EDITORIAL: Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb and Muhammad Ali appointed as Advisor to the Prime Minister on Privatisation/Chairman Privatisation Commission with the status of Minister of State on 27 February 2025 are currently on a two-day visit to London to participate in Pakistan Investors Day on 8 May (yesterday).
It is relevant to note that the Pakistan army was on high alert since the Pahalgam incident on 22 April this year based on the certitude that Modi’s India would attack to deflect criticism for not having the intelligence to forestall the attack.
Given that both Aurangzeb and Ali are widely regarded as providing a critical plinth in the existing cordial civilian-military ties, Ali’s statement prior to departure, with the Indian attacks on nine sites just hours away - two in Punjab and the rest in Azad Jammu and Kashmir – is baffling: “this visit reflects Pakistan’s forward looking vision. We are here to build trust, forge partnerships, and demonstrate that Pakistan is open for business – with a clear agenda for growth, stability and opportunity.”
The Indo-UK free trade agreement reached a day before the attack, three years in the making, nonetheless took a distant second place to the Indian attack on Pakistan.
The Pakistan Investors Day conference on the other hand, where the focus would be on luring foreign investors to Pakistan, the response is unlikely to be positive or at least not till war has ended.
The presence of these two men was required in Pakistan today as an expression of solidarity with the nation in the aftermath of the Indian attack. In addition, the budget exercise is ongoing at present, with credible reports that the International Monetary Fund team is reviewing and dictating expenditure cuts, setting unrealistic revenue targets and upping the administered electricity and gas prices with the objective of achieving full cost recovery, and this is the time when one would have hoped for the Finance Minister’s physical presence in the country that would have facilitated his interaction with all sectors.
Ali would have been well advised to focus on the privatisation plan particularly of Pakistan International Airlines as he has publicly deferred its privatisation to the last quarter of the current calendar year though the team negotiating with the Fund had pledged it much sooner.
Foreign direct investment has been a proactive strategy since June 2023; however, the actual annual foreign direct investment inflow has yet to exceed 1.6 billion dollars according to government data.
And while Aurangzeb and Ali are not elected by the people and as such are not technically representatives of the people of this country yet they are appointed at the taxpayers’ expense with the objective of serving the people and their absence from the country today does raise uncomfortable questions.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
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