Re-engaging the Economy
The year 1995 has been a hard year for Pakistan. On the receiving end for most of it, the bad news in cricket and hockey has only been exceeded by the economy turning from bad to worse. While we pulled back a few winners in spite of the best efforts of the ruling regime in the last few days of the year, things are grim. Our investment in Afghanistan has become a major foreign policy disaster and we may have lost our special relationship with Iran in the process. Despite spectacular success in dealing urban terrorism crippling blows in Karachi, the lack of serious political initiatives has alienated the core of Mohajirs from the national mainstream. While she remains a great political fighter, the PM stands alone in her manhood among the shambles of an inept, inefficient and corrupt administration. Surrounded by atrocious advisors who overwhelm the few dedicated ones around her by doses of outrageous flattery and public displays of adulation, the Head of Government has only shown flashes of the brilliance she is capable of, and that too when her own survival is threatened. From time to time, she has come perilously close to going off the deep end, particularly because of histrionic displays at some public meetings. She has compounded her own problems by not carrying out a ruthless purge of her economic team, choosing loyalty to some rather questionable bureaucratic ability in super-session to the vital economic interests of the nation.
