States has taken to heart that “Pakistan defeated the United States in Afghanistan with the help of the United States.” The problems that Pakistan faced in the FATF, the acquaintances claim, are not the actual reasons. From the FATF to the IMF, there is a lover in this veil of rust, who is in a bad mood.It is now up to us to think about what we have achieved by fueling the ‘Afghan jihad’ to the ‘war on terror’. What a foreign policy it was that in both wars we sided with the United States and wounded our very existence, but at the end of the war we were the losers. Even the Afghan Taliban are growing closer to India. When will we have a meaningful critique of our policies in Parliament? After 9/11, we should have dealt with the United States on new terms. Had there been a democratic government, it might have worked better, but Pervez Musharraf was an unconstitutional ruler. It was enough for him
he earned the recognition as a ruler in return.Since the dictator loses the constituency at the domestic level, he tries to make his mark in the international community. So he was convinced so quickly that even the callers were surprised. To get out of this tsunami of the economy, we must first understand that we need to reshape the contours of foreign affairs.
