Muhammad Saeed Faisal urged govt to allow old Pakistani Embassy building in US to start international campaign to write off country’s IMF loans

WASHINGTON: Patron-in-Chief, World Minorities Alliance (WMA), Muhammad Saeed Faisal on Thursday urged the government of Pakistan to allow the old Pakistani Embassy building in US to start the international campaign to write off country’s IMF and other loans of over US$129 billion.
The WMA Patron-in-Chief in a statement said the country’s old Embassy Building was a historic place and could be utilised for national service and he would like to initiate his global movement to write off the country’s International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank (WB) and other external debts.
Faisal said that the government had paid around $1.3 million in taxes after the property’s diplomatic status was finished and was turned into a public property. The highest bid in the previous process was made of $6.8 million by some overseas Pakistan, he added.
The WMA global campaign will be a massive and an ambitious cause to persuade World Bank and other international monetary institutions to kick start debt write off lottery for developing countries and it could help cancel almost half of the external debts which is achievable, he added.
“The Convener WMA Julius Salik had earlier written a letter to the World Bank in this regard to start a debt write off lottery which the World Bank responded that it could be considered as an option and idea for supporting the developing countries facing worst economic crunch,” Saeed Faisal said.
WMA patron Saeed Faisal said the cause of WMA was bigger and it had its approach to the international monetary and financial institutions. “If the Government of Pakistan and Foreign Office support WMA then it could achieve its goal convincingly,” he added.
The country’s economic situation was deteriorating and it demanded the entire nation to come forward and stand united in these challenging times to save the motherland from default.
He said he would convene special meetings, symposiums, dialogues and charity drives to make all-out efforts for writing off the country’s debts.
He added that if the building was not donated to WMA then it could consider to participate in the bidding process due to be restarted. He would make his efforts to win the highest bid to buy the property which no more enjoy the diplomatic status and is subject to local taxes and duties, he added.