QUETTA: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif lamented that the nation’s generations’ future had been mortgaged by the weight of debt and said it would be a big tragedy if Pakistan had to go back to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for another loan after three years.
“The federal and provincial governments, along with the relevant institutions, must work together to free ourselves from this cycle of debt,” the premier declared on Monday at a signing ceremony to officially begin a major initiative aimed at the solarization of agricultural tube wells in Balochistan.
Future generations will be appreciative if we put forth this effort as a group. But if we don’t make the difficult choices, we’ll have to ask the IMF for help again,” the PM said.
Pakistan, having satisfied all of the demands made by the Washington-based lender in its yearly budget, is hoping to get an agreement at the staff level on an IMF rescue of over $6 billion early this month.
Furthermore, since the middle of the 2000s, the nation’s debt has increased dramatically since the government neglected to direct a large amount of loans from foreign bondholders and nations like China and the Gulf States into profitable, export-oriented industries.
Muhammad Aurangzeb, Pakistan’s minister of finance, issued a warning on Sunday, stating that “if it fails to boost tax revenue,” Pakistan will continue to request IMF bailouts.
With an expected loan amount of $6 to $8 billion, the finance czar expressed his “relative confidence” in obtaining a staff-level deal with the global lender this month.
