According to a report by Gulf News Asia, the ‘friendly’ neighbor, Pakistan, is planning to increase its foreign exchange reserve by exporting donkeys, said a senior official at the livestock department in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
In order to boost the country’s exports to earn much needed foreign exchange, the Live Stock Department in Khyber has announced that it will develop donkey farms in the country. Not only that, as a follow up to the announcement, the first and one of a kind donkey hospital opened earlier in Lahore having the largest number of animals in the country.
Interestingly, Pakistan has the world’s third largest population of donkeys with more than 5 million animals, while China is at number one. Facing the severe shortage of foreign reserve, Pakistan is resorting to desperate measures and one of these is export of Donkeys to China. According to a report by Geo TV, Chinese companies have shown interest in donkey farming in Pakistan. Pakistani government would want to sign an agreement with a company that is associated with the Chinese government, the report added.
According to reports, at least two donkey farms are being set up in Dera Ismail Khan and Mansehra with a foreign partnership. Officials said foreign companies are ready to make a $3 billion investment in the commercial farming of donkeys. “We want to sign an agreement after thinking carefully because we do not want scarcity of animals in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” added the official.
Pakistani government had estimated an export of about 80,000 donkeys to China during the first three years. The donkey farm is part of projects initiated by the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa provincial government and is called ‘KP-China Sustainable Donkey Development Programme’.
Donkeys are highly prized in China, especially for their hide which is used to manufacture traditional Chinese medicines. The project was unveiled at a time when China is desperately in need of more donkeys. “The proposed project will help improve the socio-economic status of donkey-rearing communities by improving the health and production of local donkeys,” stated the Livestock Department.
The desperate measure taken by the Pakistani government shows the true scenario of the economic crisis of the friendly neighbor. Earlier, Global Money Laundering & Terrorist Financing Threat Assessment organization, Pakistan has been formally placed in the grey list of The Financial Action Task Force (FATF). FATF is an international organization aimed at combating money laundering and terror funding. The FATF prepares two lists the ‘black list’ and ‘grey list’. If a country is included in the black list then it has to face international sanctions, although the actions against a greylist country are very minimal. The chances of being included in the blacklist were looming over Pakistan.
Not only that, thousands of people are losing jobs in Pakistan due to newly implemented economic reforms by the newly elected, Imran Khan’s government in the country. The businesses in the country are asking for ‘amnesty scheme’ to fit themselves in new rules and regulations. The trade and business in Pakistan are suffering due to new rules and the market is almost closed. If the confidence of the business community is not revived huge unemployment will be witnessed in upcoming months, warned analyst.
The halting of US aid to Pakistan has exacerbated the problems faced by its economy and the latest gimmick to gain some foreign currency is as desperate as it can get. It seems that Pakistan’s bad days are here to stay.