On Monday, the Chairman of National Business Group Pakistan, President of Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum, All Karachi Industrial Alliance, and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain said the report of the reputed British publication The Economist that Pakistan would go bankrupt at the beginning of 2024 is very worrying. He said this report sheds light on the state of affairs in Pakistan and the perception of Islamabad in the West.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that the analysis of The Economist is considered very important globally. The organisation has published a 43-page report on Pakistan which is enough to open the eyes of everyone, including politicians, judiciary and elites.
Talking to the business community, the veteran business leader said that the report states that protests over inflation and scarcity of necessities of life will continue while political instability will also last. The report also states that the intervention in the policy-making process will continue while the government will continue its efforts to obtain loans from various sources.
The government will also increase the price of gas and electricity to increase its revenue. He said that the government’s income will be low, and the deficit will be high, while it will also have to spend heavily on rehabilitating the flood victims.
According to The Economist, inflation will not go away, and the central bank will have to hike interest rates at least twice, breaking all previous records. The economic and strategic partnership between China and Pakistan will continue, but the loans from China will decrease. China will also ask Pakistan to start a new IMF program to avoid financial insolvency.
The tension between Pakistan and India will continue while relations with the US will not improve because Pakistan’s stand on the Ukraine war is not what the US wants.
Similarly, problems will continue to arise in relations with Afghanistan. The report states that Pakistan will try improved relations with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates so that it can take loans to overcome the problems and shore up its foreign exchange reserves.
Mian Zahid Hussain added that this report shows that further delay in Pakistan’s economic reforms could prove extremely dangerous. The world is not ready to give more loans to Pakistan.
To survive, privatisation of failed government institutions, elimination of losses in the electricity and gas sector, finding alternatives to imports, agricultural reforms, and an increase in exports have become inevitable for Pakistan.
If political anarchism is not eradicated, the people will have to suffer and we will have to regret inaction forever.