Time to push through reforms in Pakistan.

Byline: Farhan Bokhari

Prime minister Imran Khan's government during its nine-month rule has repeatedly promised to lay the foundation of a new Pakistan. But as time has gone by, increasingly visible gaps between the ruling structure's intent versus the reality of Pakistan have become hard to ignore. In recent days, Khan has replaced key members of his economic team notably the finance minister, the governor of the central bank and the head of the tax collection agency, mainly to lift the performance of Pakistan's key institutions. But soon, Pakistanis across the board will be hit hard by the powerful reality of adjustments to an increasingly tough economy, thanks to some of the conditions that the country is expected to fulfil under a new loan programme with the International Monetary Fund.

Typical of the IMF's dealings with other countries that sought large new loans, Pakistanis must brace for inflation caused by a raft of coming steps. Going forward, an economic slowdown across Pakistan coming in tandem with rising inflation fuelled by a weakening rupee appears to be the writing on the wall. Looking back at Pakistan's economic history over the past decade, it's clear that reckless economic management of yesteryears has caused a significant deterioration of Pakistan's financial health. Given this very powerful reality, it's important for the country to go through a period of long overdue reform to tackle the many gaps on the economic front. While the next IMF loan offers some hope for long overdue reforms to be enforced, the IMF's relationship with Pakistan is not a sufficient safeguard to necessarily lead to a revamping of policies. Failure to reform In the past, Pakistan has gone through at least 13 IMF loan programmes but the country never succeeded in reforming itself significantly. Instead, a level of completely unnecessary complacency became the norm that caused...

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