OPINION
Uzair Younus
Failing to communicating
at the same time, leading the outgoing PTI government to lay an economic minefield by first cutting and then freezing energy prices. When the new coalition government took over the helm of affairs, many experts advised it to immediately rollback these subsidies. But they wasted precious time and with each passing day, the crisis worsened. What should have been a simple crisis to deal with mutated larity and consistency. These are two of the most into something much worse. With the rupee sliding by the day, the important elements of crisis communications, inflationary impact of the crisis continued to mount. Throughout these especially during an economic crisis. Given the fact past few weeks, the experienced team of the PML-N has been found that economic crises tend to spiral at an exponenwanting, both on the decision-making and the communications side. tial rate, policymakers that communicate clearly It is no secret that there are various camps within the party – and consistently to their citizens and market this by itself is no issue, as most democratic parties around the world participants find it easier to manage the situation. Over the last have such divides. What has been astounding to watch is how a prime few weeks, Pakistan has been engulfed in a major economic crisis minister, pitched as someone operating at “Shehbaz speed,” has been where the currency has been in freefall, markets have been spooked, found dithering when it comes to decision-making. His inability to and citizens are only just feeling the pain of rising inflation. This discipline his own rank and file has compounded the crisis, first by not period has also shown the complete failure of the ruling coalition’s getting quick alignment on a strategy, and then by the lack of clarity crisis communications strategy, which has neither been clear nor and consistency in crisis communications. consistent. The initial address to the nation he gave was a sorry affair, with The scope of the crisis facing the coalition, led by the PML-N, the prime minister struggling to read off a teleprompter. Before and was known to almost everyone keeping a close eye on both the doafter that speech, various members of his own party have said different mestic and global economic situation. Rising global energy prices in things about the economy. Key among them has been former finance the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine turbo-charged global minister Ishaq Dar and his supporters within the PML-N. Rarely a inflation, which had been inching upwards following unprecedentweek has gone by where the Dar wing of the party has not undermined ed monetary and fiscal stimulus around the world. This inflationary their party’s own finance minister. From talk of strengthening the storm meant that central banks, especially the U.S. Federal Reserve, rupee to negotiating a better deal by “looking into the IMF’s eyes,” were caught behind the curve. As a result, they began to first the spokesmen of the Dar camp have done more damage to their signal and then aggressively tighten monetary policy, meaning that own prime minister than anyone else. Just last week the social media liquidity was sucked out of global financial markets. Countries like handle of the PML-N referred to Ishaq Dar as finance minister. Some Pakistan faced a perfect storm: rising energy prices fueled inflation may say that this could have been an honest mistake, but this does not and blew up their current account deficits, while tightening monseem like an honest mistake given the rumors circulating that he may etary policy in the U.S. made it that much more challenging to find be soon returning to Islamabad to take over the finance ministry. the dollars necessary to finance this yawning gap. Pakistan’s economy is likely to stabilize in the coming weeks As if this was not enough, a domestic political crisis unfolded as the IMF program resumes, and bilateral and multilateral inflows of dollars bring calm to the markets. The crisis, especially for the PML-N, is nowhere close to being over. With inflation expected to rage through the economy in the coming weeks, a more effective crisis communications strategy is sorely needed. This requires the prime minister to step up to the plate, first by imposing discipline within The writer is Director of his own rank and file, and second by directly communicating with Pakistanis in a clear and consistent the Pakistan Initiative manner. at the Atlantic Council, a Any talk of improvement and better days will be dismissed by ordinary citizens being pummeled by Washington D.C.-based inflation – the prime minister must show empathy and emotion. Additionally, his ministers and spokesthink tank, and host of the men need to stick to a simple script and stop undermining their own colleagues. Shehbaz Sharif can start podcast Pakistonomy. He with one simple step: muzzle Dar and his spokesmen. This will not only ease the communications crisis, tweets @uzairyounus. but it will also signal to market participants that the disastrous era of Daronomics is dead and buried. n
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