‘Loanshark’ cycles: Foreign lenders interfere in Pakistan’s affairs

NAB chief says policy on accountability for all yielding dividends

ISLAMABAD: With corruption hampering the adequate use of the country’s resources and compelling the central bank to approach foreign lending institutions for loans, this allows these foreign lending institutions to at times interfere in the internal affairs of the country.

This was stated by National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Justice (retired) Javed Iqbal in a statement issued by the bureau on Sunday.

Corruption, he said, is cancer which gradually depletes resources of society and deprives shares of the deserving.

He went on to argue that the country’s resources could not be used properly.  Hence, the country has been unable to stay on the road to progress and prosperity.

“Pakistan is compelled to take loans from different international institutions to recover budget deficit,” he noted.

Ostensibly, the loans are given by different institutions on their own terms and conditions.  The international institutes, he noted, sometimes interfere in the internal affairs of the country. Moreover, these financial institutions also appoint their own consultants who work to benefit the international institutions more than the country they have lent the money to.

This process, Justice Iqbal said, further burdens successive Pakistani generations apart from triggering a vicious circle of poverty and taking further loans.

Noting that Pakistan enjoys multiple resources, he said that there was a need to ensure equitable distribution of resources and promote merit and transparency among various segments of society.

NAB, he pointed out, has initiated complaint verifications against politicians, bureaucrats and even former military officers while probing corruption allegations since he took over five months ago.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 19^th, 2018.