KARACHI: Chairman of National Business Group Pakistan, President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum, and All Karachi Industrial Alliance, and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain on Friday said Saudi Arabia has asked Pakistan to initiate reforms before obtaining a loan that has sounded an alarm bell for Pakistan.

Pakistan urgently needs loans to run its economy but the need for economic reforms to achieve self-reliance cannot be denied, he said.

Mian Zahid Hussain said that the policy of overdependence on imports has played a major role in the devastation of the economy.

Talking to the business community, the veteran business leader said that people should not be deceived by policymakers who put the blame for the economic disaster on external factors.

Attributing the events happening in different parts of the world cannot absolve the policymakers of their responsibility.

He said that the reason for Pakistan’s recent problems is the pandemic followed a super cycle in prices and Russia’s attack on Ukraine and recent floods.

However, nothing was as damaging for the country as the endless greed of nobility which has pushed the country to the brink, he added.

Pakistan has taken loans from the IMF 23 times and the country is facing difficulties in payments for the thirteenth time since 1988, but despite this, there has been no clear change in policies.

PPP has knocked on the doors of the IMF six times, PML-N has borrowed from IMF four times, General Musharraf twice and PTI have done this once and this process continues.

The country has been suffering from the worst political and economic governance for decades, power theft, line losses, gas theft, nurturing of failed government institutions, circular debt, agriculture crisis, energy policy, export neglect and dependence on imports has bankrupted a prosperous country, he observed.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023