'Debt Relief'

LETTER: This is apropos Business Recorder op-ed "Debt Relief" carried by the newspaper yesterday. The writer, Dr Ashfaque H Khan, has provided the newspaper readers a comprehensive perspective on country's debt obligation. No doubt his is a highly informative take on the subject of a very high import. He has argued, among other things, that "the [newspaper] readers would recall that Pakistan has given a written commitment to the IMF that debt maturing of China and Saudi Arabia would not be repaid during the IMF program period. Pakistan, therefore, was not required to repay $922 million out of $1.8 billion anyway. The real benefit of debt relief under the G-20 initiative reduces to $878 million only. Is this the amount for which the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister had to appeal to the international community? Was there any reputational loss to Pakistan?"

It clearly shows that prime minister's initiative, however praiseworthy, has yielded only a little benefit to the country. This development raises some serious questions about the competence of his economic team which appears to have failed to carry out the required home-work. In other words, it did little or nothing to help the country cash in on the opportunity in a meaningful manner.

Tauseef Haider (Islamabad)