The Shehbaz Sharif administration is caught between a rock and a hard place as Pakistan struggles to meet the IMF’s requirements and faces a sovereign default if the funding programme ends at the end of June. Pakistan is an Islamic country and has had its worst inflation rates since records began being kept in 1957. In May 2023, Pakistan had the greatest inflationary pressure in Asia, at 38 per cent, surpassing Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka’s inflation rate has decreased to 25.2 per cent since Pakistan surpassed Colombo in April 2023.
Pakistan has always boxed way above its weight category, first due to support from the US in the past century and now from China, as reported by the Hindustan Times. Pakistan has also tried to compare itself to India. Pakistan’s food inflation increased from 48.1 per cent in April to 48.7 per cent in May.
The present political situation in Pakistan has further complicated the Pakistani government’s talks with the IMF after IMF mission chief Nathan Porter publicly expressed his hope that it would be handled in accordance with the Constitution and the rule of law. Pakistan’s defence minister, Khawaja Asif, criticised this speech and compared it to intervention in Pakistan’s domestic politics. Instead of providing the Islamic country with the crucial $1.1 billion credit, minister Asif took offence to Porter’s comments about Pakistan’s domestic affairs.
Also read | It’s the economy, stupid: The Imran Khan drama, other political rows are holding Pak’s dire finances hostage
What does Pakistan’s leadership think?
Although the Pakistani leadership believes that financial support from mentor China will be provided if the economic situation worsens as a result of there being no IMF board meeting this month, the crisis in the Islamic country is far more serious than it seems given that the country has been polarised by the violence and mayhem committed on May 9 by supporters of PTI chief Imran Khan Niazi.
The general public is sceptical of Rawalpindi GHQ’s ability to stop the internal rot as a result of Niazi’s persistent attacks on the Pakistan Army establishment, especially after the PTI supporters set fire to the influential Lahore Corps Commander’s home at Jinnah House on May 9.
With the judiciary, political leadership, and the army of Pakistan pulling in separate ways with insurgencies escalating in Balochistan, Sindh, and Pakistan threatening the military forces in the heart of Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa provinces, the Islamic country is on its knees.
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