It could have been a scene from one of Pakistan’s frequent political confrontations. But the sight on Thursday of people throwing stones at the Karachi stock exchange building was a powerful reminder of how much equity investors are getting hurt by mounting political and economic uncertainty, which shows few signs of ending.

“The danger is that we could have the unravelling of our economic success,” says Salman Shah, the former finance minister, referring to the country’s economic turnround over a five-year period to last summer, during which billions of dollars of equity investment came in. Mr Shah contrasts Pakistan’s sliding fortunes with the position a year ago, when foreign direct and portfolio investment rose above $8bn (£4bn, €5bn) for the first time and the KSE was among the world’s top performing emerging market bourses.