So, Pakistan is now back on the books of IMF. ..
Better than defaulting! Isn't it?
IMF's tough love should be taken at its face value instead of declaring the whole IMF as some kind of Fir-oun.
IMF tells Pakistan to balance the books. Is it too much to ask. And why should we wait until IMF says so. Can't we do it at our own?
The biggest problem for balancing the books is to look at Pakistan's income. Our local income is dependent on taxes, and our external income comes from export of human resources and goods.
Our tax policy is a mess. IMF will never have expertise nor time to study Pakistan's every tax clause to provide their feedback. We as Pakistanis must figure out that our outdated 200 years old tax system is incompatible with the modern world.
We have a huge "self employed" workforce in the cities and rural areas who ought to declare their income on a simple 2 page form. Once we know the income, we can levy taxes and provide benefits to the deserving people.
Tax collection agency should be privatized or at least made somewhat similar to NADRA. Right now we have bunch of old style munshis with qalam dwat taking care of our national finances. This must go away.
For our external sources of income, MFN like treaties will work, but we must train our workforce to produce quality goods.
Our worker export to Middle East should be turned into army style grouping with strong Pakistani government control and proper training based on their country of destination. They should all know that their purpose is just to earn money and not get involved in international politics.
Nothing hurts us more than exporting Jihad oriented young men who are hell bent on creating 7/7 bombings.
And what's up with this looting of NATO trucks in our land? Why Jihadis are being allowed to disrupt our source of income? What is with this f-ing Khyber agency. People should be told that if you mess up with our income, we'll dynamite the whole area and ensure that no truck is looted or burned on its way. In addition to using this stick, we must give financial incentives to local tribals and civilize them in the process.
Then we must go around the world ready to offer packaged services from IT, to labor, to law enforcement.
and last but not least for crying out loud, tourism must be opened up like Dubai. And just like Dubai, no laws should be in place that can hurt our tourism industry.
.....Will the government .... let the nation know their plans for taking Pakistan out of the current crisis. ......
Government can't do squat if Pakistanis are hell bent on Islamizing every functioning aspect of society that remains operational. It is the job of people to tell the government to get rid of draconian cave age and stone age laws and join the civilized group of nations.