THIS refers to the article ‘Failure of governance’ (Nov 19) by former finance minister Miftah Ismail. The write-up was a combination of courage, frustration, confusion, inability and even exasperation, especially when it is coming from the horse’s mouth, or, say, from the mouth of someone who was till recently the horse in the stable of Shehbaz Sharif-led government.

No one could have better judged the economic performance of previous as well as the sitting government, of which the writer himself was a part and was sitting on the proverbial ‘hot seat’ to steer the country out of its accumulated economic woes with a magic wand.

We, as citizens, have witnessed governments come and go without delivering any tangibles. The rhetoric has been pretty much the same regardless of who happens to be running the show at any given point in time. Blaming the outgoing — ousted or defeated — government and reiterating the bogus claims of changing the life of the common man by taking tough decisions, which the previous government could not take, has nothing new about it.

These are nothing but paraphrased words of the preamble of the recently released Economic Survey of Pakistan for the 2021-22 fiscal. Ironically, the writer himself happened to be the incumbent minister and approver of the survey.

It is courageous, however, to accept one’s failure in public, but I think the timing is not correct. No doubt, we are passing through a crucial economic period where uncertainty is the only certainty. In a nutshell, this is bad for business, commerce and trade. The former minister just added fuel to speculations of all shades and varieties that are doing the rounds in commercial circles.

What we need is a positive approach from all the stakeholders to lift the national morale instead of deflating the already asphyxiated confidence of investors and consumers.

Muzaffar Jafri
Karachi

Published in Dawn, November 25th, 2022