Daily Times

The economy of Pakistan is quite eccentric and is based on government to government policies. Making predictions on any economy is highly complex, but even more so in regards to the Pakistani economy. Every new government puts it’s own practices into policies, and rejects everything used by the previous government, even sensible policies. The major factor which damages the economy is loans, especially from external sources.

With the dawn of the twenty first century, other countries — mostly the developing ones like India and Bangladesh — were thinking of utilizing technology to improve their economies, Pakistan was afraid of getting attacked by America. 9/11 shattered every aspiration that Pakistan had and it’s focus remained on fighting America’s ‘War on Terror’. After all, the American president at the time had threatened to ‘bomb Pakistan back into the stone age’, if it failed to cooperate. Though the economy showed better trends in comparison to the previous eras, it was still stumbling and foreign loans stood at a whopping 40 billion dollars.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) remains focused on borrowing money from entities like the Word Bank, IMF, ADB and others to keep the economy afloat. The terms and conditions of WB and IMF are in some cases too horrible to mull over, but it seems that the current government has no concern for the long term impact of all this borrowing on the Pakistani economy.

Bajwa spoke fittingly when he said that national debt was sky high and there was a need to take intricate decisions for breaking the begging bowl. The link between security and economy is clearly tangible

According to Moody’s (a bond credit rating business), the existing loans on Pakistan stand at 79 billion dollars. This figure is quite ghastly. We are a nuclear state with fragile economy that cannot bear more debts. Even after taking excessive loans, the government has failed to create sources of income generation. Meanwhile, state institutions continue to collapse. They have grown to be white elephants. The Pakistan Steel Mills, PIA and other institutions need bailout packages on yearly basis and are on the verge of total collapse. And to delay total economic failure, the PML-N government keeps taking more loans, simply to repay previous loans and thereby trapping Pakistan in a vicious economic cycle. This is a joke with the nation, let us cut our coat according to our cloth.

The Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Qamar Bajwa spoke fittingly when he said that national debt was sky high and there was a need to make intricate decisions to break Pakistan’s begging bowl. The link between security and economy is clearly tangible. People who have a basic sense of economics know of the adverse impacts of loans on coming generations. An economy built on loans is a bubble which will burst sooner or later. When this happens it won’t be the senior members of the PML-N who suffer but the common citizens of Pakistan.

To reduce our dependence on foreign loans, it is necessary to take on corruption. When the taxpayers money serves it’s purpose instead of lining the pockets of politicians and bureaucrats, Pakistan’s dependence on foreign loans will be significantly reduced.

In this state of affairs the country needs effective and efficient democratic leadership which will make strategic plans regarding the economy. Corrupt governments will keep on borrowing instead of expanding income-generating sources within Pakistan.

Moreover, if our leaders break the begging bowl, no foreign institution or country will dictate Pakistan’s security priorities.

The writer can be contacted at junaidalimalik3@gmail.com. He tweets @junaidalimalik1