Imagine a bank messaging to layman of a client to please activate his ‘EMV debit card’ by a fixed nearing date after which his ‘old non-chip based card’ will be blocked and saying sorry for inconvenience! Being a helpless and non-literate account holder he is caught unawares, unable to comprehend or understand the intricacies of this so-called technical but indispensable message indeed. Responding to urgency he dials the helpline of this panic creating bank: “press 1, press2, press3, press4” and so on fast depleting his mobile credits with no response whatsoever. After a good 45-minute struggle a Phone Banking Officer,…
Author: Parvez Jamil
Whether budgetary conditionalities of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), directives of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), maneuvering of the statesmanship or commonalities of the common man, budget of the pandemic times is a very challenging proposition indeed. So very simply and honestly, budget of any “developing” country, has a very clear-cut two-pronged implication. One a success budget with common man’s interests at heart and on board. The other is only a lip service to layman backfiring sooner or later and somehow or the other. As such, national budget of any democratically elected government ideally, objectively and practically needs to…