pakistan external debt, pauper government of Pakistan drinking ghee by taking loans, foreign loan on Jinnah’s country reached $ 125 billion

Islamabad: Poor Pakistan buried under the mountain of debt is not going to get relief even in the year 2024. Pakistan’s total foreign debt has crossed $125 billion. At the same time, the total foreign public debt by March 2023 stood at $ 85 billion. This big disclosure has been made in the report of Economic Survey of Pakistan. It also states that the total debt of the Government of Pakistan has now reached 58.6 trillion. At the same time, it has been said that Pakistan is not going to get relief from debt even in the year 2024. According to the report, Pakistan will have to repay the debt of $ 13 billion by December 2023. Even if Pakistan somehow gets the IMF program restarted, it will have to repay the debt on a very large scale in the year 2024 as well. Meanwhile, the Pakistan government has approved a massive 66 percent increase in the discretionary budget for lawmakers, reaching a record 116 billion Pakistani rupees for the current fiscal year. The Express Tribune reported that the decision continues the ‘reckless’ fiscal policy that is pushing Pakistan closer to default.

The government seems to be neglecting the revival of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme. The money is being spent in complete violation of the understanding reached with the IMF in February this year, which aims to limit the primary deficit to just 0.5 per cent of GDP. The federal budget deficit for the current fiscal year is now estimated at around 6.4 trillion Pakistani rupees, or 8.1 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), about one and a half times the target of 4.5 trillion Pakistani rupees.

The government initially allocated 70 billion Pakistani rupees for the MPs’ schemes in the current fiscal year, which has proved insufficient due to competing demands for additional funds by the 13 coalition parties, The Express Tribune reported. The decision comes at a crucial time when Pakistan is facing the threat of defaulting on loan repayments and there is an urgent need to negotiate debt restructuring with domestic banks and international debtors for some fiscal relief.

The Express Tribune said that instead of adopting a judicious approach, the government is allocating funds to schemes where the potential for misuse is high due to lack of proper scrutiny. The coalition government had earlier decided to allocate 500 million Pakistani rupees to each member of the National Assembly, which has now been increased significantly in an attempt to appease the coalition partners.