Some books are real eye openers while others contain such facts that one feels compelled to rub one eyes while silently praying that the facts are incorrect. For if the facts are correct, then the implications are horrendous. One such book is the some what provocatively titled “ Pakistan: Sovereignty lost” by the well known economic journalist Shahid ur Rehman .
If the facts presented in the book, were to be believed, Pakistanis will be paying back debt incurred by governments of the last sixty years till 2040. That is, if not a single loan is taken starting from today.
Not only over the years did we accumulate debt but we did it at very steep rates. For instance, we had to pay forty seven million dollars for the nineteen million dollars loan signed in November 1983 for a gas purification project. We paid two hundred and forty eight million dollars for the one hundred and thirty seven million loan for the Tarbela Hydro Extension contracted on October 24th 1984. Moreover, we paid eight six million dollars for the twenty nine million dollars loan for telecommunication loan signed on November 23 1982. We would also repay $ 15,593 million to fully clear $9,800 million contracted from the Asian Development Bank. In other words, fifty percent of the contracted amount in interest.
It seem as if whole lot of us have to suffer till 2040 because of the extravagant lifestyles of the rulers In 1997, when Nawaz Sharif visited the United States, he stayed at a luxurious hotel and rented a fleet of limousines for his delegation. Reporting his meeting with World Bank and IMF officials to seek more aid, BBC observed that, ‘’ no third world leader ever came so royally to beg in Washington