How the IFIs look at Pakistan
The PML-N denies any of its leaders is involved in corruption. When NAB presented before the Supreme Court of a list of corruption cases against some of these last year the Information Minister maintained that the cases were fabricated during Musharraf’s tenure with an aim to justify the military coup. A new source of embarrassment for the government is the Panama Papers which show Nawaz Sharif’s scions having acquired property worth millions of dollar abroad through unexplained sources. Contradictory statements on the origin of the funds used to purchase the assets and obstacles put in the way of a judicial investigation have further raised doubts and suspicions in the country and abroad.
Equally harmful is the perception of bad governance which expresses itself in several ways including lack of transparency, failure to bring all taxable incomes into the net and red-tapeism. Ishaq Dar received earful on these issues from the chiefs of two major financial institutions on two consecutive days. IMF Chief Christine Lagarde reminded Dar that the perception of corruption discourages private investment and impedes efforts aimed at promoting sustainable and inclusive growth. She underlined that Pakistan’s public debt remains high at about Rs19 trillion or 65% of GDP. Lagarde also pointed out that the MLN government was only collecting little more than half of the estimated revenues. According to Lagarde, serious efforts had to be made to bring more people into the tax net
A day after a similar theme was taken up by ADB President Takehiko Nakao. He said Pakistan needs to address issues of corruption, tax avoidance and money-laundering to improve governance. Nakao underlined the importance of good governance which he said required addressing issues of corruption, tax avoidance and money laundering, The issues have been underlined by national media as well as by the opposition. The government needs to realise that by remaining in a perpetual state of denial it can only discourage foreign investors and force local entrepreneurs to take investments abroad.
