Same old govt, new economic path?

Pakistan held a general election on February 8th, 2024, and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) formed its government on March 4th, 2024. Mian Shehbaz Sharif, who led the previous government under the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) coalition, is the current prime minister. However, according to major macroeconomic indicators like inflation, growth rate, and unemployment, the performance of the PDM government hasn’t been impressive. When PDM assumed office in April 2022, the economy was not functioning well. Rather than pursuing structural reforms that could bring long-term gains, the government decided to maintain the status quo and stabilise the economy using conventional tools that have a long history of failure. As a result, almost two years have passed, and the economic situation remains dire. The new government may repeat past mistakes, but good hope remains for economic reforms. In this article, I propose four major reforms that can benefit the economy in the long run.