We all are responsible for pushing our country quickly to the point of no return on national issues and we all are responsible for creating the crises ourselves and we are failing to counter serious challenges. We have been handling this country carelessly and immaturely without proper requisite planning. The adhocism adopted by successive governments and now PTI has brought us to the present situation, where our rupee has dipped to Rs 160 to a dollar. Let us view the most recent issues and mega scandals. The main challenge is the economic debacle that could not be rectified in two-and-a-half years. Now FATF has once again decided that Pakistan will continue to stay on the grey list for another four months, until June despite significant progress and meeting 24 out of 27 points in the action plan. The decision is highly biased and seemed to be influenced by anti-Pakistan propaganda. Instead of removing Pakistan’s name, FATF announced “Pakistan remains under increased monitoring”.
I ask Mr Marcus Pleyer, President FATF; what was the need to praise Pakistan when FATF failed to take Pakistan out of the grey list? It is a hypocritical statement by President FATF whereas Pakistan has already lost $38 billion because of being on the grey list. Will FATF cover our huge economic loss because of its discrimination?
The
government should not start praising FATF to reciprocate their hollow praises
as it is a trap to block Pakistan from reacting to its decision. The Ministry
of Foreign Affairs must not take any credit for praises or not being placed on
the blacklist but should react over keeping Pakistan on the grey list till June
as the fact is that we will be further hammered under increased monitoring.
Let us pick the first fall of the
rupee as this is very important as the devaluation of our currency from 124 in
July 2018 to Rs 160 today has badly affected our economy and still, no reforms
or policies have been brought by our government to get hold of this constant
decline. Currency Mafia from Karachi to Peshawar is fully active in minting
money. Whereas Inflation has jumped from 5.8 percent in July 2018 to a record
high of 14 percent in 2020 making the life of a common man miserable. It is
likely to increase further this year. More price hike is likely to hit the
common man. Pakistan will be forced for more price hikes at the cost of the
already crushed common man by the Government and IMF. The new price hikes and
the additional coronavirus burden will make our lives miserable. The second
tranche of $6 Billion has not been released yet by the IMF and even if they do,
it is retained under the garb of debt servicing, more taxes, and inflation. Our
government is trying very hard to receive the second tranche of about $ 500
million which has been put on hold by the IMF for a second review and the
second review means compliance with more strict conditions.
Additionally, the fall of the
growth rate of our country started dropping from 5.8 percent to a record low of
-0.4 percent in 2020 which had started dropping from 1.9 percent in 2019 and
-1.55 percent at the beginning of year 2020. It is feared that this year will
bring further decline to the growth rate and the common man will be in more
trouble. Now foreign debts have become the real national issue and as of
December 2020, our public debt and liabilities were estimated to be about
Rs44.978 trillion/US$283 billion which is 98.7 percent of the gross domestic
product (GDP) of Pakistan. Can the government now say that the economic
indicators are improving; one can see these are declining on a daily basis.
Similarly, as of December 2020, the
external debt of Pakistan has now skyrocketed to around US$115.7 billion.
Pakistan owes US$11.3 billion to the Paris Club, US$33.1 billion to
multilateral donors, US$7.4 billion to International Monetary Fund, and US$12
billion to international bonds such as Eurobond, and Sukuk bonds. About 15
percent of the external debt which is estimated at around US$17.1 billion (6.15
percent of GDP) is owed to China due to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor
and it is going to increase and we are unable to pay to the Chinese CEPC
companies despite the sovereign agreement.
I will expose those who are
responsible and who are pushing to bring the Chinese power companies to a dead
end. I draw the attention of the government to make sure this non-payment may
not become a major irritant in CEPC. It is needed to examine how many American
passport holders are working in CEPC and who has allowed Indian and Jewish companies
for major supplies and how they are retrieving important data for enemies. We
are already facing international isolation and daily we are having setbacks, as
Pakistan’s enemies already have managed to isolate Pakistan internationally.
Our government, on the other hand, is doing nothing in its capacity to
strengthen and improve foreign relations with other countries.
With each passing day, the
government is failing to improve ties not only with neighbouring countries but
is also driving our allies away due to incompetency and inefficiencies. We are
losing our Arab friends too as in August 2020, when Foreign Minister Shah
Mahmood Qureshi blasted the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation,
accusing the OIC of failing to support Pakistan’s stance on Kashmir. This
infuriated officials in Saudi Arabia, which plays a key role in the OIC’s
affairs and froze a $3.2 billion (€2.72 billion) oil credit facility and
demanded that Pakistan repay part of a $3 billion loan. Similarly, the United
Arab Emirates (UAE), chose India over Pakistan as the preferred guest at the
OIC meeting. We have also failed to bring India under ICJ’s jurisdiction for
its brutalities in Kashmir whereas India has time and again tried its best to
allege us for terrorism which is evident from its successful orchestration of
terrorist attacks in Uri and Pulwama which it blamed on Pakistan.
The European Union and the United States had already maintained a distance from Pakistan long ago. Our global condemnation and isolation are also visible today where the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has announced to keep Pakistan on the grey list. Where are the efforts of the foreign ministry to have avoided the further placement of Pakistan on FATF’s grey list and where is our foreign secretary hiding?
We are encountered with growing Daesh presence, whereas I have been advocating the fact that Daesh has been chosen by anti-Pakistan designers to move their agenda of destabilising the country, particularly KP and Balochistan. Unfortunately, certain political quarters in Balochistan gave way to these anti-Pakistan moves, which was quite upsetting, as they did not foresee the consequences for the country. After the arrest of RAW agent Kulbhushan Yadav, there is no doubt left as to how India is involved in destabilising Pakistan. India is already using Daesh and RAW in Balochistan, KP, and other parts of Pakistan to achieve its objectives.
Every successive Indian government
has been actively involved in attempts to destabilise Pakistan via Balochistan.
India has been conducting acts of terrorism through RAW agent and has
strengthened its terrorist network which is run by Daesh now. India has adopted
the model of killing the Hazara community members to instigate Iran on the Shia
killings; it wasn’t to create sectarian riots in Pakistan. We are suffering
because of our internal political polarisation and have no unity within
political ranks. Political parties are more interested in ditching each other
and enhancing their vote bank but no attention is paid to national issues.
There is growing internal political polarisation in our country affecting our
credibility and image worldwide. Our politicians play a dirty role to undermine
democracy and damage the image of our country. Our politics is nothing but a
race of deals and self-serving interests to get power or to facilitate
destroying the democratic system.
The dangerous elements of hypocrisy
should come to end. There is no harmony among our government and opposition,
not even on grave national interests. The democracy in our country is
humiliated by petty arguments, horse-trading, dharnas (sit-in), long marches,
and by allowing the foreign-funded proxy wars. Let us not forget the tragedy of
breaking away of East Pakistan from us which was also a politically motivated
affair and India took advantage of polarisation within the leadership and the
element of tolerance had evaporated. We should not allow repeating these
mistakes in small provinces.
The article was published in The Nation on February 27, 2021. Link to the original article: https://nation.com.pk/27-Feb-2021/pakistan-heading-towards-more-crises
