This is apropos a Business Recorder news item “Excessive purchase of imported items blocking progress: Hafeez” carried by the newspaper yesterday. According to it, finance minister Dr Hafeez Sheikh has identified a major impediment to country’s progress and prosperity. “The prices of the imported products were deliberately kept low – through a policy. And everyone wants to purchase imported products…. This is the main reason our country has not prospered and progressed the way it should have,” he was quoted as saying before a Senate committee.

It is quite unfortunate that successive governments have in fact promoted or encouraged the import of even non-essential items through their policies, adversely impacting the country’s balance of payment position. The incumbent government must revisit its own policies in a manner through which imports of non-essential items are appropriately reduced while those of machinery and raw material for export-oriented industries are encouraged.

Shela Raza (Lahore)

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021