World urged to write off Pakistan’s $54 billion debts

[Lahore_Real_Estate]

Friday, September 03, 2010
Noor Aftab
Islamabad
Participants of a rally held here on Thursday demanded of the international community and financial institutions not only to realise the intensity of devastation by flashing floods but also give a serious thought to cancel its foreign debts worth 54 billion dollars.
The rally was organized by progressive political parties, trade unions, students and civil society organizations with an aim to press the international community for cancellation of foreign debts of Pakistan. The rally started from the National Press Club and culminated near D-Chowk where the protesters held a sit-in for half an hour.
The speakers said the government has not enough resources to meet the basic needs of this huge population of affected people but despite that creditors and financial institutions are in no mood to show leniency towards calamity-hit and debt-ridden Pakistan.
They said highly indebted countries such as Haiti have had their debt written-off in the wake of devastating natural calamities and such action on part of the international community have their roots in established legal norms that emphasise the immutability of basic human rights.
According to a report released by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Pakistan’s total external debt is likely to grow alarmingly by more than 43 per cent over the next five years, to about $73 billion in 2015-16 from about $50.76 billion early this year. Dr. Asim Sajjad, one of the organizers, said that international financial institutions including World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Asian Development Bank (ABD) should write off Pakistan’s loan as they did in the case of Haiti in the wake of disastrous earthquake in January 2010.
“Post-flood Pakistan is eligible for cancellation of a substantial portion of its external debts on the same grounds as other contemporaries,” he said adding much of Pakistan’s debts can be legitimately described as ‘odious’; precedents also exist for debt contracted by undemocratic rulers to be written-off rather than paid for by citizens who played no role in the decision to take on loans.
Dr. Farzana Bari, a human rights activist, said the international financial institutions to whom the country is primarily indebted continue to demand the execution of neo-liberal policies that are anti-poor and pro-finance capital while the government exercises less sovereignty in policymaking.
She quoted the references of “State of Necessity” and 1999 resolution of UN Human Rights Commission, allowing calamity-hit countries to suspend repayments and divert the available resources towards their people in urgent need.