Deep despair prevailing in Pakistan: Ipsos survey

 

The manner in which the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Party came to power under the leadership of Imran Khan after the 2018 general elections is well known both inside and outside Pakistan. But the way it came to power may have been forgotten, but the way this government is running the government, it seems that it is determined to take Pakistan to the pit of bankruptcy. Today, this government has completed almost 32 months in power, and in this time the government has spent about 10 trillion rupees more than its income. This is mainly the budget deficit, which was met by indiscriminate borrowings, which had high-interest rates. It is a deep vicious cycle of debts in which the Pakistan government is badly trapped. And the biggest victim of this financial mismanagement is the people of Pakistan, who are seeing the crises looming over their lives in the era of this pandemic.

 

In the present time when the availability of employment is decreasing to an average Pakistani, at the same time the prices of essential commodities are skyrocketing in the markets. With the devaluation of Pakistan's currency at the international level and the weakening of the rupee, the inflationary conditions are becoming increasingly strong. And today uncontrolled inflation has become the most worrying issue for Pakistanis as compared to uncontrolled Covid-19. Recently, in a new survey conducted by IPSOS, two-thirds of the respondents described the current economic situation as very bad and the efforts to improve it very suspicious. It is noteworthy that Ipsos, global market research and consulting firm, conducted this survey a week before Prime Minister Imran Khan sacked Hafeez Shaikh, the second finance minister of his 32-month term, for his inability to control inflation.

 

The findings of this survey show that the confidence of the people of Pakistan in the stability of Pakistan's economy has been severely eroded, even as they are afraid to invest in the government financial system. The youth have almost given up their optimistic outlook towards employment, jobs, and overall future considering the plight of the economy as permanent. The survey, conducted between March 18 and 24, asked people their confidence in the economy, their opinion about the current situation compared to a year ago, the investment decisions, job prospects, and the issues most worrying to them.

 

This survey reflects the concern among the general public about the government and economy of Pakistan which is very frightening. According to the report, the fear of losing employment among the common Pakistani is now far behind, as rising inflation tops the list of problems related to the economy. For 32 percent of the participants in this survey, soaring prices of consumer goods, resulting from rising inflation was the most worrying issue. After this, unemployment (20 percent) and Covid-19 (16 percent) were the second most worrying issues. About 10 percent of the people in this Ipsos survey rated rising poverty as the most worrying issue. The most ridiculous thing about this survey was that Prime Minister Imran Khan, who had said that eradicating corruption was his priority than alleviating the financial crisis of the people; this survey also put a question mark on his priorities. According to the findings of this survey, only 3 percent of people considered corruption, bribery, adulteration, and nepotism as an issue. The general public in Pakistan may have become so accustomed to corruption that it has seen it as an ‘essential part’ of life; at least this is what Ipsos survey shows. According to this, the issue of corruption was at the bottom of the top five concerns in Sindh, Balochistan, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Whereas corruption is not an issue for the people living in Punjab province, which is dominated by the army and politics in Pakistan.

 

The survey also observed regional differences in people's opinions. About 38 percent of the respondents in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, a northwestern tribal-dominated province, cited the continued rise in inflation as a cause for concern, while only 31 percent of the population in the comparatively more urban and affluent provinces of Sindh and Punjab showed concern. On this issue. Inflation remains the biggest issue for 30% of the people in marginal Balochistan. Unemployment was the second biggest worrying issue in the four provinces of Pakistan. It is noteworthy that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has expressed the possibility of a 1.5 percent increase in the unemployment rate in this financial year.

Regarding the current economic and financial situation of Pakistan, only a disappointing scene came out in this survey. 64 percent of the people surveyed believe that Pakistan's economy is in a very bad state. What's more, people's doubts about the future of Pakistan's economy have steadily increased. 41 percent of the people surveyed believe that Pakistan's economy has no signs of improvement, and it will continue to weaken further.

 

Pakistan's economy has been witnessing a decline for a long time and since 2014, when Pakistan started the CPEC project on the basis of Chinese loans, a new era of economic exploitation of Pakistan has started. At present, Pakistan is trapped in a deep vicious circle of debt. On the one hand, it is becoming incapable of paying international liabilities, while on the other hand, it has to implement the rules of financial austerity and increase tax revenue as a necessary pre-condition for taking a financial package of $ 6 billion from the International Monetary Fund. Committed to But in this opposite economic situation, the financial assistance given to the public, which is being stopped in the name of cutting the increasing revenue expenditure, is only adding to the sufferings of the poor general public of Pakistan.

 

Meanwhile, the government of Pakistan is patting its back in the name of improving the current account deficit, which has been achieved by slowing the rate of economic growth. But at this time, Pakistan's economic indicators like from exports to foreign direct investment, revenue collection, fiscal deficit, and public debt, only show the plight of Pakistan's economic conditions. Now Imran Khan has given the responsibility of Finance Ministry to Hammad Azhar, but the root of the problem is much deeper, and administrative reorganization alone cannot solve it.