Amid the worsening situation of the economy in Pakistan, the cash-strapped country’s Punjab caretaker government will be purchasing new vehicles for its officials worth Pakistani Rupee (Rs) 2.3 billion, The News International reported.
At a time when the whole country is struggling to meet the International Monetary Fund’s demands, the Pakistan government’s finance department issued a notification sanctioning ₹2.3 billion for the purchase of new luxury vehicles.
According to the notification issued on July 20, the assistant commissioner of each tehsil will be provided with a new double cabin 4×4 Revo-G M/T, additional deputy commissioners (general) of each district will be provided new Yaris ATIV 1.3L while additional commissioners of each division will be provided Corolla 1.6 Altis CVT.
The notification said that the vehicles — presently used by the assistant commissioners — shall be allocated to tehsildars.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s external debt servicing obligations are $2.44 billion for the current month of July 2023, including $2.07 billion in non-guaranteed debt owed to China, the news report added.
Another $1 billion safe deposit from China is also due, so Pakistan and China are currently working on the rollover of around USD 3 billion bilateral debt within the ongoing month.
According to The News International, Pakistan is required to repay China around $363 million in guaranteed bilateral loans, including principal and markup payments.
Pakistan has to repay external debt servicing to France to the tune of $2.85 million and Japan to $4.57 million. Pakistan has to repay the IMF to the tune of outstanding loans of $189.67 million including the principal amount of $165.02 million and markup of $24.65 million.
Pakistan has to repay outstanding loan repayment to the ADB to the tune of $56.9 million, the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) repayment of $72.06 million, and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) $8.82 million, and some minor repayments to International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and other donors. The total repayment to the multilateral creditors in July stands at $149.41 million, The News International reported.
Meanwhile, approximately 150,059 highly qualified Pakistanis nationals left the country for jobs abroad in the past decades as per the Bureau of Emigration and Overseas Employment record. The highest number of skilled Pakistani nationals left the country in search of jobs in 2022.
As many as 832,339 Pakistani nationals left the country in search of work. Out of these, 17,976 were highly qualified. However, till June 2023, around 10,845 highly qualified nationals of Pakistan left the country for jobs abroad out of a total of 3,95,166.
Source : Mint
