External debt

When the PTI came to power in 2018, the total external debt was $86 billion. The PTI government took a total of $57 billion loans during its nearly four-year-long rule. For our ballooning external debt, the PTI alone cannot be blamed although it failed to control the worsening debt-to-GDP ratio.

We now face a drastic economic situation, and yet there are no visible attempts to reduce the import of luxury items. Given the acute economic crisis, the least the government can do is to impose a strict ban on the import of all luxury items for at least one year. However, what we currently see is a liberal import of luxury SUVs, etc. There seems to be no realization.

Malik Tariq Ali

Lahore