Pakistan Senatosu'nda borç alarmı: Ekonomik istikrar için yol haritası yok

Senators raise alarm over rising debt amid lack of roadmap for economic stability

ISLAMABAD: Members of the Senate from both sides of the aisle on Monday raised alarm over the burgeoning debt of Pakistan, sans a roadmap for economic stability. On June 12, the government presented the budget for FY27, allocating Rs8,054bn for interest payments. Speaking on the floor, PPP vice president and parliamentary leader in the Senate, Senator Sherry Rehman, pointed out that approximately 42.8 per cent of the federal budget was being absorbed by debt servicing, including both interest and principal repayments. “When nearly half of the federal budget is consumed by debt obligations, the space available for development, social protection and public investment becomes severely constrained,” she noted during the budget discussion. She said that state-owned enterprises continue to place a heavy burden on public finances. “Losses of state-owned enterprises reached Rs832.848 billion in FY2025, with cumulative losses now standing at Rs6.563 trillion. Yet another Rs451 billion has been allocated to SOEs in this budget. This is a structural challenge that cannot be ignored indefinitely,” she added. Calling for reforms in governance and public expenditure, Senator Rehman urged the government to rationalise ministries, departments and institutions that continue to impose high operational costs on the national exchequer. She also called for a “fair taxation system” built on direct taxes and a broader base, warning that Pakistan’s growing reliance on indirect levies was undermining fiscal stability and burdening ordinary citizens. Senator Rehman said the country needed sustainable economic reforms, not stopgap measures. “Direct taxes should be increased while dependence on indirect taxes should be reduced to lessen the burden on ordinary citizens,” she said. “Pakistan cannot become economically self-reliant without widening the scope of taxation.” She flagged the ballooning Petroleum Development Levy as a key concern. “Excessive reliance on levies and indirect taxation raises serious questions about the long-term sustainability of our revenue structure,” the senator said. Pakistan, she argued, must bring services, trade and retail businesses into the tax net to expand fiscal space. Senator Rehman also expressed concern over declining climate allocations despite Pakistan’s growing climate vulnerabilities. “It is deeply concerning that climate-related levies are being collected while climate financing remains inadequate and climate budgets continue to shrink. Pakistan is among the countries most vulnerable to climate change, and this is precisely the time when climate investment should be increasing, not decreasing,” she said. Leader of the Opposition in the Senate Raja Nasir Abbas, in his speech, criticised the budget as a document that “does not protect the people’s political independence” and pushes Pakistan deeper into foreign economic control. Opening his speech in the Senate budget debate, he asked whether the budget could free the country from “the economic dominance of outsiders” or was “throwing us further into that quagmire”. “Has this budget brought economic freedom? This budget is pushing us further into enslavement.” Abbas said the budget had ignored ordinary Pakistanis. “The people of Pakistan have not been kept in focus. The people are irrelevant in this budget,” he said. Targeting Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s fifth budget, he said debt had risen every year since the government took office. “Debt has increased a hundredfold since they took charge.” He warned that debt was rising so fast that the country was heading towards becoming a “failed state”. He said the public would pay Rs8 trillion in interest this year. Quoting the government’s own poverty threshold of Rs8,432 monthly income, he asked: “Which Aristotle said that someone earning Rs280 per day is not poor? By that calculation, 70 million people are poor. Twenty million more people fell below the poverty line this year.” The opposition leader alleged that the budget provided relief to the rich while the poor were burdened with levies. “You are imposing levies on poor youth who put petrol in motorcycles. Money is being squeezed out by tearing apart the poor man’s stomach. Where is it being spent? You are not cutting your own expenses,” he said. Abbas said no province had wheat stocks left, and that strategic food security reserves were being eroded. He questioned spending priorities: “What is being spent on education in the country? If Pakistan is so good, why have our rulers invested abroad and set up factories outside?” Turning to politics, he said politicians were being jailed for 50 years and branded terrorists and traitors. “Being a politician in this country is a crime. They are called traitors. But those who broke the country, broke the Constitution, and imposed martial law are not the traitors,” he said. “Politicians are so helpless that they cannot arrange a meeting with Imran Khan. He will not bow his head even while in jail. Those who wanted to make politics an example tried to bend him; they could not,” he said. The opposition leader also accused the government of forcing provinces to give up money in violation of the 18th Amendment. He ended with an appeal for dialogue: “Come, let’s sit together and bring reforms.” PTI Senator Mohsin Aziz, while taking part in the debate, launched a scathing attack on the government, alleging rigging in elections from the 2024 general polls to the Gilgit-Baltistan elections, and said the budget offered “nothing” to the public. He said he would have praised the government “if petrol was cheaper, people had received relief, and the national exchequer had grown”. Instead, he said, prices had doubled and debt had ballooned. Aziz said Pakistan’s debt stood at Rs44 trillion over 74 years but had surged to Rs97 trillion in the last four years. “Where are we taking Pakistan? Debt has more than doubled,” he said. “Where there is no political stability, this is what happens.” He compared Pakistan’s exports to India’s $440 billion and said, “Every day, we are moving backwards.” Wheat flour, he noted, had risen from Rs1,100 to Rs2,600 per maund, while other essentials had also become unaffordable. The senator criticised the Petroleum Development Levy, saying it was being collected directly from the public. He called the budget “empty” and said, “No matter how many claims you make on TV, this budget is nothing.” Aziz targeted the 200-unit electricity subsidy, saying consumers using 200 units received relief, but those at 202 units lost it entirely. “To avoid this, the poor installed small solar systems and were called ‘robbers’ for it,” he said. He also rejected the concept of “non-filers”, saying it existed nowhere else in the world. The PTI senator said two parties had given the country nothing except false promises. He argued that political stability was essential for improving education and development, and urged the government to “get rid of the IMF” to put the country on a growth path. “Conditions are worsening day by day,” he said, calling for an end to what he termed systematic rigging and for policies focused on public relief rather than taxation.