Pakistan repays IMF, for now

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

KARACHI – Pakistan, whose cost of total external debt servicing crossed US$10 billion mark during the first six months of the fiscal year ending in June, repaid at the weekend the first $399 million installment of its stand-by arrangement (SBA) to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

A surge in overall debt servicing is expected in the coming four months because the country has to pay the IMF $1.1 billion in principle alone by the end of June.

Islamabad turned to the IMF in 2008 for an $11.3 billion loan to avoid default on international payments. The government ended the loan program last September 30 with $3 billion remaining undisbursed. With external debt servicing reached $10.4 billion in the six months to December and a weakening fiscal position, the country risks entering a debt trap, in which government borrowing drives up debt servicing to the point that it creates a cash shortage, analysts said.
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Of sardars and sarkars

Sunday, February 26, 2012

PAKISTAN has protested vehemently against the US congressional resolution on Balochistan. Regardless of the motives behind this resolution, it is clear that the Balochistan issue has gone global because of its mishandling by successive Pakistani leaders.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik has blamed external powers for conspiring to detach Balochistan from Pakistan. While the involvement of foreign hands may not be ruled out, that of the domestic hand in pushing the province to an insurgency-like situation is undeniable.

Since Independence, the people of Balochistan have been exploited and discriminated against by successive sardars (tribal chiefs) and sarkars (regimes both military and civilian). The British colonial system provided full support to the tribal ruling class under the Frontier Crimes Regulation Act (1901) and backed the sardars loyal to the Raj. If the centuries-old sardari system is generally blamed for the prevailing backwardness in the province, the governments and bureaucracies have
perpetuated the system.

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Terror threatens development of western China

Monday, February 20, 2012

Once billed as symbol of Sino-Pakistan friendship, the Karakoram Highway, which connects China’s Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region with nothern Pakistan, is now developing into a source of trouble between the two countries.

The highway, a vital trade route, is turning into a terror link for Islamist movements in western China. Beijing has accused terrorist training camps based in Pakistan of sponsoring attacks and supporting separatist Uighurs in Xinjiang.

The construction of the 800-mile highway was the outcome of a trade deal signed between Pakistan and China in1963. Its construction took 12 years (1966 to 1978) and was of immense geopolitical, economic and military importance. The route passes through the rough terrain of Pakistan’s northern areas, known as Gilgit-Baltistan, connecting it to the ancient silk route, which runs approximately 1,300 km from Kashgar, a city in Xinjiang province, to Havelian in the Abbottabad district of Pakistan. The silk route links China, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey.

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Gilani shuffle targets tax boost

Friday, February 17, 2012

KARACHI – Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, in the face of International Monetary Fund criticism of reporting on the country’s economy, has reshuffled senior finance officials in advance of the annual budget.

Abdul Wajid Rana takes over as finance secretary from Waqar Masood, becoming the sixth person to hold the post in the four years of the Gilani-led coalition government. Mumtaz Haider Rizvi is the new acting chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue – the second to hold that post this year. Their primary task is strengthen tax recovery to check a widening fiscal deficit.

Their performance could set a new basis for Pakistan’s relationship with the IMF, following the government’s failure to implement economic reforms under a three-year US$11.3 billion IMF loan program that ended incomplete on September 30.
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Worst statistics for education

Friday, February 10, 2012

THE province of Balochistan needs educational academies, not military garrisons. Instead of strategists and military operations it needs educationists and economic activism. Most importantly, it needs peace, not silence about its predicament.

If the status quo in Balochistan changes, peace will follow. And the status quo in this least-developed and insurgency-hit province can only change with education.

Credible surveys place the province in the lowest rank in terms of the male and the female literacy rates, as well as in the Gender Parity Index. It lags behind the other three provinces in improvements in the net enrolment rate performance in the area of education, an index that can yield great returns in terms of development.

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