A polycrisis that is depleting Pakistan’s resilience

Context: 

Pakistan could be staring at its worst crisis in decades as it faces political and economic destabilization and even the return of terror.

Crises and ‘resilience’:

• Pakistan’s economy has been in a state of a perpetual crisis, dependent on the largesse and beneficence of donors, international financial institutions and charity from so-called ‘friendly countries’. 
• Over the last few days, the conditions being imposed by the IMF to release a mere $1.1 billion were severely harsh and ‘beyond imagination’. 
• This is Pakistan’s 23rd agreement with the IMF is itself cause for grave concern.

A financial abyss, political troubles:

• Inflation stands at 28%, the highest in almost five decades.
• Foreign exchange reserves stand near $3 billion only — not even enough for a month’s imports. There does not seem to be any way of reversing this trend, easily and quickly. 
• With severe import restrictions and constraints and the inability to pay in foreign currency, economists have already declared Pakistan to be in ‘partial default’.
• The economic crisis has only been made worse due to misgovernance and ineptitude enveloped in hubris over the last four years, there was until a few months ago a sense of political stability of sorts. 
• Instability and uncertainty dominate at every level.

The Terror shadow:

• Recently, a suicide bomber killed over a 100 worshippers in a mosque in Peshawar, accounts for one of the most serious incidents on a single day in over more than two decades of terrorism. There is little clarity which faction of the Taliban (or the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)) was behind this makes things far worse. 
• Pakistan has become a dysfunctional state where its elites have revealed their incompetence and hubris in failing to address fundamental and day-to-day issues of a public nature. 
• The absence of any sort of political opposition or alternative, particularly in the form of progressive political parties and groups, or even spontaneous civic action demonstrating anger, is Pakistan’s biggest crisis. 
• The label of being ‘resilient’ is fading.

News Source: The Hindu