There was a bloodbath at Pakistan Stock Exchange this Thursday as the market lost over 1700 points within the first few hours of trade. Although it recovered some 500 points later in the day, it is quite evident that the trust in the state’s ability to remain afloat is fast diminishing, say experts.
Discussing the situation on Naya Daur TV’s flagship programme ‘Khabar Say Aagay (Beyond the Headlines)’, economic analyst Asad Ejaz Butt believes that the main driver behind this phenomenon is the drop in rupee’s value and the reason for rupee’s devaluation in his view is the political instability created by the lack of certainty over the election date.
Economist Shahid Mohmand, however, was quite clear that the local and foreign investors’ trust in the state had eroded and that was being reflected in the dwindling value of the rupee. “The situation is so bad that even the finance minister has admitted there’s barely any hope of revival. This economic situation is a result of the total failure of our governance,” he added.
On finance minister’s outburst regarding the worsening economic situation, political analyst Fauzia Yazdani said that Dr Shamshad Akhtar was on the boards of directors of three government institutions and she hasn’t resigned from any of those. This is a clear conflict of interest, Yazdani said.
As far as the uncertainty on the date of election is concerned, Fauzia Yazdani said, it is impossible for the election commission to hold elections without completing the delimitations since the Shehbaz Sharif government had already notified the new census.
Analyst Iffat Hasan Rizvi seconded Yazdani’s opinion, saying it would be unfair to expect the ECP to announce a date of elections when it could take months to hear the objections on the delimitations process as well.
Senior reporter Hassan Ayub Khan was convinced though that the ECP was going to announce the date of elections in the week starting from September 3rd. He warned however that the president of Pakistan could also announce a date of his own and that would mean another legal battle to be fought in Pakistan’s apex court.
Iffat agreed with Hassan Ayub, saying that the president was likely to announce a date of his own, despite the fact his actions would only cause more uncertainty since he had no power to get his decisions implemented, and the consequences of his action will be dire for the economy.
The show is hosted by Raza Rumi, Monday to Saturday 9 PM on Naya Daur’s Youtube channel.