LAHORE: Incarcerated PTI Vice-Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi has expressed his skepticism that the upcoming budget will be prepared in line with the IMF compliance requirements, its advice and predetermined targets leading to eroding Pakistan’s economic sovereignty.

Mr Qureshi, currently behind bars at Kot Lakhpat jail, has observed that Parliament would just rubber stamp the predetermined document.

In a letter shared by his counsel Rana Mudassar Umer to media here on Sunday, Mr Qureshi stated the writ of the state was being challenged by foreign sponsored insurgency, militant organisations, poor governance and a continuously deteriorating capacity of state institutions.

Former foreign minister Mr Qureshi stated that Pakistan was facing a two-front situation with the eastern and western neighbours undermining its stability.

“The US-Iran conflict and its impact on rising energy costs, a cloud of uncertainty in Gulf States and a looming Middle East crisis had vitiated the climate of investment in the region, with rising inflation and declining purchasing power,” he explained.

He stated that 42 per cent of Pakistanis were living beneath the poverty line, requiring huge desperately needed employment opportunities. He said Pakistan’s trade deficit was on the rise on account of stagnating exports and a rise in imports due to a surge in cotton imports, edible oil and petroleum imports, despite an official rhetoric of an agricultural revival.

Mr Qureshi said the budget 2026-27 would be presented and be passed, with or without the opposition debating it or telling its own numbers. In the current political polarisation, he observed, “any meaningful economic or political reforms to liberate Pakistan from IMF conditionalities seemed an uphill task”.

The former foreign minister suggested that the political leadership and the economic czars of Pakistan must rise above their egos and interests to agree on a common minimum agenda to pull Pakistan out of its economic and political crisis. No economic plan can be delivered without political backing, he said. “The budget 2026-27 will pass but we will fail in the eyes of the people of Pakistan once again,” he added.

Published in Dawn, June 1st, 2026