Pakistan has reached an inflection point

The holy festival of Eid-ul-Fitr has dawned in Pakistan, marking the end of Ramadan. Celebrations were unusually muted. The month of Ramadan has been harrowing for a large swathe of Pakistan’s populace. All through the month, through the day-long fasts, crowds thronged outside the free food distribution centres across the country, waiting for bags of flour. Sometimes they waited days. Fights were commonplace. Often, the very young or the elderly were injured or even killed in the stampedes. There are far too many of these cases to recount.

Food inflation is at a record high of 47 per cent; overall inflation hovered around the 35 per cent mark through March and April. Earlier this month the country’s central bank raised interest rates to 21 per cent. A country that not too long ago exported wheat is now an importer thanks to last year’s floods. Fuel prices have soared to unimaginable highs. Industry chiefs have expressed worry that curbs on imports and the withdrawal of subsidies on electricity – necessitated by Pakistan’s dwindling foreign exchange reserves and conditions demanded by the IMF before a rescue package can be implemented – are threatening to bring industrial production to a halt. Pakistan