New Delhi, January 15 – A scathing media report exposes how Pakistan’s leadership is deflecting blame onto the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to cover up deep-rooted domestic shortcomings. With a population of 250 million yearning for sustainable progress, the nation grapples with insurmountable barriers crippling all 20 primary export products and six key export drivers. Economic reforms remain elusive amid these multidimensional hurdles.
The report, stemming from discussions by a panel appointed by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif with industry stakeholders, underscores that faulting the IMF offers no path forward. Formed to devise an exit strategy from the current bailout program ending next year, the panel’s findings are damning. It accuses the government of shifting responsibility for sluggish reform implementation onto the IMF’s stringent fiscal conditions—a clear attempt to veil state negligence.
Persistent issues like soaring and volatile energy costs, policy unpredictability, a distorted tax regime, logistics bottlenecks, institutional fragmentation, and regulatory overload have long plagued the economy. These aren’t novel challenges; they’ve been repeatedly highlighted in donor reports, government analyses, and media scrutiny.
While the IMF has consistently urged Pakistan to foster a business-friendly environment, officials instead lambast the lender for the economy’s stagnation. This tactic conceals governmental incompetence and reluctance to dismantle politically protected rent-seeking structures.
Another recent analysis warns that the IMF’s austere approach could trap Pakistan in a low-growth quagmire for years without fundamental strategic overhauls and genuine fiscal discipline. Since 2022, under IMF oversight, the government has imposed harsh austerity on ordinary citizens through heavy taxes and subsidy cuts, sparing its own expenditures.
This lopsided adjustment burdens the common Pakistani disproportionately, perpetuating suffering without addressing core structural flaws. True recovery demands accountability and bold reforms, not finger-pointing.