PM makes out strong case for debt relief at WEF.

Byline: Syed Irfan Raza | Kalbe Ali

ISLAMABAD -- Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday said a large number of developing countries did not have fiscal space to deal with the economic fallout of the Covid-19 outbreak and called for debt relief to deal with the situation.

Addressing the 'Covid Action Platform' hosted by the World Economic Forum (WEF) through video link, he said G-20 countries were coming up with a debt relief initiative but more details were needed. 'The reason why there should be such an initiative is because we need that fiscal space to divert resources to healthcare and environment. I talked to the heads of Nigeria, Ethiopia and Egypt and they informed me that they are facing a similar situation,' he added.

PM Khan said that due to limited resources the developing countries faced a dual challenge - combating the pandemic and dealing with poverty.

He said Pakistan could not afford a prolonged lockdown and millions would have starved if the lockdown was not lifted. 'In Pakistan, we have 25 million workers who are either daily wage earners or are self-employed, and these are 25 million families; I will say it has affected 120-150 million people in total,' he added.

'These people are facing stark poverty, and unless these people work, they will starve, so what we did, and I am proud of my government for this, was that we started a cash disbursement programme,' he told the forum.

However, he said, this was only a short-term solution, which is why 'we decided to ease the lockdown, as there is no way the government can give out handouts to feed people for too long'.

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PM Khan said the experience of the developed world was completely different from what had been faced by the developing world. 'In countries like India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, specifically the Indian subcontinent, our experience is somewhat different. The speed at which Covid-19 spread in Europe and the United States, we are not experiencing the same sort of speed and we have yet not reached our peak here,' he added.

He said the coming year was not just a challenge for Pakistan but for the entire world, as every country looked within and became insular, but ultimately 'we are all connected and the response has to be global'.

'The way forward that we have this year as a nation is that we realise that we have to live with this virus at least until a vaccine comes out and balances it. We have raised a...