ON March 20, 2026, Pakistan’s prime minister delivered a somewhat unwarranted and empty address to the nation — merely to announce that he had declined one among a dozen or so summaries placed before him each day. The announcement of not consenting to an additional hike in oil prices at the time, came in the wake of previously announced, lukewarm austerity measures. While burdening the poor, such ‘plasters on a bullet wound’ measures provide neither long-term financial reforms nor alter the fundamental societal inequality. The outrageous purchases of a Rs11 billion Gulfstream jet, a Rs90 million luxury vehicle for the Senate chairman and seven luxury cars for judges not simply betray but completely shatter the government’s much-trumpeted commitment to austerity.

On the same day, March 20, 2026, Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez also unveiled a set of austerity measures. Called a “social shield”, he approved a €5bn economic support package of 80 specific reforms focused on tax relief and direct aid to prevent “energy poverty” amongst the more vulnerable sectors. These measures include up to 57 per cent discounts on electricity bills, freezing rent increases across Spain, “free or nearly free” rail........

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