Will We Ever Learn? |
Here we go again, another repeat of knee-jerk policymaking in arbitrarily spiking fuel prices by almost 20% in a single stroke without reflecting on its long-term implications: another wave of inflation, further constrained disposable income, pressure on the PKR possibly leading to further devaluations, escalation in the ongoing industrial erosion, retarded growth, lost competitiveness, diminished investment, unemployment, and last but not least, increased poverty in a highly polarised environment that becomes more dangerous by the day as the government continues to expand its footprint, squandering resources while taxing the daylights out of its citizens. Also, the timing could not have been worse: the middle of Ramadan with Eid approaching, a period when most Islamic governments are busy ensuring price controls, while we, through a soulless act, have handed over a perfect excuse to hoarders and profiteers. Whatever happened to any out-of-the-box or innovative solutions like rethinking regional connectivity on trade, including Iran, doing away with expandable imports and spending, reducing the size of the government, drawing up a mitigating matrix that balances resources by spreading them prudently over essential priorities, or simply pacing the increase gradually to minimise pain? But then again, all of this requires hard work and skilled management, something that we have seen little of lately. Instead, we see a straightforward pattern of brutal execution of foreign dictates. When the economic history of this period is written, all these actors will be........