Saturday 1 December 2018

Dearth of economic leadership

There is dearth of men in every walk of life what they callقحط الرجال ۔ -but we are seriously short on Economists. Whether it was volley of Finance Ministers during PPP tenure 2008-13 or Munshi saab from 2013-17 followed by 'one letter' Finance Minister Miftah Ismail or over-rated Asad Umer, its been a nose-dive & our economy continues to plummet.
True that its too early to call it but Team PTI has failed to inject any optimism on economy. Every passing day 'uncertainty' is causing further devaluation of currency, crashing stocks & growing inflation.
There is no pressure on govt from people, opposition or institutions except judiciary which does not prevent govt from delivering on economic front. There are no signs, no indications or any positive graphs to suggest that things are getting any better. Obviously, there are question marks on capability & capacity of Asad Umer & his Economic Advisory Council & Economic Coordination Committee. They are all well educated economists but most of them are going through on job training. Secondly, they are not leaders, most of them have been mid & higher level managers at various organizations they worked for & few exceptions as CEOs. None of it gurantees economic leadership. Renouned financial  institutions in Pakistan like IBA & LUMS are producing only a handful of entrepreneurs & majority managers.
Under the circumstances, one can only hope that Asad Umer & Co learn economic leadership & learn it fast. Lets hope their on-job training is short. Lets hope it ends before its too late to recover.
The only admirable act of govt in first 100 days had been the clamp down on Tehreek-e-Labaik. Probably, because it was an impromptu challenge which didn't reqiure any planning but decision making. Lets hope this spontaneous decision making comes handy in other spheres of governance particularly economy.
Only Allah knows the whole truth.

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