Good work by Dawn. Credit where its due.
I'm just happy where we are now issuing report card on government's performances and having a constructive argument upon it. The promises and delivery under Imran's tenure is well documented by Dawn and its open to interpretation. My personal interpretation is that Imran did a lot of good things in his 3.5 year stint which by the way included 2 years of once in a lifetime pandemic. Its now PDM's turn and I hope a similar report card would be issued once PDM leaves office.
In the meantime I would like to throw some clarity on the hot topic of the media based on which Imran was ousted i.e. economy. Now economy is a broad umbrella that covers a lot of topics within itself however for Imran's ouster the buck stopped at inflation. Any sane person would argue that inflation is not a yardstick on which any government is ousted but anyways we are here today.
Quick look into inflation stats we can see that yes inflation was high by the time he left office. The world map at the link below helps analyse inflation in Pakistan compared to the rest of the world.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/inflation-rate-by-country
At the moment Pakistan's inflation is standing at 10.7%. I want us to remember this number as I will surely bring this up in 2-3 months when I'm certain PDM would ensure this number is bumped up significantly.
Although 10.7% is high if we compare it with other developing countries we would understand that on a global level its not something so severely bad that government should be ousted and country pushed towards civil crisis. Here is a list of countries across the world with highest inflation (Jan-22 data) and alas Pakistan is not in it.
Top 10 Countries with the Highest Inflation Rates (Trading Economics Jan 2022)
Venezuela — 1198.0%
Sudan — 340.0%
Lebanon — 201.0%
Syria — 139.0%
Suriname — 63.3%
Zimbabwe — 60.7%
Argentina — 51.2%
Turkey — 36.1%
Iran — 35.2%
Ethiopia — 33.0%
Overall, IK did well in his limited time. If he does get another chance then he certainly has to look for better options than Buzdar types to govern provinces.
