Pakistan Economy : Updates and Discussions
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R&AW agent Niazi continuing his good work
Honda halts production in Pakistan, Indus to follow
LAHORE: Honda Atlas Cars Pakistan (HACP) shut down its plant for 10 days on Friday as its inventories piled up to 2,000 units on plummeting car sales amid rising prices due to imposition of new, higher taxes in the budget and steep currency devaluation in the recent weeks.
Similarly, Indus Motor Company (IMC), which produces Toyota models in Pakistan, has also decided to stop car production for eight days, two days every week, during this month, company sources told Dawn.
Honda had kept its plant closed for two days earlier last week. However, a Pakistan Suzuki Motor Company spokesman told Dawn the company will take decision whether or not to cut down production in the next few days after analysing sales trend and flow of booking orders during the present month.
Honda halts production in Pakistan, Indus to follow
LAHORE: Honda Atlas Cars Pakistan (HACP) shut down its plant for 10 days on Friday as its inventories piled up to 2,000 units on plummeting car sales amid rising prices due to imposition of new, higher taxes in the budget and steep currency devaluation in the recent weeks.
Similarly, Indus Motor Company (IMC), which produces Toyota models in Pakistan, has also decided to stop car production for eight days, two days every week, during this month, company sources told Dawn.
Honda had kept its plant closed for two days earlier last week. However, a Pakistan Suzuki Motor Company spokesman told Dawn the company will take decision whether or not to cut down production in the next few days after analysing sales trend and flow of booking orders during the present month.
Fool’s gold – Pakistan could have made big money from gold mines, now it’s paying penalties
The $5.8 billion penalty in the Reko Diq case should make Pakistanis reconsider the military’s overwhelming presence in their lives.
By Husain Haqqani, Updated: 16 July, 2019 10:52 am IST
File photo : Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan
At a time when Pakistan’s debt-ridden economy cannot afford further bleeding, a World Bank arbitration court has ordered Imran Khan’s government to pay $5.8 billion in damages to a multinational mining giant, which discovered gold and copper deposits in Balochistan only to have its mining lease arbitrarily cancelled.
Pakistan also lost another arbitration case against the asset recovery firm Broadsheet LLC, and has been ordered to pay $33 million in damages and costs. The company had been hired by Pakistan’s National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to search for the hidden assets of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s family. Broadsheet LLC’s contract was also terminated without regard to international contract law.
Both cases demonstrate how Pakistan’s economy suffers when the hyper-nationalist sentiment of an intrusive and politicised military interferes with economic decision-making. Within Pakistan, the military establishment manages to get its capricious decisions endorsed by a subservient judiciary. But Pakistan has faced a long streak of negative judgments in international arbitration tribunals and courts because of overly simplistic choices made by its generals.
Without the military’s interference, the large gold and copper deposits found at Reko Diq, Balochistan, would have brought in revenues for Pakistan instead of a $5.8 billion penalty. The deposits would have been exploited by Tethyan Copper, a joint venture between Chile’s Antofagasta and Canada’s Barrick Gold, and Pakistan would have shared the profits with the multinational corporation with mining experience.
Also read: Modi isn’t about to change India into national security state like Pakistan & bankrupt it
With the military’s backing, nuclear scientist Samar Mubarakmand demanded ejection of foreign companies from Reko Diq in 2011, and subsequently started mining and smelting operations with his own team.
The Supreme Court, then headed by activist Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, ordered the cancellation of the Tethyan Copper contract in 2013.
In January 2015, the Pakistan military’s magazine Hilal published an article by Samar Mubarakmand, described as ‘an eminent scientist who led the team of scientists and engineers to conduct Pakistan’s Nuclear Tests at Chagai in May 1998’. The article titled ‘Destined Towards a Rich Pakistan: Reko Diq Mineral Resources’ suggested that Pakistan did not need to pay a foreign company to extract its minerals. It claimed that scientists who succeeded in making nuclear weapons for Pakistan could also make it rich by developing its natural resources.
Mubarakmand’s pitch was received well by the military as well as xenophobic civilians. Balochistan has long been a troubled province and, in the official Pakistani view, easy prey to the usual foreign suspects.
Also read: The China-Pakistan ‘nexus’ to exploit tons of gold from the mines of Balochistan
The hyper-nationalists thought the judgment of the country’s highest court was enough to turn a multinational company away without sufficient compensation. Some of the Reko Diq mines were turned over to the Metallurgical Corporation of China (MCC). The Chinese are, in Pakistani folklore, more mindful of Pakistan’s interests and security needs than Westerners and can be trusted to never have any truck with the Indians who allegedly encourage Baloch separatism.
But the Chinese could not extract even an ounce of Reko Diq’s copper or gold, nor could Mubarakmand’s team of patriotic scientists. Although the Chinese are still said to be involved in the mining project as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.
More recently, the Pakistan army’s Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) – a road and buildings constructor – has been involved in the Reko Diq project, even though it has no experience whatsoever of complex copper mining.
The World Bank’s International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID)’s award in favour of Tethyan Copper should serve as a reminder that military officers and nuclear scientists with a greater claim to patriotism are not the best persons to make decisions about commercial mining or understanding the inviolability of international contracts. But it is unlikely that the lesson will be learnt any time soon.
Pakistan’s generals and officers of the ubiquitous Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) continue to believe that they are better positioned to define and defend Pakistan’s national interest. This belief persists in the area of economic decision-making even though economics and contract law are not taught at Pakistan Military Academy or the Army Staff College.
Corruption charges against civilian politicians have been used to wriggle out of international contracts. During the late 1990s, contracts of several Independent Power Producers (IPPs) funded by the World Bank were terminated. In 2011, several Rental Power Projects (RPPs) were cancelled amidst allegations that the civilian officials at the time received kickbacks from companies from the United States, Turkey and UAE.
The militarised anti-corruption drive is costing Pakistan more than the recoveries in unlawful assets of corrupt politicians or officials. The Broadsheet case, for example, shows how the generals hired an international firm to help them find hidden overseas assets but then lost the opportunity of recovering these assets by cancelling the asset recovery firm’s contract.
Also read: What Pakistani generals want from PM Imran Khan – career advancement
Now, not only won’t Pakistan fail to recover the assets identified by Broadsheet, it would have to pay the firm compensation for its work. Huge arbitration awards are hurting Pakistan’s already thin pocketbook. In 2017, Turkish company Karkey Karadeniz Elektrik Uretim AS won a $780 million award from ICSID over the unlawful termination of its rental power project.
There are other examples of militarised decision-making affecting Pakistan’s economy. Privatisation of large loss-making state enterprises, such as Pakistan Steel, and Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), has often been contemplated but shelved due to ‘national security concerns’. Xenophobic nationalism interferes with travel facilities for foreign businessmen and corporate executives as well as with large investment projects like the Reko Diq copper and gold mines.
Pakistan’s military and intelligence services have often looked upon managing the economy as integral to their remit of ensuring Pakistan’s security. One of the arguments for each of Pakistan’s four direct military coups d’état and for other military interventions in politics was the need to maintain equilibrium in the government’s finances.
The military has often spearheaded anti-corruption drives, although evidence suggests that public sector corruption in Pakistan has increased, not diminished, over the years, including during military regimes. It is not unusual for Pakistan’s national security apparatus to intervene directly or behind-the-scenes for the purpose of denying a local business or foreign investor their legitimate dues from the federal or provincial governments.
Also read: IMF finds very little right with Pakistani economy, prescribes very ambitious remedies
The permanent state apparatus wants to be able to sidestep constitutional and legal restrictions, including the opportunity to get out of inconvenient contractual obligations, by any means necessary. But that is not how the real world works. Cancelling contracts and juggling aid packages are not a substitute for land reform and sustained modernisation of agriculture, training of a skilled workforce, and nurturing of innovation or entrepreneurship.
The $5.8 billion penalty in the Reko Diq case should make Pakistanis reconsider the military’s overwhelming presence in their lives. Pakistan’s recurrent economic crises are partly the product of general disdain towards pursuit of economic activity in a culture that extols the virtues of the warrior more than that of the trader.
Husain Haqqani, director for South and Central Asia at the Hudson Institute in Washington D.C., was Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States from 2008-11. His books include ‘Pakistan Between Mosque and Military,’ ‘India v Pakistan: Why Can’t we be Friends’ and ‘Reimagining Pakistan.’ Views are personal.
Fool’s gold – Pakistan could have made big money from gold mines, now it’s paying penalties
The $5.8 billion penalty in the Reko Diq case should make Pakistanis reconsider the military’s overwhelming presence in their lives.
By Husain Haqqani, Updated: 16 July, 2019 10:52 am IST
File photo : Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan
At a time when Pakistan’s debt-ridden economy cannot afford further bleeding, a World Bank arbitration court has ordered Imran Khan’s government to pay $5.8 billion in damages to a multinational mining giant, which discovered gold and copper deposits in Balochistan only to have its mining lease arbitrarily cancelled.
Pakistan also lost another arbitration case against the asset recovery firm Broadsheet LLC, and has been ordered to pay $33 million in damages and costs. The company had been hired by Pakistan’s National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to search for the hidden assets of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s family. Broadsheet LLC’s contract was also terminated without regard to international contract law.
Both cases demonstrate how Pakistan’s economy suffers when the hyper-nationalist sentiment of an intrusive and politicised military interferes with economic decision-making. Within Pakistan, the military establishment manages to get its capricious decisions endorsed by a subservient judiciary. But Pakistan has faced a long streak of negative judgments in international arbitration tribunals and courts because of overly simplistic choices made by its generals.
Without the military’s interference, the large gold and copper deposits found at Reko Diq, Balochistan, would have brought in revenues for Pakistan instead of a $5.8 billion penalty. The deposits would have been exploited by Tethyan Copper, a joint venture between Chile’s Antofagasta and Canada’s Barrick Gold, and Pakistan would have shared the profits with the multinational corporation with mining experience.
Also read: Modi isn’t about to change India into national security state like Pakistan & bankrupt it
With the military’s backing, nuclear scientist Samar Mubarakmand demanded ejection of foreign companies from Reko Diq in 2011, and subsequently started mining and smelting operations with his own team.
The Supreme Court, then headed by activist Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, ordered the cancellation of the Tethyan Copper contract in 2013.
In January 2015, the Pakistan military’s magazine Hilal published an article by Samar Mubarakmand, described as ‘an eminent scientist who led the team of scientists and engineers to conduct Pakistan’s Nuclear Tests at Chagai in May 1998’. The article titled ‘Destined Towards a Rich Pakistan: Reko Diq Mineral Resources’ suggested that Pakistan did not need to pay a foreign company to extract its minerals. It claimed that scientists who succeeded in making nuclear weapons for Pakistan could also make it rich by developing its natural resources.
Mubarakmand’s pitch was received well by the military as well as xenophobic civilians. Balochistan has long been a troubled province and, in the official Pakistani view, easy prey to the usual foreign suspects.
Also read: The China-Pakistan ‘nexus’ to exploit tons of gold from the mines of Balochistan
The hyper-nationalists thought the judgment of the country’s highest court was enough to turn a multinational company away without sufficient compensation. Some of the Reko Diq mines were turned over to the Metallurgical Corporation of China (MCC). The Chinese are, in Pakistani folklore, more mindful of Pakistan’s interests and security needs than Westerners and can be trusted to never have any truck with the Indians who allegedly encourage Baloch separatism.
But the Chinese could not extract even an ounce of Reko Diq’s copper or gold, nor could Mubarakmand’s team of patriotic scientists. Although the Chinese are still said to be involved in the mining project as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.
More recently, the Pakistan army’s Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) – a road and buildings constructor – has been involved in the Reko Diq project, even though it has no experience whatsoever of complex copper mining.
The World Bank’s International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID)’s award in favour of Tethyan Copper should serve as a reminder that military officers and nuclear scientists with a greater claim to patriotism are not the best persons to make decisions about commercial mining or understanding the inviolability of international contracts. But it is unlikely that the lesson will be learnt any time soon.
Pakistan’s generals and officers of the ubiquitous Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) continue to believe that they are better positioned to define and defend Pakistan’s national interest. This belief persists in the area of economic decision-making even though economics and contract law are not taught at Pakistan Military Academy or the Army Staff College.
Corruption charges against civilian politicians have been used to wriggle out of international contracts. During the late 1990s, contracts of several Independent Power Producers (IPPs) funded by the World Bank were terminated. In 2011, several Rental Power Projects (RPPs) were cancelled amidst allegations that the civilian officials at the time received kickbacks from companies from the United States, Turkey and UAE.
The militarised anti-corruption drive is costing Pakistan more than the recoveries in unlawful assets of corrupt politicians or officials. The Broadsheet case, for example, shows how the generals hired an international firm to help them find hidden overseas assets but then lost the opportunity of recovering these assets by cancelling the asset recovery firm’s contract.
Also read: What Pakistani generals want from PM Imran Khan – career advancement
Now, not only won’t Pakistan fail to recover the assets identified by Broadsheet, it would have to pay the firm compensation for its work. Huge arbitration awards are hurting Pakistan’s already thin pocketbook. In 2017, Turkish company Karkey Karadeniz Elektrik Uretim AS won a $780 million award from ICSID over the unlawful termination of its rental power project.
There are other examples of militarised decision-making affecting Pakistan’s economy. Privatisation of large loss-making state enterprises, such as Pakistan Steel, and Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), has often been contemplated but shelved due to ‘national security concerns’. Xenophobic nationalism interferes with travel facilities for foreign businessmen and corporate executives as well as with large investment projects like the Reko Diq copper and gold mines.
Pakistan’s military and intelligence services have often looked upon managing the economy as integral to their remit of ensuring Pakistan’s security. One of the arguments for each of Pakistan’s four direct military coups d’état and for other military interventions in politics was the need to maintain equilibrium in the government’s finances.
The military has often spearheaded anti-corruption drives, although evidence suggests that public sector corruption in Pakistan has increased, not diminished, over the years, including during military regimes. It is not unusual for Pakistan’s national security apparatus to intervene directly or behind-the-scenes for the purpose of denying a local business or foreign investor their legitimate dues from the federal or provincial governments.
Also read: IMF finds very little right with Pakistani economy, prescribes very ambitious remedies
The permanent state apparatus wants to be able to sidestep constitutional and legal restrictions, including the opportunity to get out of inconvenient contractual obligations, by any means necessary. But that is not how the real world works. Cancelling contracts and juggling aid packages are not a substitute for land reform and sustained modernisation of agriculture, training of a skilled workforce, and nurturing of innovation or entrepreneurship.
The $5.8 billion penalty in the Reko Diq case should make Pakistanis reconsider the military’s overwhelming presence in their lives. Pakistan’s recurrent economic crises are partly the product of general disdain towards pursuit of economic activity in a culture that extols the virtues of the warrior more than that of the trader.
Husain Haqqani, director for South and Central Asia at the Hudson Institute in Washington D.C., was Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States from 2008-11. His books include ‘Pakistan Between Mosque and Military,’ ‘India v Pakistan: Why Can’t we be Friends’ and ‘Reimagining Pakistan.’ Views are personal.
Fool’s gold – Pakistan could have made big money from gold mines, now it’s paying penalties
People angry over rising inflation, heavy taxes in PoK
People in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) are facing immense difficulties due to the consistent increase in inflation rates and heavy pay taxes implemented by Islamabad for benefits that residents here never enjoy.
Asian News International(ANI), Muzaffarabad/PoK.
July 16, 2019
UPDATED: July 16, 2019 14:11 IST
Locals of this region have accused the establishment and Prime Minister Imran Khan of being apathetic towards their plight
People in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) are facing immense difficulties due to the consistent increase in inflation rates and heavy pay taxes implemented by Islamabad for benefits that residents here never enjoy.
While Pakistan has been witnessing economic challenges in recent days owing to its incompetent policies, this occupied region, which is already marginalised, has borne the major brunt of unfair taxes and high inflation.
Locals of this region have accused the establishment and Prime Minister Imran Khan of being apathetic towards their plight and making tall claims of bringing prosperity. They allege that Pakistan has actually done nothing for the welfare of the region.
"Imran Khan has changed the lives of people for worse at the pretext of transforming Pakistan. Heavy taxes have been imposed. Now, how will a person earning a meagre amount of Rs 500 per day, manage his living? How will poor people survive?" Muman Muneer, a miffed rickshaw puller in Muzaffarabad said on the current financial crunch in PoK.
"The rich government officials can bear this but not us. We are dependent on our daily earnings. We just want to say if Pakistan wants our welfare then it should do something and stop exploiting the common people," Muneer added.
A sharp rise in the fuel, food and transportation costs has severely hit the domestic budgets of people in the region.
People who left their homes for green pastures away from towns and cities are now returning home after a drastic reduction in their income.
Mohammad Salman, a young pendant seller said, "Everything has become expensive. Earlier, I would save Rs. 500 per month but now my monthly saving has reduced to Rs.300. Imran Khan has made everything costlier. The room rent is expensive. The food has become has expensive. There is no point in living here."
There has been no progress when it comes to employment and development of the region however the people continue to be subjected to hardships.
Another local in the region said, "Inflation has reached where it is impossible for the common man to survive. You can observe it for yourself. The petrol prices, which would hover around Rs. 90, have gone beyond Rs 160. A packet of flour used to cost us Rs 900 earlier but it is for Rs 1,100 now. The price of sugar has skyrocketed from Rs. 60 per kg to Rs 120 per kg."
The economic policies in the illegally occupied regions of PoK and Gilgit Baltistan are decided according to the whims and fancies of Islamabad.
The economic losses being faced by Pakistan due to policy paralysis are compensated from these regions. A sudden escalation in the prices is just one aspect of its exploitative design.
Pakistan's consumer price inflation rose to 9.41 per cent in March, marking the highest in past five years. The cash-strapped country has recently received the 13th bailout package from the International Monetary Fund worth USD six billion.
People angry over rising inflation, heavy taxes in PoK
People in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) are facing immense difficulties due to the consistent increase in inflation rates and heavy pay taxes implemented by Islamabad for benefits that residents here never enjoy.
Asian News International(ANI), Muzaffarabad/PoK.
July 16, 2019
UPDATED: July 16, 2019 14:11 IST
Locals of this region have accused the establishment and Prime Minister Imran Khan of being apathetic towards their plight
People in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) are facing immense difficulties due to the consistent increase in inflation rates and heavy pay taxes implemented by Islamabad for benefits that residents here never enjoy.
While Pakistan has been witnessing economic challenges in recent days owing to its incompetent policies, this occupied region, which is already marginalised, has borne the major brunt of unfair taxes and high inflation.
Locals of this region have accused the establishment and Prime Minister Imran Khan of being apathetic towards their plight and making tall claims of bringing prosperity. They allege that Pakistan has actually done nothing for the welfare of the region.
"Imran Khan has changed the lives of people for worse at the pretext of transforming Pakistan. Heavy taxes have been imposed. Now, how will a person earning a meagre amount of Rs 500 per day, manage his living? How will poor people survive?" Muman Muneer, a miffed rickshaw puller in Muzaffarabad said on the current financial crunch in PoK.
"The rich government officials can bear this but not us. We are dependent on our daily earnings. We just want to say if Pakistan wants our welfare then it should do something and stop exploiting the common people," Muneer added.
A sharp rise in the fuel, food and transportation costs has severely hit the domestic budgets of people in the region.
People who left their homes for green pastures away from towns and cities are now returning home after a drastic reduction in their income.
Mohammad Salman, a young pendant seller said, "Everything has become expensive. Earlier, I would save Rs. 500 per month but now my monthly saving has reduced to Rs.300. Imran Khan has made everything costlier. The room rent is expensive. The food has become has expensive. There is no point in living here."
There has been no progress when it comes to employment and development of the region however the people continue to be subjected to hardships.
Another local in the region said, "Inflation has reached where it is impossible for the common man to survive. You can observe it for yourself. The petrol prices, which would hover around Rs. 90, have gone beyond Rs 160. A packet of flour used to cost us Rs 900 earlier but it is for Rs 1,100 now. The price of sugar has skyrocketed from Rs. 60 per kg to Rs 120 per kg."
The economic policies in the illegally occupied regions of PoK and Gilgit Baltistan are decided according to the whims and fancies of Islamabad.
The economic losses being faced by Pakistan due to policy paralysis are compensated from these regions. A sudden escalation in the prices is just one aspect of its exploitative design.
Pakistan's consumer price inflation rose to 9.41 per cent in March, marking the highest in past five years. The cash-strapped country has recently received the 13th bailout package from the International Monetary Fund worth USD six billion.
People angry over rising inflation, heavy taxes in PoK
ECC bans wheat export amid roti price hike - Newspaper - DAWN.COM
Total requirement of Wheat in Pakistan 25.8 MMT, production this year 24.1 MMT. Expect Grass prices to hike soon after demand surge.
Total requirement of Wheat in Pakistan 25.8 MMT, production this year 24.1 MMT. Expect Grass prices to hike soon after demand surge.
Fool’s gold – Pakistan could have made big money from gold mines, now it’s paying penalties
The $5.8 billion penalty in the Reko Diq case should make Pakistanis reconsider the military’s overwhelming presence in their lives.
By Husain Haqqani, Updated: 16 July, 2019 10:52 am IST
File photo : Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan
At a time when Pakistan’s debt-ridden economy cannot afford further bleeding, a World Bank arbitration court has ordered Imran Khan’s government to pay $5.8 billion in damages to a multinational mining giant, which discovered gold and copper deposits in Balochistan only to have its mining lease arbitrarily cancelled.
Pakistan also lost another arbitration case against the asset recovery firm Broadsheet LLC, and has been ordered to pay $33 million in damages and costs. The company had been hired by Pakistan’s National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to search for the hidden assets of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s family. Broadsheet LLC’s contract was also terminated without regard to international contract law.
Both cases demonstrate how Pakistan’s economy suffers when the hyper-nationalist sentiment of an intrusive and politicised military interferes with economic decision-making. Within Pakistan, the military establishment manages to get its capricious decisions endorsed by a subservient judiciary. But Pakistan has faced a long streak of negative judgments in international arbitration tribunals and courts because of overly simplistic choices made by its generals.
Without the military’s interference, the large gold and copper deposits found at Reko Diq, Balochistan, would have brought in revenues for Pakistan instead of a $5.8 billion penalty. The deposits would have been exploited by Tethyan Copper, a joint venture between Chile’s Antofagasta and Canada’s Barrick Gold, and Pakistan would have shared the profits with the multinational corporation with mining experience.
Also read: Modi isn’t about to change India into national security state like Pakistan & bankrupt it
With the military’s backing, nuclear scientist Samar Mubarakmand demanded ejection of foreign companies from Reko Diq in 2011, and subsequently started mining and smelting operations with his own team.
The Supreme Court, then headed by activist Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, ordered the cancellation of the Tethyan Copper contract in 2013.
In January 2015, the Pakistan military’s magazine Hilal published an article by Samar Mubarakmand, described as ‘an eminent scientist who led the team of scientists and engineers to conduct Pakistan’s Nuclear Tests at Chagai in May 1998’. The article titled ‘Destined Towards a Rich Pakistan: Reko Diq Mineral Resources’ suggested that Pakistan did not need to pay a foreign company to extract its minerals. It claimed that scientists who succeeded in making nuclear weapons for Pakistan could also make it rich by developing its natural resources.
Mubarakmand’s pitch was received well by the military as well as xenophobic civilians. Balochistan has long been a troubled province and, in the official Pakistani view, easy prey to the usual foreign suspects.
Also read: The China-Pakistan ‘nexus’ to exploit tons of gold from the mines of Balochistan
The hyper-nationalists thought the judgment of the country’s highest court was enough to turn a multinational company away without sufficient compensation. Some of the Reko Diq mines were turned over to the Metallurgical Corporation of China (MCC). The Chinese are, in Pakistani folklore, more mindful of Pakistan’s interests and security needs than Westerners and can be trusted to never have any truck with the Indians who allegedly encourage Baloch separatism.
But the Chinese could not extract even an ounce of Reko Diq’s copper or gold, nor could Mubarakmand’s team of patriotic scientists. Although the Chinese are still said to be involved in the mining project as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.
More recently, the Pakistan army’s Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) – a road and buildings constructor – has been involved in the Reko Diq project, even though it has no experience whatsoever of complex copper mining.
The World Bank’s International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID)’s award in favour of Tethyan Copper should serve as a reminder that military officers and nuclear scientists with a greater claim to patriotism are not the best persons to make decisions about commercial mining or understanding the inviolability of international contracts. But it is unlikely that the lesson will be learnt any time soon.
Pakistan’s generals and officers of the ubiquitous Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) continue to believe that they are better positioned to define and defend Pakistan’s national interest. This belief persists in the area of economic decision-making even though economics and contract law are not taught at Pakistan Military Academy or the Army Staff College.
Corruption charges against civilian politicians have been used to wriggle out of international contracts. During the late 1990s, contracts of several Independent Power Producers (IPPs) funded by the World Bank were terminated. In 2011, several Rental Power Projects (RPPs) were cancelled amidst allegations that the civilian officials at the time received kickbacks from companies from the United States, Turkey and UAE.
The militarised anti-corruption drive is costing Pakistan more than the recoveries in unlawful assets of corrupt politicians or officials. The Broadsheet case, for example, shows how the generals hired an international firm to help them find hidden overseas assets but then lost the opportunity of recovering these assets by cancelling the asset recovery firm’s contract.
Also read: What Pakistani generals want from PM Imran Khan – career advancement
Now, not only won’t Pakistan fail to recover the assets identified by Broadsheet, it would have to pay the firm compensation for its work. Huge arbitration awards are hurting Pakistan’s already thin pocketbook. In 2017, Turkish company Karkey Karadeniz Elektrik Uretim AS won a $780 million award from ICSID over the unlawful termination of its rental power project.
There are other examples of militarised decision-making affecting Pakistan’s economy. Privatisation of large loss-making state enterprises, such as Pakistan Steel, and Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), has often been contemplated but shelved due to ‘national security concerns’. Xenophobic nationalism interferes with travel facilities for foreign businessmen and corporate executives as well as with large investment projects like the Reko Diq copper and gold mines.
Pakistan’s military and intelligence services have often looked upon managing the economy as integral to their remit of ensuring Pakistan’s security. One of the arguments for each of Pakistan’s four direct military coups d’état and for other military interventions in politics was the need to maintain equilibrium in the government’s finances.
The military has often spearheaded anti-corruption drives, although evidence suggests that public sector corruption in Pakistan has increased, not diminished, over the years, including during military regimes. It is not unusual for Pakistan’s national security apparatus to intervene directly or behind-the-scenes for the purpose of denying a local business or foreign investor their legitimate dues from the federal or provincial governments.
Also read: IMF finds very little right with Pakistani economy, prescribes very ambitious remedies
The permanent state apparatus wants to be able to sidestep constitutional and legal restrictions, including the opportunity to get out of inconvenient contractual obligations, by any means necessary. But that is not how the real world works. Cancelling contracts and juggling aid packages are not a substitute for land reform and sustained modernisation of agriculture, training of a skilled workforce, and nurturing of innovation or entrepreneurship.
The $5.8 billion penalty in the Reko Diq case should make Pakistanis reconsider the military’s overwhelming presence in their lives. Pakistan’s recurrent economic crises are partly the product of general disdain towards pursuit of economic activity in a culture that extols the virtues of the warrior more than that of the trader.
Husain Haqqani, director for South and Central Asia at the Hudson Institute in Washington D.C., was Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States from 2008-11. His books include ‘Pakistan Between Mosque and Military,’ ‘India v Pakistan: Why Can’t we be Friends’ and ‘Reimagining Pakistan.’ Views are personal.
Fool’s gold – Pakistan could have made big money from gold mines, now it’s paying penalties
It's a $100B mine. So I'm sure Tethyan can happily cancel the penalty in exchange for a mining contract which is much more favourable than before. Of course, the Chinese can also step in.
Pakistan doesn’t do much trade with anyone. The benefit of that is that it is insulated from the ups and downs of the world economy to a much higher degree than a normal trading country. What matters to Pakistan will be aid and loans and stuff like that.
The IMF Takeover of Pakistan
Many Pakistanis see the terms of the $6 billion bailout package as a hostile takeover of their economy and government.
By Kunwar Khuldune Shahid
July 18, 2019
A Pakistani walks past a shop which is closed due to strike in Peshawar, Pakistan, July 13, 2019.
Image Credit: AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad
On July 3, the International Monetary Fund approved a $6 billion bailout package to help “return sustainable growth” to Pakistan’s economy. Throughout the deal spanning 39 months, the IMF will review Pakistan’s progress on a quarterly basis. As part of the agreement, $1 billion has been released to Pakistan.
This is the 13th IMF bailout for Pakistan, with the Fund looking toward the correction of “structural imbalances” in the country. In this regard, the IMF had announced in the negotiations over the past couple of months that Islamabad would have to increase taxation in order to repay external debt and increase foreign exchange reserves.
Details of the agreement reveal the targets that have been set for Pakistan, requiring the country to increase the foreign exchange reserves from the current $6.824 billion to $11.187 billion next year. As a result, the country’s net reserves are expected to increase from negative $17.7 billion to negative $10.8 billion over the same period.
The IMF has further asked Pakistan to pay $37.359 billion in external debt within the duration of the IMF bailout deal. Islamabad owes $14.682 billion of this figure to Beijing, largely due to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
The increase in taxation required by the IMF was visible in this fiscal year’s financial budget, with the government increasing the Federal Board of Revenue’s (FBR) tax collection target from 3.94 trillion Pakistani rupees ($25 billion) to 5.5 trillion rupees. The documents further reveal that over the next two years of the bailout package, additional 1.5 trillion rupee and 1.31 trillion rupee hikes in revenue collection have been scheduled.
Even before the budget was passed, the government had already implemented steps to enhance taxation, with hikes in the price of petrol and electricity. Government officials confirm that further hikes are expected next month.
In addition to the heavy taxation, another precondition of the IMF bailout was the devaluation of the Pakistani currency, which the Fund deemed to be artificially valued. With the IMF calling for a “market determined” value of the Pakistani currency, the rupee has lost over half its value since December 2017, resulting in the inflation rate reaching a five-year high at 9.4 percent in April, and expected to rise to over 13 percent, as per the Fund’s forecast.
The All Pakistan Anjuman-e-Tajran (meaning “trader’s association”) calling a nationwide strike is one example of the impact that the rise in taxation has had on local industries. As a result, the working class in Pakistan is rising up against what it calls the “IMF’s imperialistic takeover” of the country.
“[The IMF] package is littered with conditionalities that are putting [a] burden on the lives of ordinary people. Pakistani people and traders have no capacity to pay taxes demanded by the IMF,” Farooq Tariq, spokesperson and the former general secretary of the Awami Workers’ Party, told The Diplomat.
“As part of the package, the IMF installed its own "intelligent" people on key posts. Not only does it serve the IMF’s purpose of increasing its stranglehold over the country, it reflects a total lack of confidence in PTI’s capacity to do the job,” Tariq added. PTI refers to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, the current ruling party of the country.
Multiple interviews with officials in the Finance Ministry reveal that the appointments of former IMF mission chief Reza Baqir as the governor of the State Bank of Pakistan and former Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh as the prime minister’s adviser on finance were enforced by the IMF in the lead up to the bailout agreement.
When asked, a senior government official told The Diplomat that the IMF forced the issue to install “its own men” amid continued deadlock with former Finance Minister Asad Umar. The IMF’s pressure further escalated after it was revealed that the entirety of the loan Pakistan received from Saudi Arabia and the UAE at the turn of the year was spent to prevent the currency market from crashing.
Senior financial journalist and analyst at FX Empire Shahab Jafry questions the manner in which the IMF has forced the government to manage the local currency’s valuation.
“The currency market was going haywire, and you had to dump the [U.S.] dollar to buy the rupees – to support the local currency. The government says it is letting the rupee free float – it can’t let that happen, the country will collapse in 48 hours,” he told The Diplomat.
“The currency has an annual 5 percent depreciation against the dollar. I don’t see the rupee stabilizing because I don’t see the economy stabilizing. In the modern day, in competitive floating currencies, you have to have a very strong export revenue generation to have a stable currency – or oil reserves, because you are prone to imports and the fluctuation of commodities and currencies can crash markets,” Jafry added.
Observers note the usual IMF pattern in its current dealings with Pakistan, with the Fund employing trusted people in countries where there is large-scale misappropriation of funds obtained from international institutions.
Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, the PM’s financial adviser, was also part of the team that negotiated the 11th bailout package with the IMF as the finance minister during the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) rule from 2008 to 2013.
Last month, an entire inquiry commission was formed to probe the alleged corrupt practices of the PPP and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz over the past decade. While many see it as an attempt to audit the funding received in the past, others see it as a maneuver led by the current ruling party, the PTI, to victimize its political opponents with the help of the Pakistan Army.
Farooq Tariq maintains that the military establishment has had a role to play in the aggravation of the economy, and the PTI isn’t the first party to seek the Army’s help in maintaining the vicious circle of debt for Pakistan.
“Pakistan goes to the IMF every few years because of its ruling political parties’ inability to run the economy. The reason is very simple: military and debt expenses. Both take up over half of the national budget at present. The successive governments have bowed down to the pressures of the generals and the creditors not to reduce these two unproductive expenditures,” he said.
Where the Army bolsters particular parties to safeguard its economic interests, the IMF wants Pakistan to pursue certain geopolitical interests. For many, the bailout agreement reveals that instead of economic reforms, geo-strategic interests are at the heart of the deal.
“The IMF package is a straitjacket for Pakistan’s economy. The IMF document illustrates a very simplistic thought process,” economist and political scientist Farrukh Saleem, the PTI government’s former spokesperson on energy and economy, told The Diplomat.
“They say the budget deficit is extremely high, the solution is to increase the revenue by 45 percent. How exactly? It’s a shrinking economy. Similarly, they say the trade deficit is extremely high, and then devalue the rupee. The IMF isn’t trying to solve Pakistan’s problems at all, the package has zero reforms – be it power, budget deficit, or trade deficit. After all, the IMF is not a purely economic institute, it’s a political institute as well,” Saleem added.
The former spokesperson maintains that the IMF is advancing U.S. security interests in the region by using the bailout package to ensure Islamabad’s compliance. He refers to this year’s WikiLeaks document “Army Special Operations Forces Unconventional Warfare,” originally written in September 2008, as evidence of how the IMF and World Bank are used to serve U.S. regional goals.
Lieutenant-General Talat Masood, former secretary of Pakistan’s Ministry of Defense Production, says there are obvious U.S. goals that the IMF is looking to fulfill.
“They would like to control our nuclear development. They don’t want us to spend on conventional forces and try to match India. They want us to focus on the economy. They don’t want us to use Lashkar-e-Taiba [LeT] and others to destabilize India and Afghanistan. Also, CPEC and our relationship with China is too strong for their liking. They want us to contribute significantly in the Afghan peace process by pushing the Taliban,” Masood told The Diplomat.
Masood believes the recent arrest of LeT chief Hafiz Saeed, in the lead up to Prime Minister Imran Khan’s visit to the United States, underlines that Islamabad has succumbed to the American demands. But Masood is also critical of Pakistan’s own policymaking, which renders it vulnerable to external pressure.
“Pakistan’s policies are so shallow and aren’t based on any foundational principles, and hence can’t be defended. It’s a weakness of policy and the internal structure of Pakistan that they have to succumb to external pressure,” he adds.
The IMF Takeover of Pakistan
Many Pakistanis see the terms of the $6 billion bailout package as a hostile takeover of their economy and government.
By Kunwar Khuldune Shahid
July 18, 2019
A Pakistani walks past a shop which is closed due to strike in Peshawar, Pakistan, July 13, 2019.
Image Credit: AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad
On July 3, the International Monetary Fund approved a $6 billion bailout package to help “return sustainable growth” to Pakistan’s economy. Throughout the deal spanning 39 months, the IMF will review Pakistan’s progress on a quarterly basis. As part of the agreement, $1 billion has been released to Pakistan.
This is the 13th IMF bailout for Pakistan, with the Fund looking toward the correction of “structural imbalances” in the country. In this regard, the IMF had announced in the negotiations over the past couple of months that Islamabad would have to increase taxation in order to repay external debt and increase foreign exchange reserves.
Details of the agreement reveal the targets that have been set for Pakistan, requiring the country to increase the foreign exchange reserves from the current $6.824 billion to $11.187 billion next year. As a result, the country’s net reserves are expected to increase from negative $17.7 billion to negative $10.8 billion over the same period.
The IMF has further asked Pakistan to pay $37.359 billion in external debt within the duration of the IMF bailout deal. Islamabad owes $14.682 billion of this figure to Beijing, largely due to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
The increase in taxation required by the IMF was visible in this fiscal year’s financial budget, with the government increasing the Federal Board of Revenue’s (FBR) tax collection target from 3.94 trillion Pakistani rupees ($25 billion) to 5.5 trillion rupees. The documents further reveal that over the next two years of the bailout package, additional 1.5 trillion rupee and 1.31 trillion rupee hikes in revenue collection have been scheduled.
Even before the budget was passed, the government had already implemented steps to enhance taxation, with hikes in the price of petrol and electricity. Government officials confirm that further hikes are expected next month.
In addition to the heavy taxation, another precondition of the IMF bailout was the devaluation of the Pakistani currency, which the Fund deemed to be artificially valued. With the IMF calling for a “market determined” value of the Pakistani currency, the rupee has lost over half its value since December 2017, resulting in the inflation rate reaching a five-year high at 9.4 percent in April, and expected to rise to over 13 percent, as per the Fund’s forecast.
The All Pakistan Anjuman-e-Tajran (meaning “trader’s association”) calling a nationwide strike is one example of the impact that the rise in taxation has had on local industries. As a result, the working class in Pakistan is rising up against what it calls the “IMF’s imperialistic takeover” of the country.
“[The IMF] package is littered with conditionalities that are putting [a] burden on the lives of ordinary people. Pakistani people and traders have no capacity to pay taxes demanded by the IMF,” Farooq Tariq, spokesperson and the former general secretary of the Awami Workers’ Party, told The Diplomat.
“As part of the package, the IMF installed its own "intelligent" people on key posts. Not only does it serve the IMF’s purpose of increasing its stranglehold over the country, it reflects a total lack of confidence in PTI’s capacity to do the job,” Tariq added. PTI refers to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, the current ruling party of the country.
Multiple interviews with officials in the Finance Ministry reveal that the appointments of former IMF mission chief Reza Baqir as the governor of the State Bank of Pakistan and former Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh as the prime minister’s adviser on finance were enforced by the IMF in the lead up to the bailout agreement.
When asked, a senior government official told The Diplomat that the IMF forced the issue to install “its own men” amid continued deadlock with former Finance Minister Asad Umar. The IMF’s pressure further escalated after it was revealed that the entirety of the loan Pakistan received from Saudi Arabia and the UAE at the turn of the year was spent to prevent the currency market from crashing.
Senior financial journalist and analyst at FX Empire Shahab Jafry questions the manner in which the IMF has forced the government to manage the local currency’s valuation.
“The currency market was going haywire, and you had to dump the [U.S.] dollar to buy the rupees – to support the local currency. The government says it is letting the rupee free float – it can’t let that happen, the country will collapse in 48 hours,” he told The Diplomat.
“The currency has an annual 5 percent depreciation against the dollar. I don’t see the rupee stabilizing because I don’t see the economy stabilizing. In the modern day, in competitive floating currencies, you have to have a very strong export revenue generation to have a stable currency – or oil reserves, because you are prone to imports and the fluctuation of commodities and currencies can crash markets,” Jafry added.
Observers note the usual IMF pattern in its current dealings with Pakistan, with the Fund employing trusted people in countries where there is large-scale misappropriation of funds obtained from international institutions.
Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, the PM’s financial adviser, was also part of the team that negotiated the 11th bailout package with the IMF as the finance minister during the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) rule from 2008 to 2013.
Last month, an entire inquiry commission was formed to probe the alleged corrupt practices of the PPP and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz over the past decade. While many see it as an attempt to audit the funding received in the past, others see it as a maneuver led by the current ruling party, the PTI, to victimize its political opponents with the help of the Pakistan Army.
Farooq Tariq maintains that the military establishment has had a role to play in the aggravation of the economy, and the PTI isn’t the first party to seek the Army’s help in maintaining the vicious circle of debt for Pakistan.
“Pakistan goes to the IMF every few years because of its ruling political parties’ inability to run the economy. The reason is very simple: military and debt expenses. Both take up over half of the national budget at present. The successive governments have bowed down to the pressures of the generals and the creditors not to reduce these two unproductive expenditures,” he said.
Where the Army bolsters particular parties to safeguard its economic interests, the IMF wants Pakistan to pursue certain geopolitical interests. For many, the bailout agreement reveals that instead of economic reforms, geo-strategic interests are at the heart of the deal.
“The IMF package is a straitjacket for Pakistan’s economy. The IMF document illustrates a very simplistic thought process,” economist and political scientist Farrukh Saleem, the PTI government’s former spokesperson on energy and economy, told The Diplomat.
“They say the budget deficit is extremely high, the solution is to increase the revenue by 45 percent. How exactly? It’s a shrinking economy. Similarly, they say the trade deficit is extremely high, and then devalue the rupee. The IMF isn’t trying to solve Pakistan’s problems at all, the package has zero reforms – be it power, budget deficit, or trade deficit. After all, the IMF is not a purely economic institute, it’s a political institute as well,” Saleem added.
The former spokesperson maintains that the IMF is advancing U.S. security interests in the region by using the bailout package to ensure Islamabad’s compliance. He refers to this year’s WikiLeaks document “Army Special Operations Forces Unconventional Warfare,” originally written in September 2008, as evidence of how the IMF and World Bank are used to serve U.S. regional goals.
Lieutenant-General Talat Masood, former secretary of Pakistan’s Ministry of Defense Production, says there are obvious U.S. goals that the IMF is looking to fulfill.
“They would like to control our nuclear development. They don’t want us to spend on conventional forces and try to match India. They want us to focus on the economy. They don’t want us to use Lashkar-e-Taiba [LeT] and others to destabilize India and Afghanistan. Also, CPEC and our relationship with China is too strong for their liking. They want us to contribute significantly in the Afghan peace process by pushing the Taliban,” Masood told The Diplomat.
Masood believes the recent arrest of LeT chief Hafiz Saeed, in the lead up to Prime Minister Imran Khan’s visit to the United States, underlines that Islamabad has succumbed to the American demands. But Masood is also critical of Pakistan’s own policymaking, which renders it vulnerable to external pressure.
“Pakistan’s policies are so shallow and aren’t based on any foundational principles, and hence can’t be defended. It’s a weakness of policy and the internal structure of Pakistan that they have to succumb to external pressure,” he adds.
The IMF Takeover of Pakistan
Pakistan faces UK aid cut as pressures grow
20-Jul-2019
London, Posted : 19 Jul 2019
Britain's aid to Pakistan could reduce significantly by next year as pressure on the government grows to cut foreign aid to all countries amidst Brexit crisis, rise in poverty at home and a parliamentary inquiry into aid for Pakistan reviewing aid from 2013 to 2018, Geo News has reported.
A source in the International Development Committee (IDC) of the British Parliament said that its inquiry into the Department for International Development (DFID)'s aid programme for Pakistan will be looking at the general spending of aid in Pakistan but confirmed that pressure on the government had increased to either drop aid to several countries, including Pakistan, or cut it significantly.
The source said the final decision in this regard will be made by the government once the findings of its aid programme investigation are released next year.
"The inquiry will likely be conducted November 2019 into 2020 (March / April) on current plans," a source told GEO News.
According to the GEO News report, UK's aid to Pakistan for 2019/20 is already down to £302 million from £325 million in 2018/19.
Three weeks ago, the International Development Committee (IDC) announced an inquiry into aid for Pakistan to establish whether UK's strategic aims for its Pakistan aid programme were clear and appropriate; UK/Pakistan's relationship was coherent and well-coordinated with the aid programme and its aims and objectives; and to what extent was there effective joined-up strategy and delivery across the country portfolio, and what has the trajectory of programming priorities and impact been over the last 4 years.
Parliamentarians from Labour, Conservatives, Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) and one independent are part of the 11 members committee to include a broad range of opinions.
The official said that it was becoming increasingly difficult for the British government to dedicate aid to growing economies and confirmed "several new issues related to Pakistan" have surfaced putting the whole perspective of aid into doubt.
The official didn't elaborate what the new issues and concerns are. One of the key focus of this inquiry is to assess whether Pakistan had a commitment to reform and whether it now has access to other resources of money.
On record, a spokesman has said that the IDC has invited written submissions on all aspects of the inquiry, focusing on how effective is UK aid in Pakistan in terms of supporting the poorest, most marginalised and most vulnerable people in that country and whether it's being implemented properly in Pakistan.
The IDC said that Pakistan is a strategic priority for UK aid and DFID's office in Pakistan has the largest budget of any DFID country office with a planned spend of £302 million in 2019/20. For the UK parliamentarians, it makes sense to investigate the aid.
Pakistan faces UK aid cut as pressures grow
20-Jul-2019
London, Posted : 19 Jul 2019
Britain's aid to Pakistan could reduce significantly by next year as pressure on the government grows to cut foreign aid to all countries amidst Brexit crisis, rise in poverty at home and a parliamentary inquiry into aid for Pakistan reviewing aid from 2013 to 2018, Geo News has reported.
A source in the International Development Committee (IDC) of the British Parliament said that its inquiry into the Department for International Development (DFID)'s aid programme for Pakistan will be looking at the general spending of aid in Pakistan but confirmed that pressure on the government had increased to either drop aid to several countries, including Pakistan, or cut it significantly.
The source said the final decision in this regard will be made by the government once the findings of its aid programme investigation are released next year.
"The inquiry will likely be conducted November 2019 into 2020 (March / April) on current plans," a source told GEO News.
According to the GEO News report, UK's aid to Pakistan for 2019/20 is already down to £302 million from £325 million in 2018/19.
Three weeks ago, the International Development Committee (IDC) announced an inquiry into aid for Pakistan to establish whether UK's strategic aims for its Pakistan aid programme were clear and appropriate; UK/Pakistan's relationship was coherent and well-coordinated with the aid programme and its aims and objectives; and to what extent was there effective joined-up strategy and delivery across the country portfolio, and what has the trajectory of programming priorities and impact been over the last 4 years.
Parliamentarians from Labour, Conservatives, Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) and one independent are part of the 11 members committee to include a broad range of opinions.
The official said that it was becoming increasingly difficult for the British government to dedicate aid to growing economies and confirmed "several new issues related to Pakistan" have surfaced putting the whole perspective of aid into doubt.
The official didn't elaborate what the new issues and concerns are. One of the key focus of this inquiry is to assess whether Pakistan had a commitment to reform and whether it now has access to other resources of money.
On record, a spokesman has said that the IDC has invited written submissions on all aspects of the inquiry, focusing on how effective is UK aid in Pakistan in terms of supporting the poorest, most marginalised and most vulnerable people in that country and whether it's being implemented properly in Pakistan.
The IDC said that Pakistan is a strategic priority for UK aid and DFID's office in Pakistan has the largest budget of any DFID country office with a planned spend of £302 million in 2019/20. For the UK parliamentarians, it makes sense to investigate the aid.
Pakistan faces UK aid cut as pressures grow
From my limited knowledge, economically recoverable ores are around 10-20 % of total mine value, depending on the mine and technology used.
Technology is how Tethyan was able to get the contract I assume.Chinese tech may or may not recover as much as Tethyan.
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PM Imran departs for 3-day US trip on commercial Qatar Airways flight 
pakistanis don't even have their own aircraft for state visit and they want Kashmir
pakistanis don't even have their own aircraft for state visit and they want Kashmir
The Chinese can simply buy the tech though. There will be plenty of mines to tap in the Af-Pak region.
We could possibly also see a tripartite agreement between Tethyan, Pak and China now. And if Tethyan is still showing interest, it goes to show that the mine is well worth more than $6B. It could very well be 3 or 4 times that value in fact.
My guess is they are going to waste a lot of time due to the review and try and come up with solutions during that time. Whatever the case the Pakistanis cucked themselves.