Traders of Islamabad on Tuesday asked the government to win IMF support to save fragile economy from extra strain.
Reservations of IMF over unfulfilled promises by the economic managers has emerged as greatest threat to the limping economy which needs immediate attention of the authorities, said trade leader Malik Sohail.
Speaking to a meeting of business community, he said that government should immediately start negotiations with IMF to enter into a fresh programme otherwise total economic collapse cannot be avoided.
He said that internal and external investments have dried up, capital is flying out of the country and economy is nose-diving which has raised concerns among the business community.
Malik Sohail who is Chairman Media FPCCI, Special Adviser to IWCCI and VP National Traders Alliance said that country will face no problem in the short-term but we cannot sustain in the long-term.
He said that we have offended IMF by breaking all promises to introduce reforms which has pushed other lenders to step back from commitments on one pretext or other putting many mega projects in jeopardy.
China has her own limitations while aid from Saudi Arabia has dried up since last four years pushing fiscal deficit to 8.5 per cent, he informed.
Now, country is heading towards a major balance of payments crisis which need immediate attention, he underlined.
Malik Sohail said that if government failed to raise USD 2 billion from CSF from the US, recovery from Etisalat and auction of 3G, the forex reserves will shrink to $10 billion within months.
Others who spoke on the occasion included Chairman Coordination FPCCI Atif Akram Sheikh, Syed Nadeem Mansoor, Amin Pirzada, Liaquat Ali Noon, Yusuf Rajpoot, Haji Muhammad Naieem, Imran ul Haq, Shakil Aziz and Raja Hassan Akhtar.
They said that government has already lost $36 billion for delaying Kalabagh dam while the reluctance of lenders has inflicted a loss of $ 12 billion while the losses of private sector are running into tens of billions.
The business leaders said that government should fulfil reservations of multilateral lenders on energy, taxation and water sector reforms to save country from unimaginable losses.
