Recently, Prime Minister Imran Khan shared the words of a renowned writer Ayn Rand eerily prescient of Pakistan's economy ruled by corrupt and elitist mindset as inherited by the current government. In her novel "Atlas Shrugged" in 1957, the Russian-American writer and philosopher had said, "When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion-when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing-when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favours...When you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you-when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice-you may know that your society is doomed."

It is true that the incumbent PTI government has inherited a massive debt. That it is trying its level best to improve country's current account and foreign exchange position is also a fact. What the Russian writer has said may be relevant to Pakistan as well but the point is that the country has been slapped with a $5.8 billion penalty by the World Bank Court. It may be true that the governments of PPP and PMLN are responsible for country's profound indebtedness. The question who created a situation that ultimately led to the World Bank court ordering Pakistan pay damages to foreign firm needs a plausible answer.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2019