SIALKOT: Defence Minister Khawaja Asif declared on Saturday that Pakistan, which is struggling with the economic crisis, has “already defaulted.”
The senior PML-N leader emphasized: “The country has defaulted” while speaking at a convention held at a private college in Sialkot. Our state has gone into default. The center is working to bring on board the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the next day or two as depleting reserves and impending repayments on external fronts have forced the government into a corner due to the severe economic crisis that has forced several industries to cease operations and pushed millions of people on the verge of poverty.
The defence minister asserted that all of the nation’s problems lay within Pakistan and not with the IMF. In the midst of political unrest and deteriorating security, Pakistan’s economy is in dire straits and is experiencing a balance-of-payments crisis as it struggles to pay off a sizable amount of external debt. The country can no longer afford imports as a result of skyrocketing inflation, the devaluation of the rupee, and a severe decline in the industry. As of February 10, foreign exchange reserves were in a precarious position, standing at about $3.19 billion. This situation reflects the hardships of the $350 billion economy, which was struggling to pay for imports while thousands of containers of supplies were piling up at its ports, halting production and putting jobs at risk.
Daily life for the majority of people, which was already difficult given the state of the economy, became even more difficult after the price of gasoline soared to a historic high of Rs272 per litre — in accordance with the demands of the IMF. The defence minister claimed, “For the past 32 years, I have watched Pakistani politics become disgraced. Additionally, Asif claimed that when militants attacked the Karachi police chief’s office last night, security forces were engaged in a battle with terrorists in Karachi. The tense operation, which lasted for almost four hours on Friday evening, resulted in the deaths of three militants and the embrace of martyrdom by four individuals, including two police officers and a Sindh Rangers sub-inspector.
Without naming the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Asif said that the security people were fighting against the terrorists last night as militants were brought back and rehabilitated nearly a year ago.
“Whatever is being said on television has nothing to do with reality,” the defence
