A lot happened this week that wasn’t business and economics related, with Pakistani athletes putting in stellar performances at the olympics and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif being denied a visa extension. But with so much going on, Profit’s Ariba Shahid brings you old currency, bailout packages, the special status of expat Pakistanis, and the utility of Whatsapp at work from Pakistan’s business and economics twitterverse. All this and more in this week’s social media roundup.
Give a man a fish …
Every year, every successive government gives support price for #sugar to ensure #foodsecurity, & here w r importing this basic commodity. No industry can be efficient or transparent, nor can it thrive when the regulator is involved in price actionhttps://t.co/awIDpAVYhE
— Junaid Iqbal (@JiqbalPK) August 7, 2021
Every year we see billions of rupees handed out in the form of subsidies with little to none allocated towards actually making structural changes which help the industry sort out its own issues on its own. We’ve often heard the phrase “give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for his lifetime.” If only we didn’t just hand out fish in the form of export subsidies, price floors, etc. and instead provided these farmers opportunities to learn new techniques and provided them with the necessary technology they need in this day and age.
Middle child syndrome
7% markup and 1.4% insurance – that’s a sweet deal.
As a resident in Pakistan, I was quoted 13.25% markup and 2% Takaful. https://t.co/LTbwQz2AEQ— Gibran Peshimam (@gibranp) August 6, 2021
Everyone hates being the middle child. Why wouldn’t you, you just don’t get the same love and respect that the eldest or youngest get. Which is why if you are a regular Pakistani living in Pakistan, you are very much treated like the middle child by the state – ignored and misunderstood. The favorite child of the state is, of course, the one that doesn’t live here because they send in dollars. Regardless, if you’re interested in reading more about the scheme and how you could call up your sibling, aunt or uncle and ask them to buy you a car, check out our story on RDA. Who is the youngest sibling you ask? We aren’t quite sure. Perhaps expats are the only child and we are merely the orphans of some long deceased khala or mamu.
The stock market is not an indicator of the economy
Three our of three top volume leaders today at #PSX are on defaulter counter pic.twitter.com/xWMF0LJR1a
— Ali khizar (@AliKhizar) August 6, 2021
When we say the PSX is not an accurate indicator of the economy, we mean this too. The company could be on the defaulter’s list and still make its way up to the top active stocks and close in green. As long as the market players think you could make them a quick buck does it even matter? And just so you can’t claim we never said it, let us say it again: the stock market is an indicator of the perception of the economy, not of the economy itself.
Whatsapp government
I swear, 99% of the backchannel work for VC deals in emerging markets happens on Whatsapp.
— Kalsoom Lakhani (@kalsoom82) August 4, 2021
Gone are the days when you needed to write a “Dear Mr/Ma’am” email to your boss or colleagues. You don’t even need to talk to clients over email anymore compared to the past. Whatsapp is now your solution to your personal and professional life. Too bad it makes it hard to differentiate and to set limits. In addition, we need to add that it’s most likely that our government is run over whatsapp too. If you haven’t checked out the update in whatsapp’s archived feature recently, please do, it is life changing.
Kind robbers
Gold worth Rs790m stolen from Karachi bank’s lockers and Mashallah the robbers were thoughtful enough to replace it with lots of artificial jewelry ❤️🤲🥰 https://t.co/SQm6l142Js
— toldja cat 🦋 (@manahylk) August 7, 2021
So you kept some gold at home and were told that it’s unsafe and that you should keep it in a locker. But now lockers are unsafe too. However, the good news is some robbers are kind enough to replace gold with artificial jewelry.
The rich play by different rules
I’ve just decided that anything that costs more than 1500 is expensive.
— Flaming Hot Cheetos Dust🐾👻 (@Lanaschild_) August 6, 2021
Every time I go to a restaurant, I read the menu from right to left. Brokenness is a lifestyle that I’ve become accustomed to. Just like Flaming Hot Cheetos Dust, I too have set a benchmark for what I consider expensive. I wonder if rich people do too.
Love for real estate
Yaar Khuda ka khauf karein… endorsing a private real estate agency from a public office https://t.co/diOhwxNB21
— DMKM – without a crystal ball (@2paisay) August 6, 2021
Everyone loves Real Estate in Pakistan. How do we make that claim? Well it’s simple, just need to see the fact that the deputy speaker of the national assembly is praising a private real estate agency from his twitter account whilst sitting in his office. Kind of like a subliminal acceptance from the government too.
Bring back the one rupee note
The Re1 note with my grandfather’s signature on it from when he was serving as the governor of the State Bank of #Pakistan. And a plaque on the road where the State Bank Museum is located, that’s named after him 🙂 pic.twitter.com/yq71VJbgYq
— Shazia Hasan (@HasanShazia) August 6, 2021
How cool would it be to have your sign/ autograph on every note in circulation? We think it’s very cool. Also, how cool would it be to have a Rs 1 note back.
Petrol bomb
Are we the only country in the world where we discuss LNG prices constantly? Where the periodic revision in petrol prices is headline news? Is the term “petrol bomb” known elsewhere?
— samir ahmed 🇵🇰 (@samirahmed14) August 6, 2021
The fact that there’s news of a petrol bomb every few days and that we excessively discuss LNG prices could be because we usually have slow news days.
Blast from the past
Not my grandfather or any relation unfortunately, but still got my name on both Pakistani and Indian currency https://t.co/Bs3gcpIUnK pic.twitter.com/6221ZjGhmt
— Fahad Desmukh (@desmukh) August 6, 2021
What a cool note from back when India and Pakistan used the same currency.
