What will 2026 bring? |
AWAY from the noise and bluster that dominated the news in the last few weeks of 2025, not enough attention was paid to a statement. Last month, at a business event in Islamabad, Lt-Gen Sarfraz Ahmed, national coordinator, SIFC, said Pakistan had no growth plan; adding that Pakistan had made a mess of its fiscal situation. He said the government could only think of raising taxes and indicated that the business community was an easy prey because they were already in the net. He said that the high taxes discouraged investment, internally and externally. Speaking of the need to reduce taxes, he was reported as saying the ‘business-as-usual approach’ would not work. More was said in a similar vein, attracting greater attention than speeches at similar business-related events. It was seen by many as an acknowledgment that the economy was not doing all that well and that neither was it sustainable.
Keeping in mind the eternal civil-military dance in this country, the question whispered frequently was whether this was a criticism of the government itself. After all, the civilians in the government, including the prime minister, cannot stop claiming their success in stabilising and improving the economy. Nearly a fortnight after the event, the prime minister, according to a news report, said the economy was out of the woods and the mega indicators were wonderful.
But if the chatter in Islamabad is to be believed, the concerns about the........