RARELY have I seen a situation like this one. The economy is finding an uneasy and shaky stability; as inflation peaks, the exchange rate looks like it might well stick, the backlog of unpaid dividends is being cleared, interest rates are on a downward trajectory from here on, the current account has returned to surplus, reserves are stable and so on. The list can get as long as one wants.

But the problems are growing. Rarely have we seen a situation where the economy stabilises while the government gets shaky. Usually, political and economic stability go together in our history. And mind you, I’m talking about economic stability, not growth. Paradoxically, periods of booming economic growth are also periods when politics becomes shaky.

Nawaz Sharif found himself facing disqualification right when his economic growth rates were hitting their peak and the first of the large mega projects his government had commissioned were getting ready for start of commercial operations. Likewise, Imran Khan found himself facing a vote of no-confidence precisely when the economy was hitting its peak growth rate of seven per cent.

But I cannot recall a government going wobbly when the stabilisation phase of the economy is peaking. That is where we are today. The economy has not fixed itself, nor is growth about to return. All that has happened is the worst effects of the bitter medicine one has to take to stabilise an out-of-control economy are now beginning to wear off. That’s all.

Usually this is the........

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