Do you remember an old adage:
‘ye cheez to Takkay ki nahiN hai’ (This thing is not worth a Takka).
Well, today the tables have turned. What was once true of BD Takka is now true for a Pakistani Rupee. As of today 1 Bangladeshi Takka equals 1.14 Pakistani Rupees . The phenomenal slide of Pakistani Rupee, which started around January 2008 continues unabated. Pakistani rupee is now trading at very close to 80 Rupees to a US dollar. Yahoo Finance was quoting Pakistani rupee at Rs 78.375 to a US dollar on October 6, 2008.
We also had a post on this topic back in May 25, 2008 when Rupee had slid down to Rs 68 for a dollar but this time slide in Rupee’s value seems like the steepest in history of Pakistan. Rupee has lost almost one third of its value in the past 10 months.
The question that everyone is asking is whether current Government is capable of controlling this situation or is it beyond anybody’s control.
Pakistan’s finance Minister (since May 12, 2008) is Mr. Naveed Qamar and atleast I’ve not heard anything from him about what are Government’s plans to bolster Rupee’s value or to stop fast depleting foreign exchange reserves of Pakistan (now down to approx $8.1 bn).
What is happening to a common person among all this turmoil is depicted well in a sher by Anwar Masood.
“jo dil pe guzarti hai raqam karte raheN ge”
kal tum ko bata deN ge raqam kitni bani hai
Reference:
Superb achievement of civilian govt. Now they will go begging back to IMF and World Bank.
I just read that SBP has injected $ 100 mn into the market. Will this slide the price of dollar down? What do you guys think, will ever Dollar be cheaper than it’s current market value?
Waqas > Our problems have existed since long before Musharraf.
This is all due to great policies of our beloved Musharaf
ye cheez to Rupee ki nahiN hai
Amazing. I remember clearly when it was 25 rupees to $1 dollar and we thought that was bad.
- Owais Mughal Sahib,
Not being an economist either but a concerned Pakistani like you, Adil and others in this forum.
Just the feeling of being a little ‘whiter’ than our brother Bangladeshis led us to our break up. The Taka has been quite strong past many years.
Aqil and Sajjad Sahib have very aptly put the situation in its proper perspective and we must not forget what pakistaniat.com is all about.
We should respond/react as Pakistanis and Pakistanis only.
No need to panic, as Aali Ji once said—
— utho ahle watan , hub’bay watan ki aazmaish hai,
–diloan ki, tan, man dhan ki aazmaish hai–
Sincerely
Naseer
HaHaHaHaHa!!
I am laughing at all those champions of democracy and their supporters who wanted Musharaf and PML out. For eight years dollar was at Rs60-Rs62, we did not have any issue of wheat, nor electricity. The previous government somehow managed it despite western boycott when musharaf took power, pakistan india confrontation, the earthquak disaster and the 2003 markets crash.
The lawyer movement is another joke, the lawyers and judiciary has been used like a prostitute by the power hungry politicians. Why arent people protesting now? Look what our president said yesterday, ‘The freedom fighters in kashmir are terrorists’. We should all be ashamed of having Mr.10% who is declared mentaly unstable by his own doctors from new york as president.
Pakistan will soon be a failed state, dollar will bounce to 600Rs, people will be looting each other and it will be worse then afganistan & sudan. India and israel will use the opportunity to attack on our nuclear facilities.
Pakistaniat.com is so bias why arent you criticising the current government!!!