Even Muslim countries have not felt as much pity for Pakistan’s poverty as China has. China is at the forefront in giving loans to Pakistan. It has also left the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) behind. Shahbaz Sharif government has to return 29 billion dollars to China. The World Bank has released this report on Tuesday (December 3, 2024). It was told in the report that Saudi Arabia is the second largest lender to Pakistan with a loan of about $9.16 billion. Pak expert Qamar Cheema has also expressed concern over this condition of Pakistan. He says that what will be our position in front of the countries which have so much debt.
According to the report, China’s share in Pakistan’s total foreign debt has decreased, which was 25 percent in 2023 and has now come down to only 22 percent. Saudi Arabia’s share increased from two percent in 2023 to seven percent in 2024. According to the World Bank’s International Debt Report 2024 released on Tuesday, Pakistan was also among the three countries that took the maximum loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) this year. The report said that Pakistan’s total debt in proportion to exports and revenue is indicative of a weak fiscal position. According to the report, Pakistan’s total global debt (including loans from IMF) stood at US $ 130.85 billion in 2023, which is 352 percent of its total exports and 39 percent of Gross National Income (GNI).
Qamar Cheem said, ‘It is a challenging situation because Pakistan cannot export. Pakistan’s total debt is 130 billion dollars, out of which about 30 billion dollars is from China. Estimate from this that if Pakistan has to give 30 billion dollars to a country, then what will be our position in front of that country and how free will we be. This thing is not good for both Pakistan and China. Then there is Saudi Arabia. Wherever we have taken loan, we are in a weak position.
He said that the World Bank is giving warnings again and again. Of the total debt, 45 percent or $59 billion is from bilateral lenders. $60 billion are multilateral lenders, which will include the World Bank and lenders here and there. The remaining 9 percent are our private lenders. So tell us can we compete with India? Can we compete with his foreign policy and economy?
Qamar Cheema said that this is the reason why when conferences of Arab countries are held, we are not given attention. Recently, when OIC meeting was held, they made Pakistan stand in the back row. He said that the reason for this is that the Arab countries knew that although Pakistan may have nuclear weapons or it may have a big army, but they are alive by taking money from us. Then again it was proved that if you have financial autonomy then you can do everything. If there is no financial autonomy then you cannot do anything. Every year we give more loans and the revenue is less.
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