The economy

This refers to the article, ‘The economy’ (Mar 19), by Dr Farrukh Saleem. The writer shows the frightening but real face of Pakistan’s economy. According to the writer, the country might again rely on the IMF. Is the current state of the economy not visible to the concerned? Our external debt is rising day by day. The government has to take more loans to pay back the existing loans. The circular debt has now grown to more than Rs430 billion. Although the previous circular debt – Rs480 billion was paid off by the incumbent government right after coming to power, no measures were to permanently resolve this problem.

Our economy is trapped in low value-added manufacturing for almost three decades. Let’s hope that we do away with this policy and venture into high-value manufacturing, especially in the industries to be set up along the CPEC route. The only thing that can help boost the economy is the revival of the manufacturing sector. If we focus on our exports, we can move towards a better future.

Air-Cdre (r) Azfar A Khan

Karachi