Ever since he ordered the tests, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has been trying to shield his nation from the economic sanctions imposed by aid donors.

Within hours of announcing that Pakistan had gone nuclear, Sharif imposed a State of Emergency in the country and froze citizens' foreign currency accounts, fearing a run on local banks.

That unexpected step shattered the confidence of the people who had deposited some $11 billion in Pakistani banks on Sharif's assurances that it would be safe and always at their call.

Analysts said the government in fact wanted to use the $11 billion as a cover to meet foreign currency demands for the repayment of loans and imports. Pakistan has been groaning under a foreign debt of $40 billion and an internal debt of $26.5 billion. In the new fiscal year beginning July 1, 45 per cent of the Nationalincome will go towards servicing these debts.

On assuming power in 1997, Sharif, an industrialist, launched a debt retirement fund, offering a handsome return on the contributions made. The fund attracted $350 million in short-term deposits.

But Sharif's government continues to depend on foreign assistance. Though the G-8 has threatened to choke off the aid pipeline of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Asian Development Bank, the Sharif Government last Friday projected an inflow of $3.2 billion, or 23.4 per cent of the total Federal receipts, from donor agencies and countries during the 1998-99 fiscal year. At the same time, Finance Minister Sartaj Aziz announced that alternative sources were also being tapped by the government.

Premier Sharif then visited Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, reportedly in search of petro dollars. His close aide, Chaudhry Nisar Ali, went to Kuwait to make a similar plea.

Over the weekend Sharif flew to Britain to appeal to the 400,000Pakistanis working there to donate $1,000 each family to the National Self-Reliance Fund that he launched to make Pakistan stand on its own feet and to beat the sanctions against its nuclear tests.

But he dropped a similar fund-raising trip to the United States and Canada. The comparatively more educated and wealthier Pakistanis who live there reportedly echoed the popular demand that the "filthy rich" back home should be made to cough up first.

Pakistan newspapers are filled with demands that the rulers should set an example in austere living, recover the more than $4 billion in defaulted loans, taxes and utility bills from the influential people.

Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.