Pakistan is facing a very difficult economic situation

Indebted to China, Pakistan is facing a very difficult economic situation

Indebted to China, Pakistan is facing a very difficult economic situation: Asia Times.
Last month, Pakistan and China celebrated the tenth anniversary of the establishment of the US$ 64 billion Pakistan-China Economic Corridor (CPEC).. But a warning from Fatemi Syed Tariq, Special Assistant to Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, overshadowed the event. Outstanding payments are currently US$1.5 billion. This is a major concern for Chinese companies.
Pakistani diplomat Syed Tariq Fatemi wrote.
Fatemi's contact with the Planning Commission of Pakistan was related to three power plants at Hub, Sahiwal and Port Qasim. The centre is located in Pakistan, Balochistan, qasimport and Sahiwal are located in Punjab and Sindh provinces respectively.
CPEC (China Pakistan Economic Corridor) is not progressing as planned, and it is not only the recent economic and political crisis in Pakistan that has changed the course of events. The fate of China power plants has once again raised serious questions, about the State potential and internal stability of Pakistan. Its deep problems have now spread beyond the economic sphere to the social sphere.
Asia Times writes that two problems emerged from Fatemi's message.
Firstly, Pakistan did not have enough foreign currency to buy coal of the required quality for these power plants.
Secondly, it did not have the money to repay the debts of its biggest investor, China. According to a recent IMF report, China has pledged to pay off $30 billion of Pakistan's foreign debt, which totals $126 billion.
Other gas-fired power plants are also in crisis. Pakistan cannot import LNG, even though there are huge reserves in Balochistan which are being used liberally. More than half of the country is facing serious energy crisis.
CPEC involves much more than rail and road infrastructure. Several mining projects, especially in troubled Balochistan, along with the creation of Special Economic Zones to boost Pakistan's exports and provide a global transit hub.
CPEC projects were to increase Pakistan's economy between 2% and 2.5% and create at least 2.3 million local jobs by 2030.. At the moment these goals seem far off. Only 46,500 jobs were created in ten years.
Pakistan needs only changes in the economy. It needs global reforms if it is to develop the capacities and policies necessary for growth. In the absence of such reforms – in the foreseeable future – its instability is a growing threat to the entire region, from Afghanistan to India and possibly Iran.