Asif Ali Zardari, former President of Pakistan and the Chairman of PPPP has rejected the compensation package announced by the Prime Minister for the textile sector of the country, terming it too little and too late. The former President emphasised that during the PML-N rule, Pakistan has long lost its hard-earned competitiveness, which had previously been achieved through the industry-friendly policies of the PPP.
He recalled that the Pakistan textile exports had peaked during his tenure to 13.4 percent of the national GDP, and have ever since sharply declined to only 7.8 percent of the GDP during 2016. Asif Zardari reminded that other governments all over the world have been incentivizing exports to take away Pakistan''''s share in the global markets, while our own government failed to respond in time.
The former President also severely condemned government''''s decision to withdraw subsidy on fertilisers. He said that "it''''s a conspiracy against the poor and the under privilege section of our rural population." He believes that this decision is not only going to severely affect the agriculture sector of the country, it will also drastically increase the poverty level in the rural areas of Pakistan.
He said the government''''s decision that it will only compensate the farmers of the Punjab province is an attempt to destroy the inter-provincial harmony. He said that only to achieve some cheap political mileage the Nawaz government on the one hand has withdrawn a subsidy of Rs 400 per bag on fertilizer while on the other hand, it is secretly compensating farmers of their own political constituency, Punjab. Zardari warned that the federal government is playing with fire; as such measures are going to create provincial rifts and disharmony.
This, he said creates a sense of deprivation amongst the people of other three provinces.
Zardari demanded that the decision of withdrawing subsidy should be immediately reversed. He said that the People''''s Party is standing with the farmers of the whole country. The former President of Pakistan noted that the agriculture experts point out that the upcoming crops of sugarcane and maize, are going to be critically affected by this decision.-PR
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