LAHORE:Pakistan needs a charter of economy for at least 20 to 30 years instead of another loan programme from the IMF as the fund programme always comes up with an inflation storm while the public situation is worsened enough that it couldn’t bear it anymore.
These views were expressed by the discussants in Jang Economic Session on ‘What will public get with new IMF agreement?” The panelists were Qayyum Nizami, Rana Sajjad, Dr Qais Aslam, Agha Saiden and Afnan Sadiq Butt. Jang Economic Session was moderated by Sikandar Lodhi.
Qayyum Nizami said Pakistan is among top 10 borrowers of the IMF while India only once borrowed from it. Loans are not bad if invested properly but Pakistan borrows loans to pay the existing loans. And that’s the reason, the IMF loan conditions will further increase inflation burden the public. The prices of everything including gas, electricity and petrol will increase, he added.
He said, Pakistan needs to see the reasons of approaching IMF every now and then. Unnecessary expenditure of the provinces should be eliminated and austerity policy should be adopted. A small cabinet of not more than 20 members consisting of economists and experts from other fields should be formed to work on improving the country’s economy by giving priority to the common man instead of promoting VIP culture, he said.
Rana Sajjad said that there is no doubt that loans brought inflation and no relief could be expected from the IMF. He observed that Pakistan itself is a project, with objective and goal, but there is need to check why we always left behind from our targets. Pakistanis work hard abroad and lead from the front in the serious economic challenges. Pakistan is like a project that needs to be worked on properly and for this purpose, our hardworking and capable youth potential should be utilized, he maintained.
Dr Qais Aslam said that Pakistan is still functioning under the imperialist system; the IMF represents the world society. Pakistan gets $30 billion from overseas and still begging for $3 billion only. Pakistan is in two boats, there is no clear policy and our agriculture accounts for 8 percent of GDP. Pakistan has ten ways to generate cheap electricity but surprisingly we are not making it and generating electricity in an expensive way.
He further said that Pakistan did not build water reservoirs and wasting water worth billions of dollars every year. The issue of the industry is that youth was not given technical education for the last 70 years. Pakistan can earn dollars from tourism but not invested in this sector, he elaborates.
Agha Saiden on this occasion said that the most important thing is that the ruling class should stop lying. The overseas income and exports have decreased by 4 billion dollars since the present government takes charge. The IMF is watching, the GDP has decreased from 6.2 to 0.29, car production by 46 percent, decline witnessed in all sectors while the government claiming of laundering the previous era’s wrongdoings. Exports cannot increase with expensive electricity.
Once the industry shuts down, it is difficult to restart it. The wages of the employees have been increased but there is no relief to the industry. The people will get nothing but inflation from this IMF deal. Pakistan has survived the default is the only benefit of the IMF deal. A 30-year road map should be made for the country’s economy, he stressed.
Afnan Sadiq expressed his surprise by saying that rulers were happy with the IMF programme. Once Pakistan was among the lending countries. It is a matter of concern that here people are dying from floods and thirst but govt is not building much-needed reservoirs. Pakistan’s exports have decreased and despite being an agricultural country, we are importing flour. Our neighbouring countries such as Afghanistan, Bangladesh have overtaken Pakistan in almost every field, he added.
