Can Shehbaz Sharif stabilize a faltering economy? Can Imran Khan make a comeback?

The numbers are coming in and they don’t look pretty. Last Thursday the new government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was informed where the prices of essential fuels – petrol, diesel, kerosene – will rise to if the price caps announced by the former Prime Minister were to be removed in one go (see table). The next day the official twitter account of PML(N) that deals with economic matters announced that the fuel price caps are here to stay for the time being.

Minutes later finance minister designate, Miftah Ismael, tweeted that he has just had a meeting with the World Bank Country Director and the IMF’s Resident Representative in Islamabad, describing the meeting as a “courtesy call” that they made on him.