Loan: WPP opposes World Bank’s plans

WPP slammed World Bank’s announcement that it plans to offer Pakistan government $5.5 billion over the next two year.

The Workers Party Pakistan (WPP) in a press release on Tuesday slammed the World Bank’s (WB) announcement that it plans to offer Pakistan government $5.5 billion over the next two year.

The party demanded that the government and WB be held accountable for failed WB-funded projects as well as wider macroeconomic policies of liberalisation that have impoverished working Pakistanis and left the country indebted and incapacitated, with an annual debt repayment burden which is unsustainable and consumes at least 35% of the annual budget.

The WPP demanded that any new agreement between the government and the WB or its sister institutions International Monetary Fund and Asian Development Bank must be placed before parliament and made subject to full public scrutiny.

The WPP also criticised the Tehrik-e-Insaf that are currently spewing out rhetoric about ‘self-reliance’ and ‘sovereignty’ but have not raised the question of control exercised by international financial institutions.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 28^th, 2011.