Country's economic integrity being mortgaged: Bilawal

ISLAMABAD: PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said Prime Minister Imran Khan is unsustainably borrowing money from international leasing agencies and this unprecedented borrowing is akin to mortgaging country’s economic integrity and freedom.

“The selected Prime Minister Imran Khan has thrown the country to the wolves, and succeeding governments will bear the burden of lifting Pakistan out of crisis,” he said in a statement Thursday.

He demanded prime minister must resign and go home before Pakistan reaches a point of no return. He emphasised the incompetency of Imran Khan, pointing out that from his first day in office, the prime minister’s entire economic policy is based on begging alms and loans from the world. He said the premier has travelled to Washington DC, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and China with a begging bowl, offering up Pakistan’s interests bit by bit. “Pakistan’s economic policies are now being dictated by international donor agencies, while the incumbent government and prime minister merely rubberstamping anything on their table,” he said, adding that Pakistan has been reduced to being left at the mercy of its creditors.

In 2021 alone, Bilawal said the prime minister has borrowed $10 billion with a sharp increase of 35 percent. “This incompetent and selected prime minister has overseen Pakistan’s external debt increasing to $116 billion from $95 billion with an increase of $21 billion,” he added. He said Pakistan will never be able to repay these loans, even if all national assets are mortgaged to our creditors. “This puts Pakistan in a precarious position, from which the country might not recover,” he further added.

“The selected prime minister has pushed the country to a “heavily compromised state”. We may not realise it now, but the next generations will suffer under the burden of this vast accumulated debt,” he added. He said to add insult to injury, the federal cabinet - which is happens to be the epitome of corruption - is squandering this borrowed money. “The cabinet and the PM’s crony capitalist mafias are embezzling money from the public exchequer, he further added.