Debts rose 23.5 times in 43 years while rupee depreciated 369pc in 23 years
LAHORE: As Pakistan's total external debt liabilities surged to a whopping $66.243 billion currently, this alarming figure signifies that each of the 180 million Pakistanis is indebted to the tune of $368 or approximately Rs36,800 to the outside world.
This figure of total external debt doesn't, of course, include the ever-rising domestic debt of around Rs12,000 billion and if that figure is included too, each Pakistani shares a burden of approximately Rs70,000 in the public debt, which is a sum of both domestic and foreign debt liability.
This figure was Rs65,144 in March 2012. A March 7, 2012 report appearing in "The News International" had revealed that during the four-year rule of the PPP-led regime, public debt had jumped by Rs6,924 billion till that time.
The report had stated that the country's public debt had stood at Rs4,802 billion in the first 60 years of its independence, but had increased substantially by Rs6,924 billion in just the 48 months till March 2012, reaching a monstrous figure of Rs11,726 billion.
And now another nine months have passed since the publication of this report and it is quite likely that the total public debt figure must have sky-rocketed to around Rs12,000 billion.Overall, Pakistan's foreign debt has registered an upsurge of nearly 120 per cent since June 1999, when the figure of external liabilities was resting at $30.2 billion only.
Research reveals that at the end of December 1969, the external debt of Pakistan had amounted to just $2.7 billion including the liability of Bangladesh, which hence shows that since the last 43 years, country's international debt burden has jumped by 2,354 per cent.
By December 1971, this particular figure had risen to $3.6 billion, of which $0.6 billion was subsequently taken off as these loans pertained to projects visibly located in Bangladesh.Therefore, Pakistan's total external debt was $3 billion by December 1971 or at the time when the East Pakistan tragedy had rocked the country.
This foreign debt figure had then subsequently increased to $6.3 billion in 1977, soon after the late General Ziaul Haq had held the reins of the country.
Updated statistics collected from the website of the State Bank of Pakistan reveal that the rupee-US dollar parity has worsened from Rs51.77 in fiscal 1999-2000 to approximately Rs99 on December 18, 2012 (Tuesday) or the day this story was filed, meaning thereby that the American currency has gone up by over 91 per cent during these last 13 years.
For those interested in a relatively more recent comparison in this context, since 2007-08 or the time period when the Pakistan People's Party had started calling shots in Islamabad, the Pakistani rupee has lost nearly 58 per cent of its value vis-à-vis the dollar till date and the unbridled rot is expected to haunt more as the national economy is visibly in a shambles.
Remember, the rupee-dollar parity had rested at just Rs21.1065 during the July-September period of fiscal 1989-90, which thus means that the rupee has depreciated by over 369 per cent during these last 23 years.
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