In recent years, Pakistan’s equity market has outperformed its regional rivals in China and India by a big margin despite poor security conditions at home and worse-than-regional key macro-economic indicators, according to Forbes magazine. The magazine’s endorsement of the Pakistani market must have cheered up the Nawaz Sharif government, struggling to deliver on its election promises, such as ending rolling blackouts, in the face of a political challenge by the rival Pakistan Tehriki-Insaf. Such endorsements by foreign institutions and media are often touted by the government as a ‘success certificate’ of its economic and financial policies. What the government and its supporters tend to conveniently overlook, or downplay, while flaunting ‘international approvals’ are the ‘words of caution’ that often accompany these endorsements as footnotes.

“The country’s economy is in a much better shape now than it was over three years ago …The IMF feels that the economy has now reached a position where it will be able to absorb mild shocks”