THERE are no goods on the economic front. Whilst the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is holding back the release of next tranche under the Extended Fund Facility, other sources of foreign exchange reserves are also facing a hit. According to State Bank of Pakistan, remittances being sent by overseas Pakistanis fell by 29.2 percent in April compared to corresponding month of last year while it declined by thirteen percent during the first ten months of the current fiscal year. The country had received 2.21 billion dollars in April this year against 3.124 billion dollars in the same month last year. During the holy month of Ramadan, 15 to 20 percent higher remittances are normal for the country but decline is really shocking particularly when Pakistan needs dollars to avert a default-like situation.
The fact of the matter is that the loss in remittances is much higher than the amount Pakistan has been begging from IMF for the last eight months despite fulfilling all preconditions the $1.1bn tranche has yet not been released. There is no denying that the economy suffers when there is political instability in any country. And the same is happening with our economic indicators right now. The persistent instability has badly hit the trading and industrial activities across the country as a result the economy is forecast to hardly grow by less than half a per cent during the current fiscal year. Hence at this point in time, the first and foremost priority should be restoring political stability by sitting together as it is the only way through which we can restore the confidence of foreign investors as well as our overseas Pakistanis who have always served as the backbone of our economy through their valuable remittances. A couple of weeks back Finance Minister Ishaq Dar directed the CDA to complete the housing projects of overseas Pakistanis. Indeed owning a housing unit is the dream of every person either he lives inside Pakistan or abroad. By ensuring transparency in such projects, we indeed can attract immense investment of our expatriates but at the same time there should also be focus on attracting their investment in productive sectors of economy in order to achieve a sustainable positive growth trajectory.
