Washington: Pakistan is running out of time. The country is on the verge of a financial collapse and is knocking on the doors of many countries and international institutions for help. The country has a foreign exchange reserve of around $8.4 billion which will suffice for only 1 year of essential imports.
With the economic challenge mounting, the Islamic country is now approaching the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to bail it out of the looming economic collapse. The amount that the country is seeking from IMF is to the tune of $6 billion to $7 billion. This is the 13th time the country has requested the international organization to bail it out in the past 30 years.
The country’s unstable political leadership and poor economic management is slowly turning the Islamic country into a failed nation. Islamic extremism have been Pakistan’s bane since its inception. Without a bailout, Pakistan could face oblivion in the near future.
In a related incident, Congressmen in the United States of America have written to the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo expressing deep concern on Pakistan seeking a bailout from IMF to “relieve debts” of the country.
The Congressmen said that China is investing around $62 billion in Pakistan to build the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. They added, “Its debt repayment and profit repatriation terms are not transparent and have understandably raised concern inside Pakistan. Illustrative of the dangers of China’s debt-trap diplomacy, Sri Lanka became unable to make payments on the Chinese debt it had taken on for the Hambantota Port Development Project.”
The Congressmen are worried if China is pulling Pakistan into a debt trap by building huge infrastructure facilities and giving false promises of progress just like what they did to Sri Lanka which was forced to hand over 15,000 acres near the port.
Though, China says that Pakistan is its ‘all-weather friend’, the communist country is only using Pakistan as a pawn in its journey to global domination.
For the Chinese, Pakistan is the perfect hedge against a growing India. Keeping Pakistan under its iron grip is one way which it can utilize the Islamic country to disrupt the regions balance in favour of China.
A debt-ridden and weak Pakistan is what China needs to fulfil its long term goals. An economically weak country will have a weak leadership depended upon others for financial support. The Chinese can manipulate a weak leadership with deadly results. A weak democratic leadership also makes the military leadership hold over every institution possible.
China being a communist country devoid of democracy, it knows exactly how to control the military of Pakistan to suit its purpose.
Whether or not Pakistan gets the bailout from IMF, the Chinese will have their debts paid up. However, for the Pakistanis to prosper and develop as India, or China for that matter, the Islamic nation must eschew its fixation with India and restructure its economy and political culture.
Even in the short run, Pakistan must make sure that a restructuring of their economy and ushering of reforms are done as fast as possible to receive a bailout from IMF. If not Pakistan is sure to either end up as a failed state or completely depended upon the predatory communist country.
