- Jul 31, 2015
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Ahsan Iqbal, Pakistan’s planning minister, said the ML1 upgrade was vital to keep trains running and an example of the transformative work that Chinese credit had made possible. “If we do not undertake this project, in a couple of years Pakistan will lose its railway logistics,” Iqbal told the Financial Times.
“The whole railway system will break down, this main line will break down. It will be very risky to run commercial operations on this track. It is no longer a choice. It is an imperative.” But critics said taking on more debt for the ML1 project was an example of the kind of bad borrowing decisions that had led Pakistan into successive economic crises in recent years. Pakistan’s foreign reserves have sunk to below $6bn, or equivalent to less than one month of imports. The government “is fooling the country”, said Zubair Khan, a former Pakistani commerce minister and IMF official, who argued Pakistan was closer to running out of reserves than officials acknowledged. “There are truths being hidden.”
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Pakistan have wasted billions of dollars on CPEC motorways without much benefits or return. Should have gone for ML1 first up. Railways are by far cheapest mode of transport goods and people. Instead we build nice motorways that are used by few, only contribuite to pollution and oil imports.
“The whole railway system will break down, this main line will break down. It will be very risky to run commercial operations on this track. It is no longer a choice. It is an imperative.” But critics said taking on more debt for the ML1 project was an example of the kind of bad borrowing decisions that had led Pakistan into successive economic crises in recent years. Pakistan’s foreign reserves have sunk to below $6bn, or equivalent to less than one month of imports. The government “is fooling the country”, said Zubair Khan, a former Pakistani commerce minister and IMF official, who argued Pakistan was closer to running out of reserves than officials acknowledged. “There are truths being hidden.”
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Pakistan have wasted billions of dollars on CPEC motorways without much benefits or return. Should have gone for ML1 first up. Railways are by far cheapest mode of transport goods and people. Instead we build nice motorways that are used by few, only contribuite to pollution and oil imports.
