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Miracle!: Pakistan elite zooms around in foreign cars as economy crumbles

Sanctions and a collapsing economy have not daunted some people in Pakistan who continue to import big luxury cars while the poor people are constantly told to tighten their belts.

A Karachi daily has described this phenomenon as a miracle.

Sartaj Aziz, who gave up ministry of finance two days ago, was able to persuade the Organisation of Islamic Conference and some other member countries to bail Pakistan out of the situation that sanctions have plunged it into. But it appears rich Pakistanis are not willing to help the Nawaz Sharief government ''smash the begging bowl''.

Although Aziz had put a ban on the import of luxury cars, yet as many as 409 BMWs landed at Karachi port. Many more are on their way to Karachi. The importers include many high-ups in the ruling elite.

About a week ago, the State Bank of Pakistan had announced that the country was left with only $ 531 million in its foreign exchange reserves. At the time of the nuclear tests at May-end, the reserves were as high as $ 1.4 billion.

Sharief had gone ahead with the nuclear tests hoping that Pakistanis settled abroad would send enough money to make up for the loss of foreign exchange due to anticipated sanctions.

But that has not happened. The government's self-reliance fund has not filled up to any helpful height yet. The government took a foolhardy decision to reduce duty on luxury cars from 400 per cent to 125 per cent in the 1998 Finance Bill. That has encouraged importers to import more cars unmindful of the foreign exchange situation. And there are allegations that Sartaj Aziz himself is involved in car business.

UNI