Policy of excessive loans disastrous for economy: Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri

Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri has said that he is on record as having stated one year ago that the pace at which the loans are being taken, the country will go bankrupt. He said that his stance has now been ratified by the report of the State Bank of Pakistan released a few days ago. He said that if the Parliament is alive and relevant, it should immediately take note of the illegal loans being taken by the government, for the matter relates to future and survival of the succeeding generations. He said that the Sharif government has limited itself to taking excessive loans, protecting its corruption and introducing amnesty schemes meant to whiten black money. He said that the interest on a few ‘joy lands’ is being borne by every citizen of the country.

The PAT Chairman expressed these views while talking to delegations of businessmen, traders and people belonging to various walks of life in Toronto yesterday. He questioned the government’s strategy of running an economy by taking loans. He reminded that the law limits the borrowing to 60pc of GDP but the loans to the tune of 68pc have been taken so far. He said that the characters involved in the Panama leaks will flee, asking as to who will pay back these loans? He said that the rulers have broken all past and present records of internal and external loans. He asked how a country that spends an amount more than that of its development budget as interest on the loans cannot even be expected to progress.

Dr Qadri asked the rulers to reply as to where they spent more than Rs. 8000 billion they got in loans during the last three years. He said that the national and international surveys suggest that standard of education and health has gone down, unemployment has increased and the state of law and order is such that the families are being looted at the traffic signals in the broad daylight. He said neither have any dams been built, nor hospitals, nor universities, and in that case where have billions of rupees gone?

Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri said that Pakistan is the only country of the region whose spending on human welfare is 0.9pc of GDP against 1.4pc of India, 2.6pc of Sri Lanka, and 2.3pc of Nepal. He said that Pakistan has gone lower down the order on the human development index from 138th position to 147th. He said that foreign loans are being spent on some of the fancy road projects which do not benefit a large mass of the people. He said that it is for the first time that no agricultural target could be achieved in the last 20 years and Pakistan, which used to export cotton had to import it in order to meet its domestic requirement.

He said that the Sharif brothers come into power on the slogan of mending and improving economy but end up playing havoc with it. He said that Pakistan was close to being declared bankrupt in 1999. He said that the if the present rulers continue to stay in power, then Pakistan will go insolvent.