ISLAMABAD: The speakers at a conference on Wednesday demanded that the government should establish an independent debt audit commission and make its findings public.

Addressing the conference `Unlocking the Chains of Debt` organised by Islamic Relief, a nongovernmental development organisation, they warned that annual debt repayment were set to increase to $6 billion annually incoming years which was more than three times of what Pakistan currently spent on health and education combined.

MNA Dr Ramesh Kumar of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) highlighted the government`s view on national debts, and agreed that the issue of debt should be discussed at various forums.

`I will table a resolution in the National Assembly seeking establishment of a debt audit commission,` he added.

The speakers said that thePakistan`s economy had been suffering due to huge debt burden, and one of the reasons preventing poverty alleviation and development.

The speakers also criticised the International Monitory Fund (IMF) and International Financial Institutions for the crippling conditionalities attached to loans.

TheIslamicReliefPakistanalso launched a paper at the Conference which said that Pakistan`s foreign debtburdenhadreachedupto$65 billion.

The paper said debts had donelittle for the majority of Pakistanis, rather increased inequality and deepened impoverishment.

The paper maintained that Pakistan should not mortgage its future by being forced to borrow for the repayment of old loans.

Qazi Azmat Isa, the CEO, Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund, said the loaning agencies too should be blamed for the misuse of debts.

`It is the prime responsibility of the creditors to be equally accountable for what they fund, and check where the amount has beenspent,` he added.

Eminent human rights activists LA. Rehman and Prof. Qais Aslam of University of Central Punjab also spoke on the occasion and gave views from the civil society perspective on Pakistan`s debts, and stressed that both the government and creditors were responsible for carelessness in this regard.

Adnan Cheema, the incoming Country Director of Islamic Relief said that if Pakistan intends to break the begging bowl, it should get its own house in order.