The cost of petty politics

Pakistan’s challenges to political stability and economic revival are enormous and not very dissimilar. The repeated use of protests as a tool by the PTI to achieve its political goals over the last couple of years has hardly helped the cause of the economy. The political tumult has compounded these economic challenges as the country is ranked amongst the politically most volatile economies globally, increasing the risk premium on investment here manifold. Last year, TheGlobalEconomy.com placed Pakistan at 180 among 193 nations ranked on its political stability index. It doesn’t mean that the country’s economy had never faced the challenge of political instability, or it was ever ranked amongst politically more stable nations before. Far from it. Yet, the past few years stand out in the history of its political economy, with the nation of 240 million souls endeavouring to try to recover from a deep-rooted, multifaceted financial crisis amidst growing political unrest and renewed militant attacks in parts of the country.