KARACHI: Chairman of Businessmen Group (BMG) and former President Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI) M Zubair Motiwala, while expressing deep concerns over the ongoing political crises that led to dissolution of the National Assembly, stated that the entire business and industrial community was perturbed over the recent political developments as the economy was already in a fragile state due to devaluation of currency, declining reserves, rising commodity prices, widening current account and fiscal deficits. Therefore, these political crises must not be stretched for a longer period and resolved at the earliest with a view to saving the economy from further woes.
“The exports of Karachi city, which stood at 54 percent last year, have now descended to 50 percent as the lawmakers, who mostly remained busy in dealing with the opposition all the time, hardly had any time to look into and resolve the gas issue being suffered by the industries of Karachi that has caused 4 percent reduction in exports this year,” Zubair Motiwala said, adding that similar was the situation in case of other economic indicators which have also been drifting downward due to political uncertainty and the lack of attention.
He said that the business community was gravely perturbed at this uncertain situation as the businesses are at a standstill, customers have disappeared from the markets and traders are facing serious liquidity crunch.
He stressed that people at the helm of the affairs must realise that the political issues were terribly hurting the economy so these have to be tackled prudently at the earliest otherwise, we fear that the already ailing economy would face more challenges and all the efforts made to somehow keep the economy afloat would go wasted.
Chairman BMG said that the Karachi Chamber has always rightly demanded from the governments from time to time to introduce and strictly implement a ‘Charter of Economy’ duly agreed by all political parties of the country but unfortunately, this legitimate demand was never taken into consideration which was the reason for all the economic ills being faced by the country. “Consistency in the government policies and a clear roadmap to move forward which is devised through Charter of Economy, are the key factors leading to progress, prosperity and development which can only be achieved through Charter of Economy,” he added.
He said that the country was in a dire need of a Charter of Economy or road-map, developed in consultation with the business and industrial community and endorsed by all political parties.
“We hope that the political crises are amicably resolved at the earliest and the Charter of Economy, which is the need of the hour, is also introduced and implemented in the larger interest of the country as any delay is going to prove very harmful for the economy.”
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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