Pakistan Industrial and Traders Associations Front (PIAF) has presented a seven-point action plan to revive the economy said Chairman Sohail Lashari in a statement on Thursday.
Political harmony, a ten-year energy plan, methodology to end corruption, plan to enhance agricultural yield, minimum dependence of foreign, domestic loans, lowering of mark-up rates for the sake of industrialisation in the country and a plan to improve law and order situation, are the features of the PIAF Economic Revival Agenda. The PIAF urged the government to immediately initiate work on these points to get rid of economic ills being faced by the trade and industry.
He said that political uncertainty has caused undue damage to the economy as it was not only the foreign investors who stayed away but at the domestic front there was hardly any investment. He said that due to wrong economic policies the graph of unemployment was going up with every passing day.
Lashari said that it is a high time that the government should prepare a ten-year energy plan so that the business community could be able to continue their businesses with peace of mind. He said that only because of massive fluctuations in electricity rates the businessmen avoided to take any foreign orders. He said that recent increase in petroleum prices would hard hit the business activities, as it is going to make Pakistani merchandise uncompetative in the world market.
He said that the government should immediately evolve a methodology to win consensus on Kalabagh Dam that is the only solution to cheaper electricity. The PIAF Chairman said that an announcement of the methodology to end corruption would help revive the government reputation that has plunged in the recent years due to multiple reasons. He said that corruption in rental power projects had sent a very wrong signal to the international community.
Lashari said that if the appropriate measures are not taken with immediate effect, the farming community would suffer heavily in near future. He said the heavy dependence on domestic and foreign loans is also earning a bad name for the government thus it should curtail its non-development funds to meet its day-to-day expenditures.