Industry cannot progress without gas, power: Bengali

Rule of law is a must for the formation of a civilised society and industrial sector cannot progress without gas and electricity, said Sindh Chief Minister's Advisor Qaisar Bengali. He was speaking at a stakeholders' dialogue on 'Framework for Economic Growth of Pakistan' held here at Lasbela University of Agriculture, Water and Marine Sciences, Uthal, on Saturday.
The dialogue was organised by the Planning Commission of Pakistan with the support of Lasbella University and Governance Institute Network International (GINI) to get a feedback on the new growth framework from academicians, youth, media, entrepreneurs and civil society. Vice-Chancellor of the University Dr Abdul Hameed Bajoi presided over the dialogue.
Qaisar Bengali said: "We are destroying gas as the introduction of CNG was a big blunder. He said in Pakistan policies are made on political basis that's why elites and upper classes remain the beneficiary of the military regimes. He said privatisation is wrong step and only the democratic governments can put the country on track of development. He said the country is full of resources and better economic policies and use of resources can change the fate of common man. He said the biggest issue in the country is unemployment and the migration of people from rural areas to cities is not serving the purpose of development. He said women are confined to homes and there is need to involve them in business activity.
Member of Planning Commission Shahid Sattar briefed the audience about the salient features of new growth policy. He said the new strategy emphasised the role of state, governing methods and competitive markets. In his video address, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Dr Nadeem ul Haque said Pakistan's growth rate has been very volatile as our long-run growth is continuously declining due to lack of growth policy. "We believe that economic growth will increase through foreign aid and projects but in fact it could not and consequently our growth rate went down from 7 to 3 percent," he said.
Citing the examples of India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka as the grown up economies, he said Pakistan is the only country in the region where growth rate is continuously declining. He also warned if the situation persists, it would totally shatter the economy.
He further said our current strategy is based on Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) so we are using public resources to build infrastructure and doing projects. "In Planning Commission, we have realised that the PSDP cannot alone increase the growth rate and we are loosing Rs 300-400 billion per annum through PSDP." he added. Stressing the need for a change in growth policy, Dr Nadeem ul Haque said we require a sustained Grand Domestic Product (GDP) growth that should be 7 percent to cater to the needs of two million children who are annually adding to our population.
He said besides building infrastructure, high-rise and highways, we should focus on better government, good governance, competitive markets; creative cities and on conducive environment for trade and entrepreneurship. "We need to manage all the sectors of governance including old magistracy system," he said, adding that we still don't have introduced technology to the government institutions and running a civil structure of 19th century without reforming the same.
Dr Nadeem ul Haq said we need to have creative cities connected not just with highways but connected intellectually, physically and culturally with the hub of globalisation. He said the growth strategy must target youth and community. Looking at constraints of growth, he said there is a lack of competitive markets and government reforms. "Government must be able to bring professionalism to economy and focus on policy and regulations leaving ownership and financing of assets as well as management and production to private sector." He called upon academicians to come forward and discuss the issue of growth with students and society, make a research on it, examine the government policies and accept or reject it so that the country could be put on track.-PR