By IRNA,
Islamabad : The economy of Pakistan has been facing serious threats as it has lost $6 billion for extending its support to US-led terror war in the year 2007-08.
Majority of Pakistanis believe that war on terror has practically been an American war in which the Pakistani government went beyond limits of subservience to the US, Pakistani media say.
The involvement of Pakistan in war on terrorism has been affecting its economy by damaging its economic environment, they say.
There is a lot of pressure on the Pakistani government from the public to come out of the alliance with the US in war on terror.
People say that the United States is following an unrealistic policy and would not be allowed to implement its agenda in Pakistan.
The Pakistani government has also been facing severe criticism from its public on the series of US-led forces attacks in tribal region.
It is a fact that all American military actions in Pakistani territory did not hit the Al-Qaeda elements but killed innocent people including women and children and that had increased anti-American sentiment in Pakistani public, the media say.
The US on the other hand is likely to put more pressure on Pakistan as Washington is not satisfied with the efforts of Pakistan on war against terror.
Majority in Pakistan is of the opinion that US President Barack Obama is following the agenda of Bush administration.
Obama in a stern warning has said that his administration would not allow Al Qaeda and the Taliban to operate in the Pakistan tribal area.
Obama administration had just announced $1.5 billion assistance per annum in order to compensate for the losses borne by Pakistan after joining the terror war.
However, the amount was much less than the conservative estimates of up to $6 billion during last fiscal year 2007-08.
The economy of Pakistan has been facing many serious challenges such as trade deficits, galloping inflation, increase in the level of poverty, power outages, water shortages, closure of industries and food insecurity.
The prevailing economic situation is not very positive, as tax collection has fallen, imports are very high, real effecting exchange rate is functioning at the level pf last-year and the ministries’ expenses has increased by Rs 100 billion.
Pakistan receives economic aid from several sources as loans and grants. The International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank (WB), Asian Development Bank (ADB), etc provides long term loans to Pakistan. Pakistan also receives bilateral aid from developed and oil-rich countries.
A senior economist Hafiz Pasha has said that the programme of International Monetary Fund (IMF) for Pakistan focussed on stability rather than growth, “which is not good for Pakistan in the long run”.
“Pakistan paid a heavy price for stability at the cost of growth during the previous regime’s tenure … and [Pakistan] should not repeat the same mistake,” he said.
Analysts believe that Pakistan had to pursue active monetary and fiscal policies to deal with the global financial crisis.