IMF AND WORLD BANK’S RESTRUCTURING AGREEMENT FOR PAKISTAN

Published in Pakistan Today.

The ideology of neoliberalism imposed on poor nations demanding them to lower the living standards of their people. Enforcing Structural Adjustment Policies (SAPs) to ensure debt repayment and economic restructuring. These are the general demands by IMF and World Bank, requiring poor countries to reduce spending on things like health, education and development, while focusing on repayment and other economic policies as priority. The IMF and World Bank Restructuring programs have been heavily criticized for elevated poverty in developing third world countries and increased dependency on the richer nations.

Impact of IMF and World Bank Core Principles

Resource extraction/export-oriented open markets, minimized role of state, privatization, reduced protection of domestic industries, currency devaluation, increased interest rates, unstable exchange rates, flexibility of the labor market, elimination of subsidies, reduced financial regulations and forced increase in cheaper exports to keep currencies stable and earn foreign exchange to pay off debts.

According to Joseph Stiglitz (Ex-Chief Economist at IMF); the Bank’s ‘investigation’ involves little more than close inspection of five-star hotels. It concludes with a meeting with a begging finance minister, who is handed a ‘restructuring agreement’ pre-drafted for ‘voluntary’ signature.

In 1988, Davison Budhoo (Ex-Economist at IMF, who worked there for 12 years, designing SAP’s for third world countries) revealed in his 22-page resignation letter;
“When we went on a mission, we did not even have the scope to innovate, to look at the country and make projections, that you thought were reasonable… there was already a briefing paper before we entered the country. We were told what we were expected to do, and give conditionality in terms of what the fiscal deficit was and how much it should be reduced; even before we entered the mission… we were expected to structure our findings in relation to the figures in the briefing paper, which were put there without any research, and were predetermined. So the conditionality was also predetermined… In this sense, every IMF mission is fraudulent even today…”

IMF and World Banks’s Structural Readjustment Program for Pakistan

World Bank assistance for Pakistan traces back to 1971, when the country received $25 million IDA assistance for cyclone-devastated East Pakistan. World Bank’s Resident Mission in Pakistan started in 1979 whereas Pakistan became the member of IMF in 1988. IMF’s restructuring agreement for Pakistan was introduced in 1991 when Privatization commission was formally established. It is to be noted that the ruling authorities, the politicians, bureaucracy as well as the establishment were not well versed with the tricks of trade and major role was played by SBP Governors (the chosen individuals) who were either former World Bank employees or directly associated with IMF in the past.

IMF’s control on monetary and economic policies

In order to understand how IMF directly controlled the monetary and economic policies, it’s necessary to know how the money policy works in Pakistan. The country’s currency i.e Pakistani Rupee was pegged to the Pound sterling until 1982, when the government of General Zia-ul-Haq, changed it to managed float. This regime is the current international financial environment in which exchange rates fluctuate from day to day, but central bank attempt to influence the country’s exchange rate by buying and selling currencies. The Central bank also controls the money supply through open market operations, targeting interest rate in order to expand or contract the monetary base (the expansionary and contractionary monetary policy), influencing the economic growth. A careful analysis of Fluctuation of interest rates, market-based pricing and periodic interventions by SBP in the past makes it clearly evident that the monetary policies are under direct control of IMF and World bank, through their representatives governing the central bank.

It is really important to note that all the Central Bank SBP governors who worked at their posts during the period starting from 1988 till 2009, were direct employees of either IMF or World Bank in the past, and have played key roles in defining the economic, financial and monetary policies for the country for more than two decades. It is a matter of common sense to question why Dr. Yaqub, Dr. Ishrat Hussain and Dr. Shamshad Akhtar left their lucrative jobs at IMF or World Bank and joined the Central Bank of Pakistan as governors. This question can also be rephrased as why these Governors were imported from IMF or World Bank to run the financial affairs of Pakistan. A careful analysis of country’s monetary and economic policies in last 20 years, will answer the question.

During last two decades, IMF loans have been an important source to manage the financial problems of Pakistan such as balance of payment deficits, stabilization of currency, rebuilding international reserves, managing liquidity problems along with enabling the country to meet it’s short term needs by providing various types of loans which IMF calls as its lending ‘facility’. These loans followed some very strict conditions imposed on the country in the name of “IMF’s Assistance policy”, raising prices on food, water, oil, electricity and cooking gas etc. in the name of market-based pricing bringing the nation ‘down and out’ squeezing last drop of blood out of poor people. However the politicians during the regimes of Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif, Perwez Musharraf and Asif Zardari have earned great fortunes in form of commissions received on account of privatization and liberalization. Cash flight and reserve drainage has also been observed during these regimes, followed by interest rate adjustments as per IMF’s demand. On the other hand, the country is struggled to maintain it’s currency exchange rate against US$ by throwing it’s products in open competitive export market. It is the same restructuring agreement that has deprived the nation of it’s precious resources located at Reko Diq, which is owned by Foreign mining companies and not the people of Pakistan.

IMF’s Restructuring Program;

Imtiaz Alam Hanfi (Governor SBP 1988-1993) initiated the restructuring program by privatizing financial institutions in Pakistan. Mr. Hanfi was not a former IMF or World Bank employee, however he attended the World Bank training based on managing various World Bank tasks for different countries in a simulated environment. Unfortunately the short training didn’t prove sufficient enough and he ended up getting into various conflicts with political governments of PPP and PML in 1988 and 1993 due to his Treasury Bill and Foreign Exchange reforms. In addition to that, he failed to comply with the demands of IMF to increase the interest rate to a desired level. Being somewhat dissatisfied with Imtiaz Hanfi, IMF recommended it’s employee Dr. Muhammad Yaqub who was appointed as Special Secretary/Principal Economic Adviser in the Ministry of Finance by PML Government in 1992. Later on He took charge as Governor SBP in 1993. He was an Economist by Profession and held several important positions in the IMF, which he joined in 1972 and left in 1992. Dr. Yaqub remained as SBP Governor till 1999. During this period he paved way for “IMF’s Four Steps to Damnation” by implementing the assistance strategy.

The four step program became fully effective in 1999 when Dr. Ishrat Hussain was appointed as Governor State Bank. Dr. Ishrat was a former World Bank Employee who joined World Bank in 1979 and held key positions there. As Governor SBP, Dr. Ishrat implemented a major program of restructuring of the Central Bank and steered the reforms of the banking sector, which were highly applauded by IMF and World Bank. He held the post till 2005 and then he was appointed as Chairman, National Commission for Government Reforms. In 2006, Dr. Shamshad Akhtar took charge as Governor State Bank, succeeding Dr. Ishrat Hussain. Interestingly, Dr. Akhtar was also a former World Bank employee who joined the bank in 1979 and has worked for 10 years as an Economist in the World Bank’s Resident Mission in Pakistan, starting from 1980. She served as Governor state bank till 2009, then she re-joined the World bank as Vice president and remained at the position till she became Assistant Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs at UN. Dr. Shamshad was followed by Syed Salim Raza a British national and a former Citi Bank employee who took charge as Governor SBP in 2009. He resigned in 2010 due to the pressure from the IMF to make painful reforms. After the sudden ouster of Salim Raza, Shahid Hafeez Kardar took the charge as Governor State Bank. Mr. Kardar was a member of National Commission for Government Reform under chairmanship of Dr. Ishrat Hussain. Hafeez Kardar resigned from his post in 2011 due to his differences with Finance Ministry. He was under pressure due to excessive government borrowing by PPP Government under the leadership of Asif Zardari. The next one to join the office was Yaseen Anwar, a US citizen with JP Morgan, Bank of America and Merrill Lynch on his resume. Mr. Yaseen successfully covered the financial discrepancies by Zardari’s Government and resigned in 2014 when Nawaz Shareef’s Finance ministry demanded the same favor from him.

Impact of IMF directed restructuring on Pakistan

It is totally unnecessary to know which puppet was sitting at the seat of president, prime minister or finance minister during that period (1988 to 2014) and which puppet replaced the former one. Whats more important to see is that the national assets have been stripped away in the name of privatization and our politicians have made billions out of it in form of commissions received for selling those assets at cheaper prices. Market liberalization is already in place and a selective group has the control on broad money supply. This group is bringing in cash for real estate and currency speculation and sending it out without any restriction whatsoever. These two factors have triggered the third step i.e. market pricing or steep rise in prices of oil, electricity, gas, water and other utilities. Riots (peaceful demonstrations dispersed by bullets, tanks and tear gas) are now quite prominent in the country. Violent mobs protesting against electricity and gas shortage, excessive billing and rising prices of commodities can be seen throughout the country and these protests are becoming a routine. Recent sit-in protests in country’s capital Islamabad by two opposition parties, is linked with the same factors. Flight of Capital due to liberal market policies is in progress and the nation is almost on the verge of getting dragged into free trade by the rules of the World Trade Organisation and the World Bank. Already deprived of our resources which are owned and controlled by outsiders, exporting our resources at cheaper rates in a competitive open market, in order to maintain the currency exchange rate which is dropping fast against US$, we are moving towards a fate similar to Nigeria, a country having US$ 80 billion of annual oil exports, yet unable to do anything for it’s economy struck by extreme poverty and inequality.

Question is, What maybe a conceivable solution to all this? Can this nation avoid this fate of getting stripped away of it’s resources, it’s economic freedom and ending up in the list of failed states?

The answer is quite clear. Yes it can. Take the example of Botswana. That country did it by telling IMF to go packing. We can do that too. All we need is a sincere government capable of steering the nation through this carefully planned and manufactured storm. It’s not simple though. It’s like someone asking his attorney to pack the bags and leave during a court hearing. It can only be done by having everything carefully sorted out before making a decision.

The primary issue, the major factor that has played a dominant role in dragging the country to this stage is lack of political will to resist. Those who can comprehend are being kept away from decision making positions while same faces are being rotated on the seats of power, with no alternate choices for public to chose their representatives. Whether it’s impression management with the help of media campaigns, whether it’s involvement of money to influence and change voter’s perception, may it be illiteracy and lack of education, whether it’s pre-poll rigging, the consequences are to be faced collectively by all.

One of the leaders of the opposition parties protesting in the Capital, has boldly taken a firm stance against incapable, greedy and selfish group of people holding on to the seats of power, using all possible means to persuade a decisive majority of uneducated people and use their votes to gain the favorable results. The leader of PTI, Imran khan has shown a strong commitment to it’s followers and has tried to expose the real picture to general public. The protest is in progress and the outcome is yet unclear. Lets hope that the results go in favor of the real positive change, bringing in capable people at the decision making positions. Those having the ability to identify, analyse and understand the real issues and then act accordingly to resolve them.

INSIDE WORKINGS OF IMF AND WORLD BANK

IMF: An organization that claims to to promote international economic cooperation, international trade, employment, and exchange rate stability.

World Bank: An international financial institution stating poverty reduction through foreign investment, international trade and facilitating capital investment, as it’s goal

An organization and a financial institution, created under the disguise of helping the poor nations, while in reality, these entities are causing nothing but crisis, failures and suffering, stripping away the national assets and destroying the economies in the name of privatization and liberalization.

The information provided in this article, is based on investigation conducted by Gregory Palast ( a renowned journalist and a top investigator who obtained documents marked, ‘confidential’ and ‘restricted’ from an unidentified World bank employee), and a shocking inside story revealed by Joseph Stiglitz (Winner of Nobel prize in Economics) ex-chief economist of the World Bank.

Joseph Stiglitz was an insider, a whistle blower who was fired from World Bank in 1999. He was not allowed quiet retirement, while US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers demanded a public excommunication for Stiglitz’ having expressed his first mild dissent from globalization World Bank style.

Please remember that Stiglitz cannot simply be dismissed as a conspiracy nutter. The man was inside the game – a member of Bill Clinton’s cabinet, chairman of the President’s council of economic advisers. In April 2001, Greg conducted an exclusive interview of Stiglitz and it was published as an article “The IMF’s Four Steps to Damnation” in The Observer (London) and another version in The Big Issue – that’s the magazine that the homeless flog on platforms in the London Underground.

Big Issue offered equal space to the IMF, whose “deputy chief media officer” wrote:
“… I find it impossible to respond given the depth and breadth of hearsay and misinformation in [Palast’s] report.”
Of course it was difficult for the Deputy Chief to respond. The information (and documents) came from the unhappy lot inside his agency and the World Bank.

The inside workings of the IMF, the World Bank, and the bank’s 51% owner, the US Treasury.

There’s an assistance strategy for every poorer nation, designed, says the World Bank, after careful in-country investigation. But according to insider Stiglitz, the Bank’s ‘investigation’ involves little more than close inspection of five-star hotels. It concludes with a meeting with a begging finance minister, who is handed a ‘restructuring agreement’ pre-drafted for ‘voluntary’ signature.

Each nation’s economy is analysed, then the Bank hands every minister the same four-step programme.

Step One is privatization. Instead of objecting to the sell-offs of state industries, some politicians, using the World Bank’s demands to silence local critics, happily floggs their electricity and water companies, because of the possibility of receiving heavy commissions for shaving a few billion off the sale price. Carefully selected individuals are promoted through impression management with the help of media campaigns and money to influence to change voter’s perception. The same faces keep on rotating, with no alternate choices for public to chose their Representatives. This happened in the case of the biggest privatisation of all, the 1995 Russian sell-off. The US-backed oligarchs stripped Russia’s industrial assets, with the effect that national output was cut nearly in half. ‘The US Treasury view was: “This was great, as we wanted Yeltsin re-elected. We DON’T CARE if it’s a corrupt election.”

Step Two is capital market liberalization. In theory this is a ‘hot money’ cycle that allows investment capital to flow in and out. Cash comes in for speculation in real estate and currency, then flees at the first whiff of trouble. A nation’s reserves can drain in days. A selective group, mainly the shareholders of major corporations and banks, controls the broad money supply, while chosen individuals are appointed for key positions at central banks. These individuals play key role in facilitating cash flow, following the specific guidelines dictated by IMF. For example in case of Indonesia and Brazil, the money simply flew out. And when that happens, to seduce speculators into returning a nation’s own capital funds, the IMF demands these nations raise interest rates to 30%, 50% and 80%. The result is predictable; Higher interest rates demolish property values, savage industrial production and drain national treasuries.

At this point, the IMF drags the gasping nation to Step Three: market-based pricing – a fancy term for raising prices on food, water, oil, electricity and cooking gas. This leads, predictably, to Step-Three-and-a-Half ‘the IMF riot’. The IMF riot is painfully predictable. When a nation is, ‘down and out, [the IMF] squeezes the last drop of blood out of them. They turn up the heat until, finally, the whole cauldron blows up,’ – as when the IMF eliminated food and fuel subsidies for the poor in Indonesia in 1998. Indonesia exploded into riots. There are other examples – the Bolivian riots over water prices and the riots in Ecuador over the rise in cooking gas prices imposed by the World Bank. These riots were totally expected.

According to several documents obtained from inside the World Bank, based on Interim Country Assistance Strategy for Ecuador, the Bank several times suggests – with cold accuracy – that the plans could be expected to spark ‘social unrest’. That’s not surprising. The secret report notes that the plan to make the US dollar Ecuador’s currency has pushed 51% of the population below the poverty line.

The IMF riots (means peaceful demonstrations dispersed by bullets, tanks and tear gas) cause new flights of capital and government bankruptcies This economic arson has its bright side – for foreigners, who can then pick off remaining assets at fire sale prices. A pattern emerges. There are lots of losers but the clear winners seem to be the western banks and US Treasury.

Finally arrives step four – free trade. This is free trade by the rules of the World Trade Organisation and the World Bank, like the Opium Wars in nineteenth century which too was about “opening markets”. As in the nineteenth century, Europeans and Americans today are kicking down barriers to sales in Asia, Latin American and Africa while barricading their own markets against the Third World ‘s agriculture. In the Opium Wars, the West used military blockades. Today, the World Bank can order a financial blockade, which is just as effective and sometimes just as deadly.

The two major concerns about IMF and World Bank plans;

Because the plans are devised in secrecy and driven by an absolutist ideology, never open for discourse or dissent, they ‘undermine democracy’
These plans usually don’t work. For example, under the guiding hand of IMF structural ‘assistance’ Africa’s income dropped by 23%.

Did any nation avoid this fate? Yes, Botswana, by telling IMF to go packing. This information was provided by Joseph Stiglitz who proposes radical land reform: an attack on the 50% crop rents charged by the propertied oligarchies worldwide.

Why didn’t the World Bank and IMF follow his advice?

Because if you challenge [land ownership], that would be a change in the power of the elites. That’s not high on their agenda.

What drove Joseph Stiglitz to put his job on the line was the failure of the banks and US Treasury to change course when confronted with the crises, failures, and suffering perpetrated by their four-step monetarist mambo.

‘It’s a little like the Middle Ages,’ says the economist, ‘When the patient died they would say well, we stopped the bloodletting too soon, he still had a little blood in him.’

Maybe it’s time to remove the bloodsuckers.