Pakistan calls for mechanism to ensure economic justice

PARIS: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has urged the world to come forward in generous terms to formulate and provide an opportunity, a system and mechanism to satisfy most vulnerable at minimum and create harmony in terms of economic justice and fairness to save the world from trouble.

He was addressing the New Global Financial Pact Summit in Paris on Thursday night. The prime minister said unless we come out with a fair, comfortable and judicious formula of distribution of financial resources, the world will never be in peace. 

Mr Sharif joined the world leaders at the inaugural session of the summit. French President Emmanuel Macron chaired the summit being attended by over 50 head of states.

The PM said 33 million people were affected by those floods and millions of acres of standing crops was washed away while around 1,700 people had died. Moreover, he added that half a million animals drowned in the floods and two million house were either completely demolished or partially damaged.

To help those affected by the floods, he said, “we had to cough out hundreds of millions of dollars from our own pocket with our scarce resources … Of course, we are very grateful to our friendly countries across the globe for their valuable and timely contribution, but largely, the cash amount had to be generated from our own resources.

“And when we approached international institutions, they said, ‘Well, we can give you loans.’”

The premier said when these institution were asked whether the already stretched resources of Pakistan be burdened further, their reply was debt-structuring would not be good for the country.

“We know that there are tensions around the globe, and billions and billions of dollars are being spent over there, to defend this [country],” he said in apparent reference to Ukraine.

“On one hand, you are ready to provide everything for the defence of a country or countries — that is perfectly okay — but when it comes to the question of saving thousands and thousands of people from dying, then [one has] to borrow money at a very high cost. Then you have to … beg and borrow and further deteriorate your already very precarious financial situation,” he decried.