Misused loans

January 28, 2023

This letter refers to the article ‘A hard rain’s a-gonna fall’ (January 26, 2023) by Murtaza Solangi. The article shows that the IMF and its reform packages are just symptoms and not the main cause of our current problems. The real culprits happen to be our corrupt and inept dynastic politicians who, through their nepotism, mismanagement and infighting, have brought the economy to a stage where we have built up a mountain of debt with nothing to show for it.

Instead of expanding and improving our economy by using loans for income-generating development projects, we used debt to fuel consumption and paper over our current account deficit. As a result, even friendly countries are now refusing to bail us out unless we introduce austerity measures and related reforms.

SRH Hashmi

Karachi