Standing on its own feet

ACCORDING to the Economic Affairs Division (EAD), as of June 30, 2022, the total external public debt of Pakistan stood at $88.8 billion. Out of this, the debt owed to multilateral financial institutions (MFIs) and the IMF was $42.1bn, which came to 48 per cent of Pakistan’s external public debt. In comparison, expatriate Pakistanis send home remittances of around $31bn annually. The official quantum of our annual exports is around $32bn, even when a large chunk never comes to Pakistan through the use of various stratagems. Each year, an amount of around $60bn is for Pakistan to keep without any strings attached. Conversely, the financing from the MFIs and other aid agencies is tied and provided mainly for those purposes which their major sponsors find beneficial for themselves. Although the overall quantum of the MFI financing is not large, they exercise disproportionate influence in our decision-making process. Technical assistance (TA) programmes involving local consultants are major door openers for the MFIs; they often lessen domestic opposition to a particular project.