Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal has said that the country’s “total budget was functioning on loans”, which he termed was “intolerable”.

Speaking to the media in Islamabad, he said, “Our total budget is currently functioning on loans.

“In the payment of loans only, we need to get more loans other than our resources and our ongoing expenses — salaries, pensions, development, defence, subsidies, transfers to provinces — these are additional and are being paid by taking more loans,” he noted.

“This is intolerable,” the planning minister asserted.

Iqbal further vowed to realise China’s proposal related to CPEC that it presented recently with “full determination”. “We will also try to switch to innovative financing mechanisms to strengthen infrastructure,” the PML-N MNA added.