KARACHI: A deadly debt noose is being tightened around Pakistan, but sadly all stakeholders, government, establishment, elite class and political parties are in a denial mode, said Pasban Democratic Party Chairman Altaf Shakoor, demanding initiating a national political dialogue on this grave issue.
He said Pakistan is being slowly but systematically strangled by a mounting mountain of debt that is undermining the country’s economic sovereignty and mortgaging the future of generations yet unborn.
He said the nation’s public debt has crossed Rs 80 trillion, while the debt-to-GDP ratio hovers around 70 percent. More alarming still, debt servicing now consumes nearly half of the federal budget.
In plain words, almost one out of every two rupees collected by the state is diverted to lenders. He said it means that half of the bread of this hungry nation is being handed over to creditors while millions of Pakistanis struggle to afford food, medicine, education, and shelter.
This leaves only limited resources for education, healthcare, poverty alleviation, infrastructure, scientific research, and the social uplift of ordinary citizens, he said, adding a state that devotes such a large share of its resources to servicing debt cannot fulfil its most basic obligations to its people.
Altaf Shakoor said for decades, Pakistan’s ruling elite, successive political governments, and key institutions have displayed an unforgivable ostrich attitude—burying their heads in the sand while the debt noose tightens around the neck of the nation. “Successive governments led by the Pakistan People’s Party, Pakistan Muslim League (N), and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf have promised change, but have largely perpetuated the same vicious cycle of borrowing, debt servicing, and renewed borrowing.
He said our political governments have always worked for the bankers instead of the citizens. He said: “Bankers do what bankers do. They lend money on terms designed to protect their interests.”
He said our real tragedy is that Pakistan’s own leaders have too often behaved as willing enforcers of this debt-dependent model—indeed, in the eyes of many citizens, as economic hitmen for lending institutions—while millions of Pakistanis bear the burden through inflation, unemployment, and declining public services.
He reminded that these economic hitmen sitting in different political parties have already helped IPPs looting trillions of rupees from the Pakistani nation by getting inked ‘buy or pay’ power deals.
He said the debt issues and shoddy deals are not merely economic issues. This is a question of national sovereignty, social justice, and intergenerational responsibility.
He said at a time when the nation rallies around calls for Maarka-e-Haq, Pakistan must launch the most important struggle of all: A Maarka-e-Haq for economic independence.
He said we need a heroic struggle to break the heavy shackles of debt and reclaim control over the nation’s economic destiny. He said Pakistan urgently needs a comprehensive national political dialogue involving: all political parties, parliament, economic experts, the business community, academia, civil society, and the broader establishment. He said this dialogue must produce a credible long-term strategy to reduce debt dependence, expand exports, broaden the tax base, reform the energy sector, encourage productive investment, and place the welfare of the Pakistani people at the center of national policy.
He said Pakistan cannot continue to mortgage its future to finance its present. “The country’s leaders must decide whether they wish to be remembered as custodians of national sovereignty or as spectators who stood by while the economic foundations of the state were steadily eroded.”
He said the tightening debt noose demands honesty, courage, and a united national response. “The time has come for a national Maarka-e-Haq to break the debt trap and secure true economic independence for Pakistan.”
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
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