A Look At Current Politics, Politicians, IMF and Elections

Mariyam Nawaz Threatens To Reveal Allies Of Imran Khan:

Maryam Nawaz claimed in one of her speeches that she is going to expose Imran Khan's behind-the-scenes supporters. To me, it is nothing but a waste of time. The public is so engrossed in Imran Khan's narrative that the majority does not care. Political opponents leveled hundreds of accusations against Imran Khan, but none of the scandals could harm his caste and politics 

Political rivals fail to prove allegations against Imran Khan.

At the moment, the real defendant is the elections. The Election Commission has changed the date of elections in Punjab from 30 April to 18 October. Many reasons have been given for this decision, but the biggest reason is the lack of financial and security support from the government. It has been stated in the notification of the Election Commission that According to the Ministry of Finance, the country is currently facing an economic crisis. IMF conditions also have to be fulfilled. In these circumstances, it will be difficult for the government to release funds for the KP and Punjab Assembly elections. Making the financial crisis the reason for suspending the elections seems to be a very inappropriate and unrealistic argument.

Punjab Elections Delayed Due To Financial and Security Concerns:

According to an estimate, a budget of around twenty billion and fifty crore rupees is required to hold elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. If by-elections are also to be held on 93 seats of the National Assembly, another five billion rupees will be required. In this way, approximately five billion and fifty crore rupees are required for the elections. This amount is total It is only 0.18 percent of the budget. If spending only 0.18% of the total budget threatens to exacerbate the financial crisis, then the government is surely misrepresenting itself. On the one hand, the government is approving a development budget of one hundred and fifty billion rupees for the youth and on the other hand, the excuse is being given that it does not have twenty-five and a half billion rupees to conduct the elections. If the government is serious about holding elections, then out of the one hundred and fifty billion rupees allocated for the youth, twenty-five and a half billion rupees can be allocated for the elections and the best projects can be started with the one hundred and twenty-five billion rupees to give the youth a better future. Can but for that, the intention of the government must be right. The government has recently approved a supplementary grant of 27 billion rupees to pay an oil company but has no funds for the elections. Besides, if the expenditure and protocol of the 50-member cabinet are controlled, the funds for the elections can be released easily. Funds for elections can also be released by reducing the bureaucratic overhead. By cutting the salary of government employees for only three days across the country, more funds can be collected than the action budget, but the government must have the intention to take action. IMF conditions are also being presented as a reason for not providing funds. In this regard, the IMF has issued a clear statement that the elections in Pakistan are an internal matter of the country. The IMF has no involvement in this. This means that there are no IMF conditions that prevent the government from fulfilling its constitutional and legal obligations related to elections. This is the second time in the past month that the IMF has issued such an unusual statement. It seems that the government wants to put a gun on the shoulder of the IMF. The IMF is being used as a shield to hide its failure and to take decisions against the constitution, but still, the government is not able to achieve the desired results. Even in 2008, the financial condition of the country was bad. The treasury was empty and China and Saudi Arabia were looking to avoid bankruptcy, but then the elections were not postponed due to the financial crisis. The Election Commission has also stated the bad law and order situation as one of the reasons for postponing the elections. In this context, referring to the incidents of terrorism, it was said That it will take 5 months to complete the operation against the terrorists. There is a shortage of 386 thousand 623 police personnel in Punjab alone and only by deploying the army and Rangers in the election, such a shortage can be fulfilled, but according to the Ministry of Interior, civil And armed forces are not available for static duty. According to the Ministry of Interior, the army is responsible for the protection of the borders, internal security, important installations, and the security of foreigners. Political leaders are on the hit list of terrorists Political leaders can be targeted in the election campaign. The question arises here that when the 2013 elections were held, terrorism was on the rise in the country. There were also suicide attacks on political leaders before the elections. Some politicians even lost their lives. However, the elections were not delayed. Today, the situation of terrorism is much better than in the past. Therefore, the decision to postpone the elections citing security reasons is not appropriate. Besides that The government should also tell when the lives of politicians are not in danger. Issuing security threats to them is a routine process. This cannot mean that the country's constitution is not respected. Due to the deviation of the politicians from the constitution, the justice system also has to look at constitutional issues. The government is neither able to perform well on the political front nor is it making timely correct decisions in the economic field. Instead of accepting all IMF conditions at once, they are being implemented in phases. Now, fulfilling another condition of IMF, State Bank has removed the condition of cash margin on imports from 31 March 2023. Earlier, a cash margin requirement was imposed for luxury and non-essential items to limit imports. The government imposed this ban in August 2022 to limit imports. A cash margin is a form of security intended to eliminate the risk of non-payment. Apart from this, several other IMF conditions are yet to be implemented. I had mentioned earlier in my columns that the institution has demanded to increase the interest rate by another three to four percent. The demand could have been made this week but has been postponed to next month. The government is also unable to explain why it has not yet been able to secure loan guarantees from Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Qatar. What are the obstacles that stand in the way of guarantee even after repeated contact? The government is not keeping complete facts before the people. There is something that is covered. Due to the IMF program not being restored, friendly countries of Pakistan are also pulling their hands and on the other hand, businesses are closing rapidly in the country. Advance payments by banks to the private sector have fallen by 73% during the first eight months of the current financial year. A large decline in credit to the private sector indicates that industrial and business activities are stagnant and as a result, unemployment in all sectors has also increased.!?