Pakistan has defaulted, says the country's defence minister

Pakistan's Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has said that the cash-strapped nation has defaulted.

 "The country has defaulted. We live in a state that has defaulted," said the senior Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) leader addressing a convention at a private college in Sialkot on Saturday (18 February, reports The News.

Khawaja Asif said all the solutions to Pakistan's economic problems are within the country and not the International Monetary Fund (IMF) — whose crucial $1.1 billion loan Pakistan is desperately trying to secure.

Presenting a solution to address the country's economic woes, the Pak defence minister said that golf clubs were built on 1,500 acres of government land and Pakistan can pay off a quarter of its debt by selling two of its golf clubs.

He added that everyone, including the country's military, bureaucracy and politicians, are to blame for the current economic mess as the law and constitution are not followed in Pakistan.

"For the last 32 years, I have seen politics getting disgraced in Pakistan," he further said.

Stricken by a balance-of-payments crisis as it attempts to service high levels of external debt amid political chaos and deteriorating security, Pakistan's economy is going through a crisis.  Inflation has rocketed, the Pakistani rupee has plummeted and the country can no longer afford imports - causing a severe decline in the industry.

Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves stand at around $3.19 billion as of 10 February, reflecting the miseries of the $350 billion economy struggling to fund imports as thousands of containers of supplies were stranded at its ports, stalling production and putting jobs of millions of people at risk.

Life for the Pakistani masses, which was already tough given the current state of the country's economy, got even harder after the petrol price surged to a historic high of Rs272 per litre — in line with the IMF's demands.