Imran Khan's 'naya Pakistan' pitch seems empty as Pakistan faces foreign debt, inflation, unemployment
Dec 25, 2021
Islamabad [Pakistan], December 25 : Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's "so-called" promises of "naya Pakistan" seem empty with his government borrowing heavily from international financial institutions to stay afloat and the people of the country bearing the burden of debt as well as suffering water, power crisis, inflation and unemployment.
According to a report issued by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Pakistan took out 15.32 billion US dollars in new foreign loans in the fiscal year 2020-21, shattering the previous record of 10.45 billion US dollars.
In a major embarrassment for the country, Pakistan Embassy in Serbia through its official Twitter handle revealed that the Pakistan government had not paid the dues for the past three months.
The country's embassy had shared a public message on its social media handle asking people "aap ne ghabrana nahi".
In its tweets, the embassy also claimed that children of officials in Pakistan's embassy were forced out of school due to non-payment of fees.
A day after Pakistan's diplomats in Serbia were compelled to air their woes publicly, it was reported that the Pakistan Embassy in Washington was also in a similarly dire state and had been unable to pay the salaries of its contractual employees for nearly four months, according to The Singapore Post.
It is to be noted that if the Pakistan government does not have money to pay even its diplomats, the condition of the common man in Pakistan would be even more deplorable, reeling under malnutrition, illiteracy, diseases, high birth rate, unemployment and low income.
Pakistan's joblessness has jumped from 5.8 per cent in 2017-18 to 6.9 per cent in 2018-19, according to the Labour Force Survey (LFS) published by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
The first year of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf in power saw an increase in unemployment in the case of both males and females, with the male unemployment rate rising from 5.1 per cent to 5.9 per cent and female unemployment rate jumping from 8.3 per cent to 10 per cent, reported Dawn.
The Pakistani rupee has recently depreciated 30.5 per cent against the US dollar in the last three years and four months under the current government of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan.
According to The News International, the value of the Pakistani rupee has fallen from Rs 123 against the USD in August 2018 to Rs 177 against the USD in December 2021, a decline of 30.5 per cent over the last 40 months. This makes it one of the highest devaluations of the currency in the country's history.
Notably, the only other higher devaluation occurred following the falling of Dhaka and Pakistan's currency was devalued by 58 per cent from Rs 4.60 to Rs 11.10 against the USD in 1971-72.
