The IMF as saviour?

The irony of ironies. An institution which across the globe has been acknowledged as anti-people, elitist and responsible for increasing poverty, misery and destitution across dozens of countries, is now being seen as Pakistan’s only saviour, as it seems the rulers in this country have come round to restarting an agreement which has been in abeyance for almost a year. The ‘there-is-no-alternative’ mantra repeated in every single article, in every single television programme and discussion, has now become conventional wisdom of and for those who have access to such voice. If we do not go to the IMF, such conventional wisdom says, ‘we’ will collapse; if we don’t agree to ‘reform’, we will go bankrupt and no one will support ‘us’, goes the new slogan repeated every day. ‘Financial apocalypse’ is here; ‘we’ are on the ‘brink of an economic meltdown’; ‘only the IMF can save us’, goes the cacophony in the public sphere. There are those who warn us that if we agree to the harsh conditionalities of the IMF and give in to its demands, inflation will jump from the current 25 per cent to 35pc, that the dollar might actually be available but closer to Rs300 rather than the infamous boast of 200 some months ago. Electricity and gas, if available at all, will become far more expensive, as will petrol and everything else on which the economy depends.