Chairman of National Business Group Pakistan, President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum, and All Karachi Industrial Alliance, and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain on Friday said that over the last several decades, there has hardly been a finance minister who after lashing out against the IMF hasn’t agreed to their conditions.
Statements against the IMF do not harm this institution, but we must face the music; therefore, he said this practice should be stopped. Mian Zahid Hussain said that the country and the people pay the cost of the delay in implementing the program.
Talking to the business community, the veteran business leader said that all finance ministers always claim to run the country without the support of any lender, which results in an economic collapse.
Borrowing from IMFs is delayed as a routine, and once the loan is granted, he added that the program needs to be implemented, which increases mistrust. He said that we should know that the IMF does not ask any country for lending; rather, the countries in trouble beg for loans.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that Saudi Arabia has also favoured Pakistan by advising it to make reforms instead of getting more loans, which made the government realise the seriousness of the situation . They restored contact with the IMF and assured to meet dollar value which has increased the value of the dollar in Pakistan by 30 rupees. A further increase is expected, but it will increase the revenue, exports, remittances, and loans from IMF and friendly countries.
Barriers to acquisitions and rollover of loans will be removed, and general inflation, petroleum products, electricity, gas prices, markup, and debt burden will increase. Still, all this is inevitable in the current situation.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that no one has been able to make reforms in Pakistan, whether a political party or a dictatorship. No government ends the privileges given to the elite, nor are the subsidies removed.
He said that electricity, gas, and energy policies, the price of energy, continued losses of failed institutions, and attempts to devalue the dollar administratively continue to burden the country’s economy.