Roving Periscope: Heading a “war cabinet”, Sharif admits Pakistan “drowning” in debt!

Virendra Pandit 

New Delhi: In politics, it is relatively easier to dislodge your rival from power but very difficult to sort out the problems that led to the ouster.

Pakistan is learning it the harder way. If there was any doubt about its grim economic situation, the new Prime Minister, Shahbaz Sharif, has removed it: Pakistan, he admitted, is “drowning in debt”.

It is his government’s job to sail this ship ashore,” he said on Wednesday after chairing the first Cabinet meeting since taking oath a day before.

After a 10-day delay, his 34-member Cabinet was sworn in amid high drama—minus Pakistan People’s Party co-chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, who flew off to London on Thursday to meet former PM Nawaz Sharif after dropping off from the Shahbaz Cabinet at the last minute. Senate chairperson Sadiq Sanjrani had to administer the oath to new ministers after President Arif Alvi excused himself from the ceremony.

The new PM, Sharif Junior, told his Cabinet colleagues in their first meeting:

“I consider it a war cabinet because you are fighting against poverty, unemployment (and) inflation. This is a war against all problems…,” he said in his address to the Cabinet, which was aired by the state media.

He also accused the previous Imran Khan government of failing to address the issues and stressed providing ease to the nation, especially the poor families, through a “thorough and continuous” process of consultation, according to media reports.

“Today is an important day because we have successfully taken office by constitutionally and legally ousting the corrupt PTI government,” he said, thanking his coalition members.

“This coalition is the most extensive one in the history of Pakistan.”

“This alliance will serve the people despite different political visions of the parties.” He said that the cabinet was a “combination of experience and youth.”

Talking about the various issues, Sharif said power shortages and huge debt were among the major issues faced by the country. “The country is drowning in debt but we have to take its boat to the shore,” he said.

“We have to struggle with challenges like poverty, unemployment, and inflation as the previous government failed miserably in its fight against hardships,” he said.

“Dozens of warehouses and factories are closed due to lack of electricity and gas. We need to immediately find solutions,” he urged his colleagues, adding that growth, not politics, was the priority for his Cabinet right now.

In the World Economic Outlook released in Washington recently, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected Pakistan’s current account deficit (CAD) to hit USD 18.5 billion this fiscal year, up from USD 12.9 billion for FY22.

The report said Pakistan requires gross external financing of over USD 35 billion in the current fiscal year on a CAD of 5.3 percent of GDP in FY2022.

The IMF also raised its inflation forecasts for Pakistan to 12.7 percent on an average for the current fiscal from the previous projection of 9.4 percent.

Sharif, who led a multi-party campaign to oust the Imran Khan government, warned the opponents were doing a ‘negative’ campaign against the government, which should be responded to with facts. “We need to respond to the toxic propaganda based on facts, not because of lies.”

He also claimed that corruption was at its peak in the government of Imran Khan which the cabinet should eradicate.

Sharif called for unity among the federating units and especially talked about the impoverished province of Balochistan. “We need to focus on all four provinces, especially Balochistan. We need to also tackle problems in other provinces,” he said.

Sharif exhorted his colleagues to study the examples of Germany and Japan as they turned their anger into opportunities and rose to become first rank nations.

He claimed that bureaucracy had stopped working in the previous Imran Khan government when the officers were being coerced to become witnesses and approvers against the opposition members.

The new Information Minister, Marriyum Aurangzeb, said the Cabinet is being briefed on the economic disaster and unprecedented irresponsible fiscal acts of the last four years under former Prime Minister Imran Khan.

She said inflation, poverty, unemployment, debt, and deficits rose whilst GDP growth decreased during the Pakistan Tahreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government.