This is apropos a Business Recorder op-ed carried by the newspaper recently. The writer, Dr Hafiz A. Pasha, has concluded his argument by saying that “the likelihood is that the IMF will push strongly for a big containment of the budget deficit following the resumption of the Program. This has implications not only on the management of public finances for the rest of 2020-21 but also on the nature of the Budget of 2021-22. There is the risk that the incipient process of recovery of the economy will be throttled once again by a harsh Budget.”

But the writer seems to have lost sight of the continuing onslaught of Covid-19 and its debilitating adverse impact on the overall economy, including its recovery phase, regardless of IMF’s right or wrong stipulations. What will be the prospects of the recovery process in case a wider availability of vaccine by June 20121 fails to help eliminate the pandemic completely or contain its spread to a satisfactory extent?

SAADIA FARRUKH (ISLAMABAD)

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021