New Delhi: The economic crisis in Pakistan is worsening with prices of daily commodities touching the sky. These days an average Pakistani has to pay Rs 210 (PKR) for one litre of milk and Rs 700 for a kilo of chicken.
In Karachi, the most populous city in Pakistan, consumers are battling unchecked price rise in daily use items including milk and broiler chicken, The Dawn reported on Monday. In just two days, milk that was sold at Rs 190 per litre has shot up to Rs 210. Similarly, chicken selling at Rs 600 a kilogram last week is now selling at Rs 700 per kg.
Pakistan has been reeling under a massive economic crisis with the country's rupee recording a historic low of 275 to the US dollar, inflation rising to over 27 per cent and foreign exchange reserves dropping to the lowest level since 1998 at around USD 3 billion which is not enough even to cover a month's imports.
The problem has been further exacerbated by a series of terror attacks, including a major suicide bombing in the northwestern city of Peshawar on January 30 that killed more than 100 people. Pakistan government's negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to unlock USD 1.1 billion funds have not yet yielded positive results, triggering fears of further deterioration in the overall situation.
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Husain Haqqani, a former Pakistan ambassador to the US and Senior Fellow at Hudson Institute, said terrorism has blocked foreign direct investment into Pakistan and its "unrealistic dependence" on China has resulted in a huge external debt. The experts also pointed out the aid-driven nature of Pakistan's economy and said the country must look at avenues for revenue generation.
"Pakistan's recurrent economic crises are the product of a refusal to reform. The country's national narrative has led to ever-increasing and unsustainable military spending. Jihadist terrorism has blocked foreign direct investment. An unrealistic dependence on China has resulted in huge external debt," Haqqani said.
"And poor relations with neighbours - Afghanistan and India - have limited trade prospects. Pakistan needs to go beyond a political economy of conflict to become prosperous and that seems a bridge too far for now," he added. Former Indian Army chief Gen (retd) JJ Singh said Pakistan appears to have already "pressed the button to self-implode".
"The situation is slowly spiralling out of control and we do not know who is actually calling the shots in Pakistan. The deep state in Pakistan is also shaken up and they do not know how to handle or control the frankenstein they created in the form of TTP," Singh told PTI. It is a cause of concern for everybody including India when a country having nuclear weapons is in a situation where there appears to be a serious problem of leadership, he said.
Former Indian high commissioner to Pakistan G Parthasarathy said Pakistan must move away from promoting terrorism and focus on constructive economic cooperation if it wants to get out of the crisis. "Pakistan now faces an unprecedented diplomatic and strategic crisis. Even its friends in the Islamic world recognised that it also has to set its house in order and not support radical Islamic groups and terrorists on its territories and its neighbourhood," he said.
