Pakistan, July 6 -- The fresh trade deal with Washington is, on paper, good news. Pakistan's textile and farm exporters were bracing for a crippling tariff spike, with some duties set to jump as high as 29% this month. Now, after frantic backchannel talks, Islamabad has secured a pause.

Yet one reprieve does not equal a rescue. Scratch the surface, and it's the same tired crisis-management playbook. We cling to the same narrow export baskets-cotton, rice, basic textiles- while everything else slips through the cracks.

The real rot shows up in the numbers. State Bank data puts total public debt at over Rs 76 trillion, increasing by 12% in just one year. Domestic borrowing jumped nearly 16%. This is a country now paying over Rs7 trillion ...