Nirendra Dev
The Cash-starved federal cabinet of Pakistan led by Prime Minister Imran Khan has decided to allow the PM's official residence on rent for fashion shows, cultural and educational events to garner some quick money.
New Delhi: It is not without good reason that Pakistan watchers say its economy has been faltering on all economic parameters.
Governance is not about the 'glory' of rulers in Pakistan; it is giving those in power real tough times.
The Cash-starved federal cabinet of Pakistan led by Prime Minister Imran Khan has decided to allow the PM's official residence on rent for fashion shows, cultural and educational events to garner some quick money.
It has been reported that the cabinet also ordered the setting up of two committees to ensure that the “decorum" and “discipline" of the PM House are well maintained while allowing/organising such events.
In 2019, Pak Prime Minister and the iconic cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan had vacated the Prime Minister House and shifted to another residence at Bani Gala.
The cost to maintain the Prime Minister’s house was Rs 470 million in Pakistan currency annually.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government announced earlier that the PM House could be turned into a university or a premier educational institute.
Of course, these decisions were taken to scale down the official expenditures because of a severe financial crunch.
It was also decided that Governors in various provinces will no longer live in spacious Governor Houses.
The Pakistan government has also auctioned about 60 luxury cars raising about Rs 200 million, and there are plans to auction over 100 surplus cars, including bulletproof ones and at least four helicopters.
Amid such challenging financial conditions, Pakistan is also facing the threats of tougher actions from the anti-terror financing and money laundering body FATF.
It is like paying the price for its lopsided policy focus on Kashmir and issues like 'exporting' terrorism to India and Afghanistan, some observers say in India.
“An adverse step by the FATF will now obviously make it more difficult for Islamabad to get financial aid from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the European Union (EU).”
Reports from various quarters have also said that Pakistan is facing challenging times reeling under 46 per cent of debt issues with the World Bank, 25 per cent from the Asian Development Bank and 24 per cent from China.
Reportedly Saudi Arabia has also asked Pakistan to repay a three billion dollar soft loan.
All these have only added to its economic crisis for Pakistan, which is already struggling to control or deal with.
According to reports in June, the Pakistan government reportedly owes about $158.9 billion to domestic creditors, of which public sector enterprises owe about $15.1 billion.
A virtual bankrupt Pakistan's debt problems seem to be only escalating as its all weather-guide and ally China has declined to restructure $3 billion in liabilities.
Things have only worsened further since Covid in mid-2020.
Disruption in raw material supplies in textiles and manufacturing sectors from China increased prices.
The Textiles sector that makes almost 60 per cent of Pakistan’s total exports, depended on China for 70 per cent of their input requirements, but overnight, the cost of importing from China surged.
Since Pakistan has no trade with India, the only alternative sources left are South Korea and Taiwan, and this move also contributed to escalating the expenditures and cost prices.
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