Renowned economist Dr Kaiser Bengali has warned that the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Ordinance, which is likely to be introduced soon, is anti-national and could lead to no accountability of central bank officials besides ultimately resulting “in the collapse of the country”.
Speaking to a private media outlet, he said that the law would leave the federal government and subsequently the state paralysed.
“There would be no money to pay salaries because the top priority would be paying back loans for which new loans will be sought,” Dr Bengali said.
To a query by host Asma Shirazi, he said the law had no parallel in the modern world, however, a similar one dating back to the Ottoman Era played a key role in the downfall of the House of Osman.
“They didn’t have any money to fight wars or deal with the rebellion after handing control of all the money to the central bank.”
“This would dissolve Pakistan because there won’t even be enough money to pay the police,” Dr Bengali maintained, adding that it was a bleak picture.
“The opposition alliance should put its other demands on hold and work towards stopping this legislation,” he concluded. The same was stated by him in a tweet as well.
Earlier, Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) Secretary General Ahsan Iqbal also claimed the government was enacting such a law which would hand over the State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) control to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other international financial institutions.
Addressing a press conference, he said that with the new legislation, the SBP would not be accountable to the parliament, the prime minister or any institution of the country and it would only be answerable to the international institutions.
He said National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) or any other institution would not be able to ask the SBP governor and other officials for any corruption.
“If the prime minister of Pakistan can appear before NAB, then why can’t the SBP governor?” Ahsan said adding it was only to mortgage Pakistan’s economy with the international institutions.
