Secondly, there is never ever any unanimity in terms of development spending between political parties and to assume that the PML-N has a golden formula which would be acceptable to all is simply ludicrous. Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf is focused on social sector development which, according to traditional development economic theory, is more critical than simply focusing on infrastructure development. In other words, a healthy and educated citizenry can go a long way towards ensuring success of infrastructure development projects. Be that as it may, given the massive shortfall between energy supply and demand in 2013 one may have been tempted to support the PML-N government conditionally on energy projects, conditional on the financing arrangements for the projects and purchase agreements between different entities, yet there would have been few takers for the Metrobus in cities where clean drinking water was not available to all.
However, while Abbasi focused on development policies during his inauguration speech yet what has to be highlighted is the fact that the PML-N administration's economic policies are the reason for the current economic impasse. Proclaiming at every opportunity that the economy is in good shape is not even convincing PML-N supporters leave alone the general public. Flawed policies are responsible for a worsening current account deficit four and a half years down the line, an eroding foreign exchange reserve base, and heavier than ever reliance on foreign borrowing, including the 7 billion dollar plus borrowing from the foreign commercial banking sector, that would continue to haunt economic management efforts of subsequent governments. Frittering away the fiscal space that was created during the first two to three years of the incumbent administration through a decline in the international price of oil by trying to focus on budget deficit reduction at the cost of growth and, equally disturbingly, of announcing incentive packages to farm sector, exporters and industry on the one hand and not seeing them through on the other. Tax reforms consisted mainly of raising taxes on existing taxpayers for example the income taxpayers would pay withholding taxes in addition to the tax they pay at source - factors that account for Fitch recently revising Pakistan's rating to negative.
To conclude, Business Recorder would strongly suggest to the Abbasi administration to urgently revisit the economic policies of the Dar era, and while it is a bit late to change development projects with less than 6 months remaining in their tenure yet one would hope that more informed decisions are taken from an economic as opposed to a political perspective. It is unfortunate that the focus remains on politics today and one can only hope that the meaning of democracy undergoes enough of a change in our politics to reflect accountability and transparency in governance rather than simply continuity of one administration for five years.