The government in response to an old demand announced a separate textile policy by Pakistan's most powerful industrial sector. From the sector problems addressed in it, one can see the hand of the economists working in tandem with Finance Minister Mr Shaukat Tarin, who often declares that he will do nothing without consulting the sector managers involved.

The idea is to boost textile exports from $17.8 billion to $25 billion. Critics tend to forget that the policy extends over four years and quietly counts on things getting better beyond 2009, when the power situation in the country gets better and the world economy gradually moves out of recession, creating demand for Pakistani goods.

One can't say that the policy-framers have not paid attention to detail. Subsidy will go into helping the sector refinance loans too so that they can come back from the brink of bankruptcy caused by the various indigenous and extraneous factors in the economic crisis. Small-time producers of yarn who sell to the big exporters will be treated to some extent as exporters and will be partially subsidised. The cost of social security for women employed by the sector will be picked up by the state.

The textile sector is the backbone of Pakistan's export economy. It is also the big employer and there are cities like Faisalabad where generations of workers are associated with their cotton and textile factories. If the Textile Policy concentrates on exports, it will have to direct the power loom sector to become more closely associated with exports. Local glut is to be feared above all.

There are pledges given to the development of infrastructure that will be more difficult to fulfil. Again, the calculation is that the availability of electricity will get better after 2009, and that doesn't take into account the infrastructure of the national power grid itself. Half the time the citizens don't know if it is load-shedding that has hit them or a breakdown. But in 2010 somehow the textile sector and the power looms - where the workers are becoming violent by the day - will have the power supply they need! It is not a great assumption.

Then there is the law and order situation, which balks foreign buyers and investors. It has been bad for the past 25 years when the state was busy waging jihad with non-state actors and has now become associated with loss of territory. One complaint of the textile exporters has been the delays caused by acts of terrorism in the performance of their contractual obligations to foreign buyers.