The IMF's acceptance of the Pakistani government's plea to postpone removal of the subsidy on power would send some temporary respite to the consumers in Pakistan. The incident wouldn't, however, endear the public to the Fund, specially with the issue of the petroleum prices and the court's involvement still fresh in the public's mind. In fact, in the light of the recent court order and the government's ordinance to raise the petroleum prices again, it is the international financial institution that has come to be vilified more amongst the disaffected; the government merely appears as a disappointing lackey. The IMF's notoriety, not just in the country but also in other parts of the world, is not unfounded. There is much to atone for. But it would serve us right to view our particular situation correctly. On the issue of petroleum prices, for instance, the public hangs on to the idea that all the Fund wants is to make the consumers suffer. That is not that case; at least not the one explicitly stated. The IMF, as a condition to our loan programme, wanted the government to contain our fiscal deficit to a prescribed percentage of our GDP. The government agreed and then pleaded to lower this set percentage. Since taxes on petroleum products is an important source of revenue for the government, any changes in the PDL or the Carbon Tax, as it became, would have meant a deviation from that set deficit limit. True, it is irresponsible financial management but on our own part, not the IMF's. On the power front, however, the IMF did ask for a removal of subsidies since the Fund as all advocates of the neoliberal project are against subsidies. But here, too, it is also an issue of deficit management. When the government was making its case to the IMF in Turkey for delaying the power subsidy withdrawal, it assured the Fund that it will finance the subsidy by slashing the Public Sector Development Programme by Rs 50 billion. Both the IMF and the World Bank have, in many cases, perpetuated the poverty of third world countries. But how we got in our current predicament should also be clear to us. The reckless fiscal policies of the previous regime left the government on the brink of default. We needed some money fast and with the Friends of Pakistan deserting us, it would actually appear to be an achievement for the government to enter us into the current loan programme. It is now up to the government to ensure that we eventually go towards a situation where we aren't making money off fuel taxes in particular and too many indirect taxes in general.