A news report appearing in the media largely went unnoticed. The secretary of the Economic Affairs Division has informed the Senate Standing Committee on Finance that Pakistan obtained $11.2 billion foreign loans during the last 10 years just for debt servicing. This is a joke with the nation in the name of development. The total loan amount acquired during the decade stands at $47.8 billion whereas the country on the average has been paying $ 2.4 billion per annum to the lenders.
The meeting of the committee, which held under the chairmanship of Saleem Mandviwala, was also informed that the government has taken $ 5.2 billion loan for the development of energy sector and $2 billion loan for governance, research and statistics. No statistics are available to question the utility of the loan under this head, but the committee demanded the government share the details of the loans to ascertain whether they were taken on merit or not. The government had taken another $2.9 billion loan to upgrade the transport and communication sector, $1.7 for natural disasters, including earthquake, $1.5 billion for education and $1 billion loan for the agriculture sector during the last 10 years.
Pakistan survived four years without any foreign assistance from 1947 to 1951 despite seriously damaged economy. The country obtained the first loan form the World Bank after Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan visited the United States. The country opened the floodgates of loans as a result of which every citizen of this country is now drenched in foreign debts. The problem of this country is not finance, but financial indiscipline; the problem is not economy, but the economic mismanagement; problem is not industry, but corruption and red-tape which is hindering the growth of this sector; the problem is not in obtaining loans, but imprudent usage of the loan money in non-productive sectors.
According to reports, the Senate committee has expressed no confidence over the working of seven joint working companies set up with the friendly countries. Strangely enough, the committee has asked these companies not to invest in the government securities and bonds. The committee suggested that professionals from the private sector should be engaged so that they should make efforts to attract foreign investment in the country. Pakistan is the sixth largest populated country in the world and every individual of this country needs housing, cloths and food. These are the basic human requirements which promote business and trade. The country can be turned into a paradise of business, trade and investment if the government deems the population as an asset and not as a burden.
