Political Economy of PTI Governance: Manifesto, Performance, Achievements and Challenges

Abstract

Political parties use their manifestos to exercise a cognitive influence on the public. This study is
based on a discourse analysis between Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government's economic
manifesto and its achievements in the first two years of its tenure. PTI has been vocal critique of
bad governance, fiscal management, socio economic injustices and IMF loans. It has to face
economic crises in its early days and pandemic situation later on. It was compelled to approach IMF
for loan with stringent demands that restricted PTI to fulfill the promises it made. In its first year, it
failed to perform well, resulting in low GDP, high fiscal deficit, real sector slowed down, and
inflation in double digits. In its second year (2019-20), economy contracted and GDP dropped to -
0.3 percent, due to which unemployment increased. PTI worked hard to reduce the fiscal deficit
from 9.1 percent to 4 percent. In the real sector, the agriculture sector's performance was good, but
in industrial and services sector growth was negative. Government’s main concern was to make
policies that would help the poor of Pakistan but rising inflation and unemployment put immense
burden on this section of society.