KARACHI: Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal has said that the reason for the country’s “non-development” is not corruption but the discontinuation of policies.
Speaking at a meeting with Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) members, he said that Pakistan is going through an economic crisis and efforts are being made to overcome the crisis.
The main reason for economic crisis is discontinuation of policies and non-purchase of cheap gas during the Covid pandemic. During the pandemic, government officials did not sign long contracts due to the fear of NAB.
Ahsan Iqbal said that policies need at least ten years to be effective.
He further said that in 1998 we were thinking of exporting electricity to India. We have added 11000 megawatts of electricity in 4 years in the system.
He said that in 2017, the ambassadors used to meet in Islamabad and talked about CPEC and Pakistan's reputation was very good around the world. This country was a paradise for Chinese investment.
In 2018, the regime changed which destroyed progress. He said false cases were made against politicians.
He said claims were made that agreements were signed with China to create industrial zones, but there was no agreement during Imran Khan’s era.
After the economic crisis, the inflation rate has reached a high level. In 2018, the development budget was 1000 billion rupees.
Ahsan Iqbal said that China is also a big importer, we did not pay attention to it. The potential of the agricultural sector is very high. China is a big meat market.
He said general elections will be held in October 2023.
A new census will be held in March-April, after which four to five months will be required for delimitation.
He said the loss of US 30 billion dollars due to floods has increased our financial difficulties. If exports are taken from US 32 billion to 100 billion dollars, the economic problems will be solved.
President KCCI Tariq Yusuf expressed concern over non-supply of gas to all the industries and asked what will be gas supply position in future.
He said that the power tariff in Karachi has increased by 60% in the last six months. The power tariff should be fixed for at least one year.
It has become difficult to run industries due to high cost of doing business. Javed Balwani said that exports cannot increase until gas is provided to industries.
Line losses in domestic supply of gas are 51 percent. A rapid increase in exports is necessary to bring the economy out of crisis.
Former president KCCI AQ Khalil said that the economy cannot improve in the environment of political instability. There is no role of Pakistani diplomats in the environment of ongoing instability.
Zubair Motiwala said in the current situation, the production and sales activities of multinational companies are also affected.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022