Economic rut

This refers to the editorial ‘Incomplete projects’. (November 5). It comes as no surprise that Pakistan will pay the Asian Development Bank (ADB) a fine of $100 million for not utilising project financing that it has been receiving from the bank since 2006.

That is not all. The World Bank (WB) and IMF Development Loans were also mismanaged. Our foreign exchange reserves are also depleting, which is a reflection of our overall bankruptcy and corruption. In the 1980s, Ziaul Haq took fresh loans to repay those that Bhutto’s government had taken, but he used only 20 percent of these for debt repayment. This has been the trend of most governments. The present economic strains are bound to push us towards a miserable future. While the prime minister revealed a relief package to allay people’s concern, the package was, perhaps, not designed for the poor, since he made comparison of commodity prices with prices in the US, the UK and India – all of which have a higher purchasing power than the people of Pakistan. We are living on domestic and foreign borrowing while industries are at a standstill. The country is begging for help, but the question is: who will get it out of the rut it is in?

Ali Ashraf Khan

Karachi