S T H

Syed Talat Hussain There are lies, damned lies, and budget. But the Imran government did not have to lie much in this year’s budget. The economy stands naked, stripped of all pretension with zero room for misleading propaganda. Facts are dreary. Last year’s 1.8 percent GDP growth is now in the negative. In the last 15 months, the country has borrowed itself sick, 18 billion rupees a day, almost double the speed of borrowing of the previous governments. The country’s production in all sectors has declined, nay, collapsed. Even the agriculture sector’s potential has shrunk to its bare minimum. No one is investing and the government has shown no intention of bringing its non-development expenditure under control, from pensions to supporting a bloated bureaucracy. Tax collection targets remain delusional. This is partly because of a mind-boggling incapacity to reform the FBR and partly because desperate measures need to be taken to somehow keep the economy breathing, and additional tax...