Double-edged sword

THE generous ‘incentives package’ for Pakistani expats, announced by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, is yet another symptom of the Dutch disease afflicting Pakistan’s economy. In our case, however, the disease is not linked to natural resources, which mostly remain unexplored, but to the growing reliance on workers’ abroad to stay afloat. Amid drying up foreign loan and aid flows, the dependence on remittances has had a major role in crowding out manufacturing and exports, leading to deindustrialisation over more than a decade. The package for overseas Pakistanis comprises special courts to address their cases, age relaxation in government jobs, medical college quotas for their children, relief in banking and business transaction taxes, green channel facilities at airports, civil awards, etc.