Wrong targets

Our PM’s recent appointment of a high-powered commission to probe the exorbitant rise in public debt during the last ten years leaves many questions unanswered. Either our honourable prime minister is oblivious of statistical facts and figures or he is just bent upon castigating the last two governments to hide the follies of his government’s dismal performance in nearly every field for the last ten months.

Everyone should realize that from 1971 onwards, every government at the helm of affairs has been responsible for this surge in public debt. Under the present ‘honest, clean and incorruptible’ government, debt has already increased by around 15 percent in its first seven months and the total public debt of Pakistan (domestic plus external), as of March 2019, is Rs28,607 billion. The irony is that if we analyze figures tenure wise, the least rise in total public debt happened during the last government’s existence, which the present government has spared no effort to degrade and demean. It is acknowledged that our debt has reached alarming proportions owing to the plummeting value of the Pak rupee against the US dollar and the government should take effective measures to take Pakistan out of this perilous debt trap, but only accusing the last two governments will not solve this problem.

Umar Makhdumi

Karachi