The West Asian crisis provided Islamabad a window of opportunity for diplomatic manoeuvring in the global political landscape. Functioning as a peace broker between Iran and the US, entering the Mecca Pact, emerging as a defence supplier, and the Pakistani leadership taking multiple trips abroad; Pakistan has been relishing multiple reasons to stay in the limelight recently.
From the diplomacy perspective, remaining prominent in global news and being involved in high-stakes meetings is indeed a good strategy, and many expect that Pakistan will reap benefits to help its domestic and international standing. Unfortunately, there is another set of realities that coexist with the current make-believe image of Pakistan. To begin with, its economy is ailing. The fleeting macroeconomic stability is not robust enough to put the economy on a long-term growth trajectory.
The Iran crisis and the UAE’s request for payback were strong enough blows to make Pakistan’s economy fret and seek quick external help, which keeps on increasing its already heavy debt burden. Poverty is rising, and socio-economic indicators are appalling. Besides, the rising share of the defence budget has left very little room for increasing expenditure in sectors like health and education, which are essential for long-term steady growth. Consistent underinvestment in technical and vocational education and female labour market participation has trapped the economy in a low-income trap.
Compared to its contemporaries, every political transition in Islamabad has led to a huge economic cost to the economy. With a lack of long-term economic strategy, equations in every economic sphere, whether tax regimes, industrial incentives, or regulatory frameworks, remain highly imbalanced. Resultingly, the economy witnessed not only the displacement of transnational corporate operations, but also the dwindling of domestic and foreign private capital investments. Islamabad’s competitiveness is also diminishing. The share of exports to GDP has fallen from around 16 percent in the 1990s to about 10.4 percent in 2024. With the debt-to-GDP ratio reaching around 70 percent, import bills, especially energy imports, are acting as a diabolic blow, subverting any progress achieved so far.
With a weak industrial base and excessive dependence on the textile sector, the scope for diversification into high-value sectors like electronics, pharma, and machinery remains suffocatingly constricted. Corruption in the economy is rampant, with elite capture eating away around 6 percent of potential GDP. Evidence from an IMF report suggests that corruption in Pakistan is persistent and corrosive, leading to market distortions, erosion of public trust, and reversing fiscal stability. However, neither the findings of this report are novel to the system, nor is the sustained callous apathy and lack of political will amongst the leaders.
Conveniently sidelining the monumental economic hardships and dire need for reforms, the leadership is occupied with manufacturing a narrative on unverified military feats and ambitious diplomatic manoeuvring. With unrequited strength projection to garner domestic and international audience support, Pakistan is busy generating a cognitive bias.
These endeavours are costing Islamabad millions of US dollars, as the nation campaigns to refurbish its image as a dependable partner in counterterrorism, regional stability, and security in South Asia. Pakistan’s PR campaigns, which also involves spending huge sums of money for its operations in Washington, are again raising concerns about the ethics of the expenditure, given the forex crisis, rising inflation, and severe domestic economic hardships. The narrative is also being construed to sanitise the image of Pakistan, hide its realities as an underachiever in human rights, press freedom, and a catastrophe in the treatment of minorities and refugees.
Pakistan’s current PR strategy is risky on several fronts. First, the growing global visibility mimics a marketing gimmick, mounting on the debilitating macroeconomic figures and socio-economic outcomes. Second, the funambulistic stunts of forging deeper ties with Washington on one side while managing Beijing on the other would incur high costs to Islamabad. Third, there exists ample evidence that Pakistan has relied on fake imagery to claim military victories.Thus, continuation of hollow campaigns may backfire if Islamabad doesn’t mend its ways already. And finally, the internal conflicts with Balochistan and Afghan-Pakistan tensions are issues with more pressing redressal needs vis-à-vis futile image makeover endeavours. Islamabad’s domestic economic and political fault lines are grave concerns that need the government’s undivided attention.
Any financial and human resources spent in serving the vanity of its leaders would reverse the already sub-optimum living standards of its awaam. The nation needs long-term sustained structural reforms, better institutions, and reorganization of the economic and political system. The efforts to enhance global visibility in international media and high-level meetings might fit the narrow purposes of political leaders and military authorities, but it has, even remotely, no positive dividend for the millions of its citizens struggling to survive.
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