ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government tops the list amongst the last four administrations with the highest external borrowing of around $ 52 billion in three years eight months, retired $ 36.05 billion. Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) is in second place with borrowings of $ 49.761 billion dollars in five years; it retired debt of 27.071 billion dollars.

Data collected from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs Division by this newspaper further revealed that Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) was in third place for borrowing a total of $ 25.008 billion in five years while retiring $ 14 billion.

During the Gen Musharraf’s era (1999-2007) around $ 17.503 billion was borrowed from external sources and around $ 14.605 billion was retired.

Pakistan’s external debt and liabilities (outstanding) reached an all-time high of $ 130.6 billion by end-December 2021.

Public debt stands at Rs41.466trn, NA told

During the PTI government, foreign debt rose by $ 35.3 billion or 37 percent (till December 2021), while it was $ 95.2 billion when the PTI government came to power.

During the PML-N tenure, foreign debt soared by around $ 34 billion as it was around $ 61 billion when it came to power.

The PTI government’s domestic borrowing was also the highest when compared to the other three governments.

The PTI government borrowed Rs 9,136 billion during its tenure compared to PML-N’s Rs 6,896 billion, PPP’s Rs 6,919 billion and Musharraf’s Rs 1,212 billion.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022