'Job growth'

This is apropos a Business Recorder editorial "Job growth" carried by the newspaper yesterday. That the issue is one of the most profound challenges facing this country is a fact. The newspaper has concluded its argument by saying that "growth must pick up before job creation in the short-term can take place and this is not possible during the stabilisation phase that is focused on reducing aggregate demand primarily through contraction in imports. In the medium-term, there is a need for sectoral governance reforms particularly in the power and tax sectors and; according to John Maynard Keynes, the polemicist, 'in the long run we are all dead'; a fact which may account for successive administrations' failure to focus on social sector development."

It has, however, lost sight of the threats that the current state of country's economy poses to political stability and law and order. Growing joblessness can ultimately lead to social unrest. The government would find it extremely difficult to contain disturbances in case people take to the streets to protest against rising inflation and a grim dearth of new job opportunities.