I thought that it also increased through remittances by overseas Pakistanis, I also thought that TTs were also regarded as remittances (and sometimes as FDI in to non-existent businesses in Pakistan)
True remittance as in inward remittance increase foreign reserves. Outward remittances such as profit MNCs send to their parent companies decreases foreign reserves. Through hawala hundi money dollars never make it to Pakistan. It was said that Shaukat Aziz kept himself updated on how much dollars these money exchangers kept through hawala hundi and considered them to be a part of the foreign reserves.
It may well be....the point is unless a foreigner purchases them there will be no dollars coming into Pakistan, therefore it is pointless to convert PKR in USD or vice versa for stating figures. You may come across people saying that devaluation alone increased Pakistan's debt. That is complete bullshit. Pakistan does not pay its dollar denominated debt with rupees but with dollars it earns through trade. It cannot exchange rupees for dollars. This is the reason why foreign borrowings are considered bad and will spiral a country toward more foreign borrowing. The simple rule in finance is to borrow the currency in which your cashflows are.all these hajis keep it in form of land, houses, jewelry, gold and foreign currency