Lawmakers told country’s debt rose by Rs14,000bn in last two years

Opposition in the National Assembly on Thursday protested against the denial of permission to speak on a point or order and staged walkout from the house, leading to the breaking of the quorum and forcing the chair to prorogue the session.

During the Question Hour, the house was informed that the country’s debt liabilities increased by Rs14,000 billion in last two years, during which over $3.552 billion was received from various bilateral and multilateral development partners to meet the challenges created by Covid-19 pandemic.

The National Assembly session was held with Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri in the chair. As the outset of the proceedings, the opposition members sought permission to speak on a point of order but the deputy speaker denied the request, saying that questions would be taken first.

At this the opposition members stood up in protest before staging a walkout. Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) lawmaker Murtaza Javed Abbasi criticised the deputy speaker. “First you came to the house one hour late and now you are not ready to listen to us,” he lashed out at the chair.

Abbasi then point to the lack of quorum. The deputy speaker adjourned the meeting for half an hour but when the session resumed, the quorum was still short of the required number of members. The deputy speaker then adjourned the session indefinitely.

Earlier, the finance ministry presented details of the national debts, acknowledging in its written reply an increase of Rs14,000 billion in the last two years. The ministry said that the total external debt of the country in 2019 was 81.1% of the gross domestic product (GDP), which had risen to 87.2% this year. The total debt, the reply added, stood at 105.9% of GDP in 2019, but this year it reached at 106.8% of the GDP.

The economic affairs ministry presented details of foreign aid and loans received by the country to address the coronavirus challenge. Economic Affairs Minister Khusro Bakhtiar said in a written reply to another question that a total of $3,552,110,000 was received to tackle the coronavirus.

Bakhtiar told the house that the World Bank provided $300 million for various projects, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) provided $1.386 billion for budgetary support, while the Asian Development Bank (ADB) provided $817 million.

In terms of grants, the ADB, Japan, China, the US, the UK, Canada and South Korea provided$99.11 million, the minister said, adding that the government had received more than $2.94 billion. He said that the G20 countries also deferred repayment of over $2.124 billion as debt relief.