Asad on economy: Army can't be blamed if policies are wrong

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Finance Asad Umar said that Pakistan’s economy was victim of ‘elite capture’ and it could be broken only through bringing openness, transparency in policies, strengthening Parliament and accountability mechanism.

While talking to reporters on the second day of Human Capital Summit, Pakistan@100: Shaping the Future organised by the World Bank here on Tuesday, Asad Umar said that when institutions would be strengthened then openness in economy would automatically be ensured.

To another query, he said that if policies were devised by the Army and he was sitting into the government then it was his responsibility to either own the policies or change them. He said that there was an excuse being presented since long that keep enjoying ruling over this country and then blame the Army for all policies arguing that they did not allow to change the policies. If you do not agree to policy then change it, he added.

To another query regarding opposition stance for having relationship with banned and proscribed outfits, the minister replied that there was need to analyse his election campaign as what type of outfits had extended support to him. These were the outfits which itself became victim of terrorism, he said and added that he had received message from these outfits after hurling allegation of opposition that they were ready to come forward to issue statement in his favour.

He said that a lot of work was done to bring about reforms in the FBR as it was pointed out in the WB summit that poor tax collection was one of the major reasons for low spending on welfare of the people.

Earlier, in his address, Asad Umar said that there is need to remove hurdles hindering economic development and stated that human development and poverty alleviation are top priorities of the government and investment in human development, health and education is the most profitable action in the long run.

For the first time, he said the government is integrating the social protection efforts instead of adopting the current fragmented approach. The minister stated that the government is also establishing Public-Private Partnership Authority (PPPA) to work with private sector and mobilise funds for not only infrastructure projects but also for social sector.

Advisor to Prime Minister on Institutional Reforms and Austerity Dr Ishrat Hussain stated unless the hold of elite is neutralised, real reforms to deal with backwardness cannot succeed.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Overseas Pakistanis & Human Resource Development, Zulfi Bukhari conceded a massive decline in Pakistan’s labour export and stated that the country was lagging behind even from Bangladesh in terms of productivity of labour.

Speaking during the panel discussion at the World Bank Human Capital Summit, the advisor stated that Pakistan labour exports had dropped from 0.9 million to 0.35 million during the last four years and a huge decline in labour export was from Saudi Arabia of around 0.5 million.