CORPORATE WINDOW: Pre-budget dejection

Tycoons, aware of challenges and Prime Minister Shehbaz’s government’s weakness, are not hopeful. The volatile market is desperate for positive signals. The people, however, expected relief in an election-year budget. To avoid higher levies on their income/profit, bankers, brokers and barons are lobbying hard, approaching heavyweights in the power corridors. The currency dealers, commodity traders and commercial importers are labouring to universalise their interests for policy support. Exporters site forex squeeze in the country to justify the demand for preferential treatment. Agriculturists tie food security in Pakistan with their fortunes for concessions. The ruling coalition and allied parties have taken a dent in political capital by pursuing stabilisation policies and will do all it takes in the budget to win constituents back. The representatives of different segments of people and businesses told sad tales of mounting difficulties in sustaining families and enterprises in a shrinking economy.