Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif decried on Thursday the response of international institutions to Pakistan’s appeals for funds following catastrophic floods in 2022, saying that it was offered loans whereas billions were being spent on the defence of “a country or countries”.
The premier made these remarks at the the two-day New Global Financing Pact Summit in Paris where he stressed the need for a fair and equitable formula for the distribution of financial resources in the world.
He is among several global leaders gathered in Paris for the summit to tease out a new consensus on international economic reforms to help debt-burdened developing countries face a growing onslaught of challenges, particularly climate change.
PM Shehbaz began his speech by recalling the devastation caused by floods in Pakistan last year, “as a result of climate change”.
The PM said 33 million people were affected by those floods and millions of acres of standing crops was washed away while around 1,700 people had died. Moreover, he added that half a million animals drowned in the floods and two million house were either completely demolished or partially damaged.
To help those affected by the floods, he said, “we had to cough out hundreds of millions of dollars from our own pocket with our scarce resources … Of course, we are very grateful to our friendly countries across the globe for their valuable and timely contribution, but largely, the cash amount had to be generated from our own resources. “And when we approached international institutions, they said, ‘Well, we can give you loans.’” The premier said when these institution were asked whether the already stretched resources of Pakistan be burdened further, their reply was debt-structuring would not be good for the country.
“We know that there are tensions around the globe, and billions and billions of dollars are being spent over there, to defend this [country],” he said in apparent reference to Ukraine.
“On one hand, you are ready to provide everything for the defence of a country or countries — that is perfectly okay — but when it comes to the question of saving thousands and thousands of people from dying, then [one has] to borrow money at a very high cost. Then you have to … beg and borrow and further deteriorate your already very precarious financial situation,” he decried.
