PDM’s economic year in review

When historians write about causes that led to the French Revolution, they frequently point out that King Louis XVI’s weakness, indecisiveness, and lack of political insight played a critical role in bringing about the downfall of the House of Bourbon in France. While perusing over the events that led to the Reign of Terror in France, one reads about the indecisiveness of Louis XVI, the failure to implement economic reforms, a shortage of essential food products, especially wheat, an elite that refused to pay its fair share of taxes, and even a scandal referred to as the “Affair of the Diamond Necklace”, which discredited the royal family and dented its popularity beyond repair. In so many ways, today’s Pakistan seems awfully similar to the Ancien Régime. As we mark the one-year anniversary of the return of “purana Pakistan”, as Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari famously put it during his speech on the floor of Parliament, Pakistan is undergoing seismic and earth-shattering upheaval. And much like all upheavals, the worst affected are ordinary citizens who are experiencing emotional and economic trauma that will take generations to recover from.