Remittances record

Whatever the remittances figure, they should not be politicized

The December remittance figures issued by the State Bank of Pakistan show a welcome increase, reaching $3.08 billion, up six percent in November. The half-yearly figure of $17.8 billion was 32.8 percent more than the previous year’s $13.4 billion. Which gave some credibility to the predictions of a total for the year of $36 billion. Perhaps inevitably, but a little needlessly, the ruling PML(N) and the opposition PTI made this about the PTI’s civil disobedience movement, which had included overseas Pakistanis holding back remittances. The ruling party has argued that overseas Pakistanis have greater trust in its government.

This is not entirely true, for there are two other factors which account for this increase, both indicating that this will not prove to be mere temporary spike, but a more permanent development. First, the more usual hundi and hawala channels have been closed up, partly by administrative action, but more lastingly by ensuring that the bank rate and the open-market dollar rates do not grow too far apart. Second, more Pakistanis have gone abroad and are sending home money. One social change that has happened is that wheres once youngsters sought a future abroad if they were not thought of as of any account, now they go abroad as earning hands, and because they can send home remittances to their families. One of the consequences has been a  brain drain, and that too of our best and brightest, of our most highly qualified, and there is the spectacle of young Pakistani professionals using their educations, from institutions set up from the taxpayers’ money, abroad, either in the Middle East, or the West, as cheaper versions of Western experts.

The country depends heavily on these remittances, particularly to be sure that the State Bank has the foreign exchange to make the foreign exchange available to the governments to service its debt. However, the weaponization of these remittances by the PTI seems improper. The PML(N) is flogging a dead horse to say that those sending the money have more confidence in it because they have ignored the PTI’s civil disobedience call to stop sending remittances. Not to be outdone, the PTI is saying that the call will take effect during the coming months. Both seem to be ignoring the fact that the remittances are being made to keep the home fires burning, and neither should try to politicize something that is so close to home.

Editorial
Editorial
The Editorial Department of Pakistan Today can be contacted at: [email protected].

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