Pakistan Must Settle This Debate Once For Ever About IMF If It Was a Saviour or National Security Threat? Security of Pakistan – A Collective Responsibility

Those formulating government’s National Security Policy must be told in absolutely unambiguous words that just like wars are not only fought and won by the military alone, but it was a collective national effort; the National Security Policy’s formulation without the inclusive input of the public representatives and the country’s Academia and intelligentsia, is like a dead wood and remains a body without its soul.

The article written by Durdana Najam titled “Wages of the IMF” Published in The Express Tribune, December 2^nd, 2021. link at :-https://tribune.com.pk/story/2331970/the-wages-of-the-imf is an eye opener for our Prime Minister Mr. Imran Khan, who is surrounded by such persons who have succeeded in creating a fear psychosis in the mind of previously a fearless person that if, we don’t tread on the IMF’s path, we won’t be able to come out of FATF’s straight jacket (which otherwise also won’t be possible) and also other lenders, will show their back on us. 

ANOTHER ARTICLE TITLED “

Economics of unconventional warfare” by Dr. Akmal Hussain published in the The News International, May 19, 2019 link:-https://www.thenews.com.pk/amp/473064-economics-of-unconventional-warfare  is a BIGGER EYE OPENER for Pakistan. Few excerpts are quoted as below:

Quote:“Let us see how the IMF fits into the US system of national power. The IMF claims that its policy is dictated by its membership of about 150 countries. But Roland Vaubel, who has researched the behaviour of the IMF, has argued that the ‘accountability’ of the IMF is according to the percentage of votes the member has, with the top ten members now having 54 percent of the votes. However the policy of the IMF over the years has become increasingly discretionary. Babb and Buira argue that this discretion is exercised in response to the demands of the IMF’s “most powerful organisational constituent: the US Treasury”.

James Raymond Vreeland in his 2007 book on the IMF’s politics of lending suggests that the managing director “rarely acts against the will of the US, since the US has veto power over his appointment and reappointment”. There is a whole corpus of work by scholars such as Cheryl Payer (1974) and Richard Swedberg (1986), which suggests that the IMF is used by the US for political objectives.

Recently a quite remarkable document has been made public by Julian Assange at Wikileaks, which shows clearly that the IMF is a key element in the pursuit of US strategic objectives. Indeed it is integral to the US Special Forces Unconventional War operations. The document is titled: Army Special Operations Forces Unconventional Warfare, Headquarters Department of the Army, September 2008, FM 3-05.130

The ‘unconventional war manual’ of the US in Chapter 2 makes the eminently sensible proposition that the agency that controls finance, wields power. The document then shows that “…ARSOF (Army Special Operations Forces) can use financial power as a weapon in times of conflict… “It goes on to say: “Financial incentives and disincentives can build and sustain international coalitions waging or supporting US Unconventional War campaigns” and, most interestingly, “Participation in international financial organisations such as the World Bank (WB), International Monetary Fund ( IMF), Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), offers the US diplomatic-financial venues to accomplish such coalitions”.

What is the geo-strategic context in which the above mentioned three elements of unconventional war have been brought into play as a means of putting pressure on Pakistan to support US strategic goals in the region? A key strategic aim of the US is to counter the rapidly growing economic, political and diplomatic influence of China as it emerges as a global power. In this regard, first it is in the US interests to build up India as a dominant power in South Asia to act as a counter weight to China. Second, in the 140-country global connectivity network that China is building, CPEC is a key component. It is in the US interest to block or slowdown progress on CPEC. This is because apart from the trade and investment implications of CPEC, the Gwadar Port at the end of the north-south corridor would provide China with naval access over the Indian Ocean which is seen as the principal theatre for military contention amongst the major powers in the 21st century.

Third, the US would like Pakistan to use its influence with the Afghan Taliban to help the US to achieve a face saving exit from Afghanistan. Fourth, the US would like to get Pakistan to give its political and military support to the US confrontation against Iran in the Straits of Hormuz.

If Pakistan in the first few weeks of the PTI government had effectively apprised China, Saudi Arabia and UAE about the critical urgency of a financial support package of $25 billion to avoid an economic meltdown, given their strategic stakes, that support would have been forthcoming. Pakistan could also have informed China that in the absence of that support there was a danger of destabilization through an IMF package. A destabilization that would not only hold back CPEC but also change the regional balance of power in favour of India and the US.” Unquote.

Under these threats, our Prime Minister  is also fully convinced, now in the favour of IMF and considers IMF as our saviour; whereas, earlier, he was totally against going into the trap of the IMF.

Now, the best solution is that this matter should be settled once for ever in a nation wide televised debate of a joint sitting of the parliament, where those economists and financial experts (Dr. Ikramul Haq, Dr. Akmal Hussain, Dr. Ashfaque Hasan Khan, Professor Dr. Shahida Wizarat and others) should be given an opportunity to present a doable action plan, for taking our country out of the current economic morass by avoiding unnecessary and bone crushing stringent conditionality’s of the IMF and FATF, which are now NOT only a REAL THREAT to our society as a whole, including threat to the national security and our nuclear arsenals, as well. 

In this debate let ALL those economic Czars (inside and outside the government) also be allowed to participate to put their view point for taking our country out of the current pathetic economic situation as also narrated by Abdul Rauf Shakoori & Dr Ikramul Haq in an article titled “Navigating through economic landmines” at link :-https://www.thenews.com.pk/amp/906548-navigating-through-economic-landmines (which is inflicting unbearable miseries and pains to not only the poorest of the poor but to the middle and upper middle class also) by blindly following the dictations of the IMF officials, who have virtually and operationally taken over government affairs to the extent that now, they are dictating which matters need to get approval from the parliament and which constitutional approvals are required to be passed by the law makers to allow a cake walk for their Economic Hitmen in Pakistan, whose independence is now just hanging by a thread.

NA SHAMJHOO GAY TOU MIT JAOO GAY AYY PAKISTAN WALOO
TUMHAREE DASTAN TAK NA HOOGY DASTAANOO MEIN


Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad

nayyarahmad51@gmail.com