New Nation Report :
Just two days following Pakistani Prime Ministers claim that Biden administration is planning to rid his government by backing the just cancelled no-confidence vote against him, Pakistan’s military chief at forum claimed that the country is planning to expand relationship with the United States.
The army chief, Javed Bajwa stressed that US remains Pakistan’s largest export market and Pakistan has a long and excellent strategic relationship. In a speech at a forum in Pakistan last week he stated, “We seek to broaden and expand our ties with both the countries (US and China) without impacting our relationship with the other.”
Pakistan’s economy is in dire economic crisis as it is grappling with a USD 20 billion-dollar current account deficit according to economist and former minister of finance, Dr. Hafeez A Pasha.
External debt payments are expected to reach US$14 billion yearly at the conclusion of this fiscal year, putting a strain on Pakistan’s strained resources. Nearly half of the debt is owed to Chinese commercial banks, primarily for projects tied to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Embattled Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, who was facing a parliamentary no-confidence vote on Sunday that got cancelled at the last moment, rebuffed calls from the opposition to resign and accused the US of attempting to destabilise his administration.
The no-trust resolution was filed by opposition parties in the National Assembly, or lower house of parliament, earlier this month, requesting Khan’s removal for allegedly mismanaging Pakistan’s economic and foreign policy.
In a Thursday night address to the country, the 69-year-old former cricketer vowed he would not retire and would fight foreign intrusion, denying his opponents’ claims of misrule.
According to Voice of America, the Pakistani leader cited the United States as the source of a “memo” that Khan claimed confirmed a “foreign conspiracy” spurred by his visit to Russia on the day President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, in what appeared to be a slip of the tongue.
The telegram in question was given to Islamabad’s outgoing ambassador to Washington on March 7, a day before the opposition moved the no-trust vote in parliament, according to Pakistani journalists working for mainstream news outlets.
“Before it was submitted [in parliament], they [foreigners] were aware of the no-confidence motion. It implies that they [the opposition] have contact with foreigners “According to VOA, Khan stated that the message was sent to the Pakistani embassy on the day stated. He went on to say that the claimed plot was meant to penalize him for pursuing Pakistan’s own foreign policy.
Tensions between Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his military chief, General Qamar Bajwa, have risen after the latter stated that Pakistan is deeply concerned about the conflict in Ukraine, adding that his country has longstanding relations with Russia, but that “despite legitimate concerns by Russia, its aggression against smaller countries cannot be condoned.”
According to the World Bank’s Debt Report 2021, Pakistan lags below India and Bangladesh in terms of foreign debt levels as a percentage of GDP, and it is more equivalent to debt-stricken Sri Lanka.
Pakistan had the second highest in terms of interest-to-revenue ratio after Sri Lanka among countries with a debt-to-GDP ratio exceeding 80%, according to the research. When the net revenue of Pakistan is measured without the provinces’ portion, it ranks even higher than Sri Lanka.
The debt profiles of Sri Lanka and Pakistan are strikingly similar, raising red flags. Some have seen parallels between Pakistan’s Gwadar port arrangement and Sri Lanka’s 2017 port agreement with a state-owned Chinese corporation for a 99-year lease to repay Chinese debts.
Although as a percentage of GDP, Bangladesh’s debt levels remain manageable, the total amount of debt is rising rapidly. In just a decade it went from US$ 22 billion to present over US$ 80 billion. By far Bangladesh’s main foreign currency earning source on a net basis remains remittances from its 12 million migrant workers.
