Less than 500 expatriates have invested in Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Banao certificates, raising a measly $26 million, and putting the PM’s major appeal to overseas Pakistanis flat on its back.
Relying on his popularity with overseas Pakistanis, the Prime Minister had hoped that expats would be convinced to invest in Pakistan by buying his Diaspora bonds, which were the PTI’s answer to the economic woes affecting the country. Even back then the opposition had said such ‘fund raising’ efforts would do little to help the economy
According to information in the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), less than 600 transactions were made, raising a mere $26million through the Diaspora bonds. However, people from within the central bank have also revealed that discounting multiple transactions from the same people, the total amount of participating expats amounts to less than 500.
The SBP has been reluctant to issue any official data regarding the yields of the Diaspora bonds, perhaps because of the paltry and embarrassing figures that insider sources have revealed to the media. The central bank’s chief spokesperson, Abid Qamar, has said that such questions should be posed to the finance ministry, and not the SBP.
