Pakistan is in a “perfect storm” of crises, says the foreign minister.
UNITED NATIONS — Pakistan’s foreign minister said Thursday that his country is facing a “perfect storm” of problems: an economic crisis, the effects of catastrophic flooding, and terrorism “that is once again showing its ugly head” because the Taliban took over Afghanistan.
Bilawal Bhutto In a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press, Zardari, the 34-year-old son of assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, said that Pakistan, like other countries, has “hyper-partisan and hyper-polarized politics.”
He harshly criticized the International Monetary Fund for delaying a $6 billion bailout last month because Pakistan didn’t meet the terms of a 2019 deal. At the same time, he talked about how desperately his cash-strapped country needs money. The former Prime Minister Imran Khan, who is now the leader of the opposition, is blamed by the government for this failure.
Pakistan got new orders from the IMF to raise and collect taxes and cut subsidies without making life harder for poor people, government officials said.
Zardari said that his party wants to raise more money and thinks that rich people should pay more. However, he said that Pakistan hasn’t been able to get structural tax reform “for the last 23 IMF programs we’ve been in.”
“Is this really the time to argue about our tax policy and how we collect taxes when we’re going through such a big climate disaster?” he asked.
The IMF is not being fair to Pakistan, which is also dealing with 100,000 new refugees after the West left Afghanistan and “a steady rise in terrorist activities in our country,” Zardari said.
He said that the IMF is dragging out talks about a bailout when the country needs money right away to help “the poorest of the poor” whose homes and crops were destroyed by floods. “And they are being told that the IMF program will not end until their tax reform is done.”
He said that Pakistan had been able to keep its economy going despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the Taliban taking power in Afghanistan in August 2021, inflation, and problems with the supply chain. But then the floods last summer killed 1,739 people, destroyed 2 million homes, and caused $30 billion in damage. “It was the worst weather disaster we’ve ever seen,” he said.
Zardari said that Pakistan has a lot of problems with its neighbors on the diplomatic front. He said that Pakistan has a lot of problems with India, that Afghanistan has been in “tragedy and conflict” for decades, and that sanctions against Iran make it hard for Pakistan to trade with Iran.
He said that Pakistan has a “very good economic relationship with our neighbor China,” which is also in the news because of political events. He said that the government was “very grateful” to Beijing for the $1.3 billion loan that was announced on March 3. This was especially true after the floods destroyed so much.
“The government of China has helped Pakistan in one way or another, whether it was by paying off our debt or giving us money,” Zardari said. “I’m not worried about this matter right now. We need help and support from anyone who can give it to us.”
He said, “We are looking to work with anyone, including Russia, to meet our energy needs.” This would help people who have to buy expensive fuel from other countries. He also said that he thinks the U.S. price cap now has room for imports from Russia.
Zardari said that a gas pipeline from Iran to Pakistan should be finished in an ideal world, but “unfortunately, I don’t see that happening soon because of geopolitical problems.”
In May of last year, Zardari said that the US and Pakistan needed to get past their differences over Afghanistan and start working together again after years of tense relations while Khan was in charge.
He said Thursday that talks about climate, health, technology, and trade show that “we are on a healthy path.”
He also said that U.S. and Pakistani officials just met to talk about counterterrorism, a topic that the Pakistani government has also brought up in Afghanistan.
Zardari said that the “supposed influence of Pakistan over the Taliban has always been overstated,” both before and after Kabul fell. He said, though, that Pakistan has always thought it was important to talk to the Taliban about terrorism and other issues, like women’s rights to education and jobs. He was at the U.N. to talk about women’s rights at several meetings.
Zardari said that Pakistan would like to see the Taliban take action against all terrorist groups, including those with ties to al-Qaida and the Islamic State. But he said there are doubts about the Taliban’s ability to fight these groups because they don’t have a standing army, a counter-terrorism force, or an effective border management force.
Zardari told the West that they should talk to the Taliban “no matter what is going on on the ground.”
He said that the West should not only keep giving Afghanistan humanitarian aid, but also help its economy and central bank work so that Afghans don’t fall into an even worse economic crisis.
Zardari said he knows how hard this will be for lawmakers in the US, UK, and EU.
But, he said, if the economy doesn’t work, there won’t be “space” for the Taliban to carry out political decisions, like keeping promises about women’s rights to education and jobs.
