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| Jubilee Plus Press Release"Rs400bn
of Pakistan's govt. revenues Rs330bn to go to debt service," says Imran Khan Imran Khan, legendary
Pakistani cricketer, met with Ann Pettifor of Jubilee Plus today in London. Mr. Khan who is standing for office in Pakistan, briefed Ms Pettifor on the dire social situation in Pakistan, in which 70 million people live below the poverty line. He said that Pakistan's total debt was clearly unsustainable, with IMF policies resulting in the decimation of the education system, a rise in fundamentalism and a massive increase in poverty. "These people appear so callous" he said, "as if completely unaware of the impact of their actions on the poor masses of Pakistan. Out of expected government tax revenues of Rs400bn, Rs330bn will be devoted to servicing Pakistan's domestic and foreign debts - denying resources for human development to the 140 million people of Pakistan". According to Imran Khan "the current policy is leading the country to bloodshed, fundamentalism and social disintegration. These policies are treating the people as mere statistics, not as human beings - denying them human rights agreed in successive UN Charters. "We pledge to work closely with Jubilee Movement International (JMI) to raise awareness of these issues in Pakistan, and the need for independent evaluation of Pakistan's debts, and arbitration." It was noted that creditors, who were co-responsible for Pakistan's debts do not share responsibility or losses for either their bad loan decisions, their collusion with the corrupt rulers of Pakistan, or the losses incurred through their conditionalities,. It was noted further that IMF conditionalities are designed, not to promote economic stability or efficient, or alleviate poverty, but to protect the interests of all international creditors. The effect of these austerity conditions, is to inflict crushing poverty on the poorest sections of society. Over the twelve years of IMF structural adjustment programmes in Pakistan, poverty has trebled and now includes at least 70 million people. At the same time Pakistan's total foreign and domestic debt has trebled. Pettifor and Khan agreed to explore the possibility of calling for independent arbitration for Pakistan. In other words to invite an independent central banker to adjudicate on the respective liabilities of Pakistan and her international creditors, both bilateral and multilateral. It was noted that there was a precedent for this, e.g. in Germany in 1953, when a distinguished banker, Herman Josef Abs, arbitrated between the Allies and Germany and brought about an agreement, the London Agreement which resulted in massive debt cancellation for Germany after the second world war. Similarly, in 1970, Herman Josef Abs mediated between international creditors and President Suharto's regime, and that process resulted in 50% of Indonesia's debts being cancelled; and in Indonesia devoting no more than 6% of her export revenues to debt service payment. It was felt that the existing situation in which the creditors act as plaintiff, judge and jury in their own court of international finance, is patently unjust - shifting all liabilities for Pakistan's debt on the poor masses. Pettifor and Khan also resolved to explore the possibility of approaching the International Court of Justice, to consider the legitimacy of Pakistan's outstanding debts, and of the way in which human rights are contravened in order to ensure the payment of debts to foreign creditors |
