March 16, 2020 (MLN): At a time when the regulatory authorities across the globe are busy planning and coming up with measures to revive their respective economies, the ministries within Pakistan are quite missing in action.

The same thought was recently put forth by a renowned economist, Mr. Muzammil Islam on his social media handle, wherein he sort of questioned the Finance Advisor, Abdul Hafeez Shaikh for failing to come up with effective policy responses.

‘It seems like our Finance Minister Dr. Hafeez Shaikh has self-isolated himself and effectively in quarantine. No policy response so far from all regulators. I believe their confidence level has shaken, fear from media and NAB is restricting them to come over media’.

He however suggested that the State must take the following three policy steps in order to improve the sentiments of the investors:

1- 100-250bps cut in policy rate

2- 100-200bps cut in tax rates

3- partial pass on petroleum prices

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