KARACHI: Unbridled inflation is a very serious threat to our fragile economy and it would shake the very socioeconomic foundations of the country if not controlled on war footing basis, said Pasban Democratic Party PDP Chairman Altaf Shakoor here Sunday.
He said the most severe effect of inflation is on our foreign loans. With a free fall of Pakistani rupee these foreign loans and their neck breaking interest further rise, putting even more pressure on our budgetary allocations.
He said the lion’s share of our budget already goes to our foreign lenders like World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Asian Development Bank. He said huge CPEC loans are also a big national liability, and growing inflation is creating very serious problems in finding a monetary space for paying back these loans and their heavy interest. He said the situation is so worsened that we have to get new foreign loans to pay interest on our old foreign loans. He said we have mortgaged the whole country and even our central bank for these foreign loans. He said unless the inflation is controlled the negative spiral of these foreign loans would continue to torment the nation and country.
He said other grave threat of the rising inflation is payment of our mammoth oil import bill. He said with a weaker rupee the oil and gas we are importing are getting costlier with every passing day. He said Pakistan despite producing oil and gas is compelled to import LNG and oil. He wondered why the oil and gas production from Pakistan are not helping us in this situation. He said perhaps our agreements with foreign oil and gas companies are behind this phenomenon. He said without bringing down inflation and strengthen Pakistani rupee our costly fuel import would continue to be syphoning away our precious foreign exchange.
Altaf Shakoor regretted that Pakistan despite being an agricultural country is compelled to import food. He said we import sugar, wheat, pulses, cooking oil and tea. He said trillions of rupees are spent every year on import of food stuffs. He said the rising inflation is making this food import very costly and it would soon go to an unbearable level if the government failed to control the hike in inflation. He said Pakistan has already been facing a dreadful food inflation. He said this inflation would likely to become a national security threat but our ruling elite is the least concerned.
He said recently finance minister Shaukat Tarin, himself, has accepted that the balance of trade is the most serious issue of Pakistan. He said this problem also has its roots in inflation. He said the weak Pakistani rupee means more costlier imports and cheaper exports. He said the historic depreciation of Pakistan rupee during the ongoing tenure of PTI government did not boost exports as was expected but it only made imports further costlier, dealing a deadly blow to Pakistani economy. He said without taming inflation and appreciating the value of rupee this issue would continue to haunt Pakistan.
He said on local front rising inflation has robbed purchasing power of the common man. He said all commodities, especially kitchen items, have gone beyond the reach of poor masses. He said millions of more families have fallen beneath the poverty line. He said hunger and malnutrition of children are rising sharply in our country thanking to the floodgates of inflation. He said the prices of medicines have hiked by more than 200 percent during the tenure of present regime. He said stunt growth due to malnutrition is affecting whole country, especially the province of Sindh. He asked the rulers to have mercy on poor children and muzzle the dreadful inflation.
Altaf Shakoor demanded to give focus on agriculture and water; rapid uplift of megacity Karachi and development of two proposed industrial corridors: Karachi to Hyderabad and Karachi to Keti Bunder industrial corridors. He said the key to national development is the uplift of Karachi and they key to the uplift of Karachi is its rapid industrialization and modernizing its public transport system.
He said the way forward is that without checking inflation our economy would continue to bleed and the ultimate sufferer would be the poor masses of Pakistan, not its elite class who is already enjoying dual nationalities. He urged all the political parties of Pakistan to place the item of controlling inflation on the top of their agendas so that the nation and country could be given rid of this menace.
