LAHORE: “Pakistan has been pushed into a Debt Trap; new loans are being acquired to pay the old ones. The foreign debt burden has increased to above $ 130 billion with debt-to-GDP ratio touching around 90%. Around 50% of the government’s revenues are being devoured by interest payments on debts. The entire economy is running on loans. Pakistan public debt has never come down since 1991. Since 2011 per capita debt has increased by 36% from $ 823 to $ 1122 in 2024. Urgent need is to stop reckless borrowing and establish Debt Audit Commission to investigate the reasons and legality of the mounting debt.”
These views were expressed by the speakers at a protest demonstration, organized by WISE (Women in Struggle for Empowerment) under the banner of World March of Women (WMW) and Campaign for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debts (CADTM) Pakistan here on Thursday (17th Oct) in front of Lahore Press Club, in connection with the on-going Global Week of Action for Debt Cancellation and International Day for the Eradication of Poverty 2024. A large of women and members of Civil Society joined the demo. They were carrying banners and placards inscribed with slogans against the IMF, WB and predatory policies of IFIs. They were shouting slogans in favor of their demands and for the cancellation of Pakistan debt.
Addressing the protestors, Abdul Khaliq, Focal Person CADTM-Pakistan said this year marks 80 years of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank (IMF-WB) jointly designing and maintaining a global financial system that thrives on debt domination and the systemic exploitation and extraction of the peoples and resources of the Global South. This exploitation continues to have devastating impacts, especially on women, working peoples, endangering climate, livelihoods and worsening inequality within and between nations.
He said that mounting debt of Pakistan is mother of all economic ills of Pakistan. This is time to stop further borrowing from lenders. “We are highly concerned about the strict conditions attached to the 24th IMF programme worth $ 7 billion. It is tantamount to surrendering country’s sovereignty to International Financial Institutions. On the one hand IMF claimed Pakistan debt is sustainable, while on the other hand it says it has risked by extending the bailout package to Pakistan, he wondered. The economy of the country is still in danger. By June 2026, Pakistan will have to repay around $80 billion.
WMW, Pakistan convener Bushra Khaliq said women, working people and marginalized communities bear the brunt of such IMF-dictated policies. Measures including; increase in fuel, gas and electricity prices, increase in taxes, cuts on social spending and withdrawal of subsidies that were critical to the consumption pattern of the poor have been cut while the burden of indirect taxes on the poorest income group has increased. Pakistan is being forced to compromise its sovereignty to meet the endless demands of IMF, she added.
She said this is time reflect upon can we learn to live without IMF? Pakistan’s 23 IMF programmes to date have failed to bring about any genuine and lasting macroeconomic stability in the economy. She demanded of the government to form an independent and impartial parliamentary Debt Audit Commission, to critically examine the nature, purpose, terms and conditions of loans, covering the period till 1980.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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