Anyone coming to Pakistan can be taken by surprise at the resilience on offer. For instance, the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif faces an impending lockdown in the federal capital Islamabad this week.
The showdown is on account of the vociferous demands made by Imran Khan, the firebrand opposition leader and chairman of his Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf party (PTI), for Sharif to either resign or make himself accountable after names of his children appeared in the so-called Panama Papers purporting them to have unaccounted offshore wealth.
Sharif denies any wrongdoing, but weeks of aborted talks later, with no headway in sight, the Supreme Court finally, admitted Khan’s petitions for a hearing that is, in fact, starting on Tuesday.
However, this hanging uncertainty does not appear to have diminished a positive economic outlook - endorsed by none other than the International Monetary Fund (IMF), whose chief Christine Lagarde visited Pakistan last week in a sign of growing confidence that the country’s economy was back on the rails.
And yet this is some distance removed from what had seemed possible back in 2014 when Khan had first taken to the roads - then, to force the Sharif government to probe into allegations that his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had conspired to return to power at the expense of denying Khan’s PTI.
A subsequent Judicial Commission inquiry dismissed the PTI’s charges that there was any organised large-scale rigging that made it possible for PML-N to win back power.
A lot has happened since then to help Sharif haul the economy back.
For starters, a devastating attack on a school in Peshawar in late 2014 that saw hundreds of students massacred, shocked the state - all pillars included - into swift action.
An All Party Conference brought the entire civil and military leadership together to forge consensus on a National Action Plan that was subsequently, constitutionally approved to hand sweeping powers to anti-terror courts to bring the culprits to book.
The obtaining success of the plan and the Judicial Commission’s verdict at the end of PTI’s first street agitation gave way to political and economic stability, especially with the launching of a $46bn China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) that, in due course, sent the positive sentiment soaring.
The measure of stability and calm is evident in how Pakistan concluded the 12th and final review of a three-year $6.4bn programme in August, leading Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to suggest bidding adieu to the Fund and have Islamabad stand on its feet.
It was an outlook endorsed by IMF mission chief Harald Finger, who said Pakistan’s economy had made “significant progress toward strengthening macroeconomic and financial stability and resilience, and laying the foundations for higher, more sustainable, and inclusive growth.”
But the big nod came last week when IMF chief Christine Lagarde declared on a rare visit to Islamabad that Pakistan was now out of economic crisis and could build on the gains by continuing with structural reforms and widening the tax base.
In a seminar following a meeting with the prime minister, Lagarde predicted that improved macroeconomic stability as well as strengthened external buffers and public finances will provide a solid foundation for (Pakistan’s) economy.
As a result of the programme, the Fund chief acknowledged that several tax exemptions had been removed, and higher tax revenue paved for greater public investment and social spending.
“About 1.5mn more poor households are benefiting from targeted social assistance than three years ago.
Power outages have gradually decreased and the financial performance of the power sector is strengthening,” she noted.
Following the course correction, she noted Pakistan now has its “moment of opportunity” to address the remaining economic challenges and work towards creating mo re private sector jobs and higher living standards for all segments of society.
For this, the need to continue strengthening resilience by building fiscal and external cushions to be adequately prepared for future economic shocks is instructive.
The Fund chief felt that higher and sustainable growth will require completing important structural reforms in the energy sector as well as tax policy and administration; ending losses in public enterprises; and making a sustained effort to improve governance and foster a dynamic and export-oriented private sector.
In yet another confidence boost, the World Bank in its annual “Doing Business 2017” report out last week drove home that Pakistan was among the 10 most-improved economies out of 190 reviewed.
The World Bank report tracks regulatory changes in 190 countries for businesses throughout their life cycle - from the ease of business start-up regulations and getting credit to property rights.
It noted that Pakistan had implemented 11 key reforms this past year to make the environment conducive for doing business.
But Dawn, the country’s leading English daily, cautioned that not only was there a need to take a more hard-knuckle appraisal of the three-year record, but do so much more for the economy to stay ashore.
“At the end of the day, it is important to realise that the IMF cannot want reform in Pakistan more than the authorities themselves do.
If there is a deep and widespread inability and unwillingness to reform the state and its relationship with the institutions and stakeholders of the economy, then that stasis cannot change from external inducement, the paper said in an editorial entitled Farewell to the IMF?
Indeed, the IMF boss herself outlined four points in urging Islamabad to seize the moment.
“Pakistan has embarked on an important economic transformation to join the ranks of emerging market economies,” Lagarde acknowledged, before asserting that it cannot rely exclusively on its trading partners to support growth.
This, she pointed out, means that the country will have to lean on the strength of its own policies.
The four priorities Lagarde emphasised as central are: making the economy more resilient; raising growth; improving the quality of growth; and finally, believing in the global system.
All things considered, the Fund chief remained confident that Pakistan can seize this moment of opportunity and transform itself into a dynamic, vibrant, and integrated emerging market country.

*The writer is Community Editor.