Waiting for a lifeline

THE spectacle of desperate men and women thronging the shops for subsidised flour provides just one glimpse of the worsening level of privation. A father of six died in a stampede in Mirpurkhas recently while queuing for the commodity. The rising cost of living has pushed more people into destitution. It’s an extremely grim situation with no sign of improvement in the economic outlook. The worst is still to come. But our economic czar is busy showing a rosy picture. In the midst of the serious financial crunch and spiralling inflation, a finance ministry ad in print and electronic media tries to assure us that the country is on the path to a remarkable economic recovery. It claims to have saved the country from default and stabilised the economy. One wonders if our finance minister is just in a state of denial or is it merely a game of playing with figures. It will be a grave mistake if the government believes it can regain its lost political capital by falsifying data. Such claims are far from reality. Neither are we safe from a risk of default nor is there any sign of economic recovery. The biggest joke is the claim of currency stabilisation.