THE general elections are merely days away, and we have heard politicians of shades and hues promising just about the moon to people across the board. Every politician worth his salt has talked about how the country will be freed from elite capture, and how the entire focus will be on the common man; wages will be raised, inflation will be controlled, free electricity units will be provided, healthcare will be improved, education will be revamped ... The list of promises is actually endless.

The irony is that those promising to end the elite capture happen to be the worst of the elite in the country.

Never in the past had the national economy been in such dire straits as it is today. Political parties are doing nothing but selling economic dreams to the voters to lure them into voting for them.As an observer of Pakistani economy, I simply fail to understand how all these promised benefits will be given to the people at a time when the economy stands shattered and the country is going through a sort of austerity plan to avert total collapse.

Politicians have a big responsibility to steer the country out of troubled waters, and to achieve this objective they should address the pressure points of economy, like circular debt, loss-making state-owned enterprises, low tax-to-GDP ratio, persistent fiscal deficit, low productivity, etc.

Politicians should have educated the public during their election campaigns about these pressure points,and shared the broad outlines of their plans to fix them. But they have done no such thing, and the most probable reason is that they do not have a plan up their sleeve.

E jaz Ahmad Magoon Doha, Qatar