Worse sameness

This refers to your editorial ‘Dealing with the IMF’ (Apr 17). For a paltry sum of $6-8 billion, the government has decided to surrogate the nation’s economy to the IMF. As pointed out in the editorial, the government intends to raise a total of $20 billion from the three IFIs - IMF, World Bank, ADB – in the next three years to keep the economy afloat. Besides, it will certainly be sourcing another $10-15 billion through bilateral loans, floating bonds in the international market and keeping other borrowing lines open to sustain theeconomy.

With sluggish export performance, unrestricted import of luxury/unnecessary goods, lack of focus on import substitution, there is no way to keep the trade deficit and the current account deficit under control. Previous governments are often castigated for borrowing loans of around $60 billion from 2008 to 2018, but the PTI government is expected to pile up a further $30-35 billion by the time its term ends. There is no difference in the economic policies of the PTI and its predecessors.

Arif Majeed

Karachi