Completion of two years in power: Business community cheers PTI's achievements, censures its failures

KARACHI: The business community, in its mixed reaction to the two-year performance of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government, said that the last two years had been very challenging for the government. It successfully controlled the coronavirus situation, and the economic situation was improving, but tariff of electricity and prices of petroleum products, fertilizers, cement and food items had been increasing rapidly.

The Secretary-General of the United Business Group (UBG) and former FPCCI president, Zubair Tufail, said that the PTI government led by Imran Khan had successfully controlled the coronavirus situation as compared to India, but prices of essential commodities including sugar, flour, milk and petrol had been increasing substantially.

Commenting on PTI's two-year performance, he said when Prime Minister Imran Khan took office, the country's economic affairs had been under pressure. However, after taking office, the PTI government took some important steps, including that of banning unnecessary imports and increasing of duties.

As a result, imports fell by about five billion dollars in one year, and the current account deficit got reduced from $20 billion to $3 billion in the second year.

"This is a major achievement of his government," he added. He expressed his concerns over the fact that in the second year, the price of flour increased from Rs40 to Rs65 per kg and of sugar from Rs70 per kg to Rs100 per kg and Rs110 per kg in Peshawar.

Also, petrol prices increased sharply from Rs70 per liter to over Rs104 per liter, but the income of the common man fell instead of rising, and inflation broke the back of the general public.

He said that the biggest achievement of the PTI government was controlling the coronavirus outbreak intelligently while in neighboring India, due to the poor strategy of the government there, 900 to 1,000 people died of coronavirus every day.

The better strategy of Prime Minister Imran Khan's government to control the coronavirus in Pakistan had reduced the daily death toll from 100 to 10, which had been praised around the world, especially by the World Health Organization.

Zubair Tufail further said that due to the coronavirus, Pakistan's economy, like the economies of other countries of the world, got engulfed in the crisis.

He said that grant of loans and delayed repayment of many loans in the second year of the present government's current tenure, the interest rate was reduced from 13% to 7%, due to which the business community breathed a sigh of relief, and the wheel of the country's economy turned.

He said Pakistan received the highest-ever remittances ($2.768 billion) from overseas Pakistanis in July 2020.

He said that exports had been declining due to rising production costs owing to current prices of gas and electricity.

He said that the people hoped that Prime Minister Imran Khan and his government would fulfill their election promises of 10 million jobs and five million houses in the next three years.

Commenting on the situation in Karachi, he said no improvement had occurred in the city's situation though the PTI had got 14 National Assembly seats from this city.

"The power situation is constantly bad, especially during the rains. The city is in a state of disarray," he said.

The provincial government did not provide any help, and the Center did not pay any special attention. However, on the orders of Prime Minister Imran Khan, the NDMA had been cleaning the drains.

The President of Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum, Mian Zahid Hussain, said the last two years had been very challenging for the government, the people and for the business community.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020