Andleeb Abbas, fp.brecorder.com
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Pakistan is facing an economic crunch. Many analysts used the world ICU to describe the state of economy when the new government took over. A patient in an intensive care unit normally requires emergency life-saving treatment. Sometimes patients have to be put on ventilators to keep on breathing. With daily debt payment piling at the rate of Rs 6 billion a day the economy was strangulated with the dreaded 3 Ds – deficits, debt and defaults. The only way out was more borrowing and the normal borrowing channel is friends of Pakistan and the IMF. The friends of Pakistan included China, Saudi Arabia, the UAE. Then resort to the not-so-friendly IMF.
The pattern may look the same for decades but the strategy looks different. There is a clear reluctance to go the IMF way in a hurry. Two countries, who had admittedly cooled off in the last few years towards Pakistan were chosen to seek support – Saudi Arabia and the UAE. These count..