Shaukat Hayat Buneri
The international monitoring fund has expressed grave concern over the deteriorated economic situation of Pakistan. Loopholes in the payment of foreign debts, imbalances in monitory system, gradual declining in the foreign exchange and the impending perils in the ways of economic and monitory affairs are some of the main reasons of concerns, The executive Board of IMF in its meeting held recently stressed upon the government of Pakistan to ensure macroeconomic stability under the pre condition of the of 6.64 billion dollars debts.
The government had fixed the expected GDP ratio up to 4.1 percent in the last year fiscal budget. But now its jumping up to 4.8 percent has become a serious matter of concern for the IMF. The government has estimated 6 percent increase in growth rate but as against, this ratio has increased 5.6 percent.
The incumbent government is set to complete its stipulated term of five year, Before coming in to existence in 2013, it was assured to the general public that pml n being equipped with experiences team capable enough to effectively manage the economical and monitory affairs of the state.
They were also critical of the economical policy of the previous government for reducing the foreign exchange reservoirs up to 7 billion in its tenure.
Alongside the policy of circular debts was also severely criticized as the 500 billion circular debts had compelled the power producing units to halt the production, Additionally, It was also the good fortune of the PML –N government that the kingdom of Saudi Arabia gifted 1.5 billion dollar in aid to the NS led government to confront with monitory problems, As a result the government made payment to the power producing units to continue the production and generation unabatedly.
In beginning some positive results were witnessed but once again the government inefficiently dealt with the situations and wasted this opportunity.
Once again the circular debt witnessed upward trend, Several power producing units either shut or lower down their operations due to non payment by the government.
However the PML government, many times lowered down the prices of the petroleum products in its five years tenure/term, while during the reign of PPP government, the price of the petroleum products in the international market had been reached 106 dollar/ barrel.
But the incumbent government failed to resolve the energy crises despite being entailing minimum expenditures upon importing of petroleum products,
Excessive power outage is rampant even in the big cities of the country. Although the government has completed a few power related projects but these project have been fallen pray at the hands of rampant corruption, inefficiencies and mal administration the ruling elites,
The so called experienced government could not be able to consolidate the foundation of the economic edifice despite being aided by KSA and the status/ratio of low prices in the international market. The tall claims of the finance – division has produced nil results so far.
The civilized circles of the society are unanimous on the point that for the economical development of any state of the world, the rule of law, zero tolerance of corruption and political stability are the key ingredients,
In absence of proper system of rule of law, the situations always go from bad to worst, During the last few decades, the upper class of our country has exerted negative impacts upon the collective well of our society. Politics has become a source of income and to gain power with.
Many scandals of corruption of the ruling class have been unearthed so far. Whenever the judiciary or intelligence agencies dared to ensure the rule of law, the ruling class started crying against and termed it a conspiracy of the secret hands. During the last few year the overall investment made in Pakistan in shape of CPEC projects only.
The investment of the foreign countries in our industrial and agricultural units is almost nil,
The foreign investors are least interested to invest here in our economic sector, They have been scared by the negative attitudes of our elite class.
On one hand the declining of foreign investment are causing too much loss to our foreign exchange reservoirs while on the other hand the values of Pakistani products in international markets are witnessing downward trend, These factors have slowed down the economic growth rate on one hand,
IMF has hinted to ameliorate the macro economic status of Pakistan by citing the reference of the 6 billion dolor in aids, This aid had been taken in 2013.
The last debts received by the government in September 2016. But unfortunately the government did not focus on the reformative measures. It should have lessened the dependency on foreign aid.
The increasing population bomb has increased pressure on the economy, In order to decrease and minimize this pressure -effective strategy must be required in this regard, No doubt the CPEC has created a congenial atmosphere for mega developmental projects in the country – but in the absence of proper and effective strategy of the government, the future of our economic revival is still dependent on external hands.
