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The first signs that foreign donors are getting together to lend help must have enthused the Pakistani leadership as it tries to stand up to a fast-emerging economic crisis.
For President Asif Ali Zardari, a visit to New York to attend the annual gathering of the UN's general assembly presented just the right opportunity to inaugurate a so-called 'Friends of Pakistan' forum.
With members ranging from the US and European countries to the UAE, this new forum brings together a diverse group of countries eager to prevent Pakistan's economic collapse.
The immediate objective for the new forum is to prevent an economic downslide that would lead to finances becoming increasingly dire and, in the worst instance, either necessitating a rescue programme led by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or even an outright collapse.
The rescue effort is essentially meant to oversee a relatively safe and largely acrimony-free way out of the problems that plague Pakistan's economic outlook and have undermined its prospects this year.
In the short term, Pakistan's problems stem principally from high global oil prices that have driven down the outlook for some of the world's leading economies. The fallout from the political turmoil of the past year has also dented the economic outlook.
Potential investors are fazed by the far-from-promising short-to-medium term outlook let alone being hopeful of the long-term outlook.
In such a scenario, even if the so-called "friends of Pakistan" are able to help the country wriggle out of its current economic predicament, banking on its economic future is a tough ask unless its leaders and domestic stakeholders embrace a long-overdue reform agenda.
This is a lesson the country's leaders would do well to keep in mind especially since the country had to take recourse to a US-driven economic reform package in the wake of the New York terrorist attacks.
Vital issues
Fundamental weaknesses continue to hurt amid a telling need for reforms.
There are a host of challenges faced by Pakistan, ranging from a widely dilapidated and inherently corrupt tax system to the failure of successive governments to bring about any major improvement in the way government finances are managed.
And yet, there are just two fundamentally vital issues which could well be characterised as the gaps in overseeing a bold and sustainable economic recovery.
On the one hand, the poorest of the poor have no say in the framing of policies that could improve their lot. The poor suffer while the country is ruled by an elite that has its own vested interests. What is often overlooked by the planners is that policies formulated for the poor could bring lasting benefits for the rich as well.
On the other hand, the fast-growing gap between the rich and the poor is now showing signs of unleashing the kind of political upheaval never before seen in Pakistan's history. There is plenty of evidence of abject poverty manifesting itself in different ways. Across the country, a significant rise in crime rates illustrates the manner in which the needy are turning to desperate measures. Acts of self-immolation in recent years are a telling pointer to misery of the poorest of the poor.
The bottom line is hard to miss even for the most insulated of leaders.
An international rescue package may comfort a select few who may have the means to get by for now but whether such deals can rescue those in acute need is far from clear.
The writer is a journalist based in Pakistan.
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