The banking sector will be disclosed to a “systemic risk” should the prevailing apprehension continue for another few months, Habib Bank Ltd CEO Muhammad Aurangzeb declared on Friday.
Talking at a conference on economic corruptions, the CEO of the biggest commercial bank cautioned the participants about a “big blow to the economy” if the stakeholders didn’t earn the right judgments swiftly.
“Even the smallest of institutions or the biggest of countries (need) timely decisions, timely execution. We’re not going to back away from the IMF (International Monetary Fund) programme… Whoever comes (to power) after the election will have to deal with the IMF,” he said.
The administration has been hauling its feet on structural reforms like power taxation adjustments for many months. Its hesitation to take hard judgments has led to inordinate reluctances in the distribution of funds from the IMF. The resulting deficit of dollars has been so acute that the country is discovering it tough to import even the absolute necessities like food and energy items. Banks don’t have the budgets to open letters of credit for the industrial sector, which has announced a spate of operational shutdowns because of the unavailability of industrial raw material.
