IN the latest monthly economic outlook report for August, the Finance Ministry celebrated a new trade agreement with the United States, projecting export growth and macroeconomic stability. Yet, buried in the same report is a quiet warning: flood-related damages may disrupt food supplies, and strain public finances. This is a dangerous contradiction.

Pakistan’s economy today is shaped by external deals and fiscal targets, while well over 800 lives have so far been lost in this year’s monsoon-inspired floods. The number of people displaced in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is believed to have crossed the 1.5 million mark. What good is a trade stability when families sleep along roadsides? What does business confidence mean to the farmers whose fields are underwater?

As Karl Polanyi reminded us in The Great Transformation, “markets are not natural forces; they are constructed by society and can be reconstructed to serve it”. If our economy is to reflect the realities of those it claims to serve, we must redirect export gains towards flood recovery rather than concentrating the benefits in stimulus packages for the elite. Agricultural credit should be expanded to small landholders trying to rebuild their lives, not limited to machinery imports that bypass the most vulnerable.

Investment must prioritise climate-resilient infrastructure rooted in public need, not profit corridors designed for privatisation.

Only through such people-centred reforms can we begin to re-embed our economy in lasting justice and collective care. Markets cannot mourn. They cannot rebuild homes or bury children. Only people-centred policies can. Let this be the nation’s great transformation.

Mahnoor Aftab
Karachi

Published in Dawn, September 6th, 2025