Pakistan Is Heading Towards A Financial Emergency. Being optimistic or positive is not about closing your eyes and putting your head into the sand and hoping for everything to be alright on its own. Being positive means looking the negative situation into its eyes and having the confidence to fix it and know that it will be fixed. But when you don’t even consider a situation to be bad while it is getting worst by the day then you are neither an optimist or a pessimist, you are a fool. Yes, a fool.
State bank of Pakistan has hit its reserves to a $10 billion level. Circular debt has increased to an alarming rate of $11 billion after having paid $4.5 billion just a few years ago. Debt repayments coming and no funds to pay them back. Foreign reserves to cover only 45 days of imports. Currency so weak that I would not be surprised if it touched 125 within a month. External debt touching $100 billion. Domestic debt in a race to catch the external debt figures and at its half way mark. Exports dwindled to the lowest level in 7 years. Imports increasing instead of decreasing. Energy costs rising and with it comes the rise of cost of doing business. Foreign Direct investment and FIPI both vanished into thin air. Budget deficit over $10 billion and current account deficit around $12 billion and increasing.
What does this all mean to a common man ? What it means is that while you are busy enjoying your dinner at your dining table in your house, the roof of the house is about to fall on your head, if something is not done immediately. And I mean immediately. We are already at the worst point. It can only go towards a disaster from here. World Bank and The IMF will be glad to give us more loans. That’s their business. But more loans are not the answer. Curing the economy is the answer not giving it Chemotherapy, surgery first, removing the cancer first and then chemotherapy radiation is what is needed.
An economic action plan should be demanded by the voters by the parties. Interim government can do nothing and I mean literally nothing. We need Austerity measures. We nee to cut down expenses wherever we can. Drop by drop to fill the bucket. The President House alone spends 92 lac Rupees a day. Yes, you read it right. It reportedly spent 1.2 billion rupees on travel last year alone. Where on earth did Mr. Mamnoon travel to for 1.2 billion rupees ? Mars ? The same goes with all four Governor houses. Security for the politicians costs over 3 billion a month in Pakistan. We need to cut down these expenses and we can safe about $2 to $4 billion a year. Or 40% of our budget deficit alone.
Politicians need to be honest to us Pakistanis. Stop showing us fake dreams of betterment and jobs. First tell us how will you fix the economy and then tell us after fixing it that how will you grow the economy. You can’t grow an ailing economy. You need to fix the economic ailments first.
Every sign that Pakistani economy is showing today has been seen in the economies of Argentina, Greece, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. And you all know what happened to these countries. Let’s not wait and go into denial that all is well. Two countries have gone into denial about their economies, Venezuela and Zimbabwe, and you know what is happening to them.
May Allah guide us. We can come out of it all but we need to do something today. Cancer can not be cured by Dua alone. You need DAWA and then DUA. We are busy only with DUA.
