IMF programme: is there an alternative?

ISLAMABAD: The review of IMF’s standby arrangement (SBA) is complete, and Pakistan is now seeking another IMF programme with the aim of “permanently resolving its fiscal and external sustainability weaknesses, strengthening economic recovery, and laying the foundations for a strong, sustainable, and inclusive growth”. This is expected to be the 25th IMF programme. Can an IMF programme “permanently” solve our economic problems? Is there an alternative to this? And if there is an alternative, what it would be? As Dr Nadeemul Haque and others have rightly expressed many times, an IMF programme should be considered like an ICU (Intensive Care Unit). A patient cannot be permanently kept in an ICU and should graduate to a normal ward and be discharged back to a healthy life. No patient should be happy by living permanently in an ICU and no professional doctor will allow it. Countries do encounter balance of payments crisis, which are often but not exclusively rooted in fiscal policies. If Pakistan as an economic patient is again asking to be admitted in an ICU, as the prime minister has already announced, one thing is certain: we are not taking our prescribed medicines seriously. However, let’s also consider the other possibility: the doctor is not professional. The patient is seeking admission to the ICU with the same diagnosis, for the 25th time!