- … And legislators seek a pay raise
The economic news continues to be in direct contrast to Prime Minister Imran Khan’s promises of a change in 2020. After having been in charge for part of 2018 and all of 2019, it seems that the real economy is letting him down. Inflation in January was 14.6 percent year-on-year, the highest it has been for 12 years. That is a rate, which takes the economy well into the territory of stagflation, which is the worst of both worlds. The theory is that high inflation should mean full employment, which implies job creation and thus some movement towards fulfilling the campaign promise to create jobs. As Science and Technology Minister Fawad Chaudhry has ruled out a job creation programme, and placed reliance on the private sector, pump priming would be expected. However, government sector jobs have been ruled out. The inflation is not of luxuries, as basic food items are what are fuelling the rise. As prices of foodstuffs go up, the joblessness which results from the collapse of the large-scale manufacturing sector bites all the more viciously. As if to compound matters, the Finance Ministry admitted in its annual Debt Policy Statement to the National Assembly that the previous fiscal year had seen a surge in public debt, leading the government to breach the limit set by the Fiscal Responsibility Act, and the average indebtedness of every Pakistani to rise to Rs 153, 689 on 30 June 2019.
PM’s Information Special Assistant Firdous Ashiq Awan thundered against this, saying that it was against the PTI’s austerity drive, and was an individual act. Dr Awan is not a member of either House, so she has no split loyalties.
The PTI had made an issue of austerity, with Prime Minister Imran Khan not shifting to PM House, and selling off its vehicles and buffaloes, but members are clearly feeling the pinch. When the Punjab Assembly actually passed a pay raise for itself last year, the PM forced a reversal and the passage of a repeal. And that was before the PTI got to work on the economy.
