Jang Economic Session: ‘Unemployment, inflation badly affect common man’

LAHORE:Ever-increasing inflation and unemployment have adversely affected the commoners. The government did not pay required attention to agriculture sector. Performance on governance is also questionable which has increased social crime and negativity in social behaviours.

These views were expressed by the speakers at the Jang Economic Session on “Government three-year performance - reality”. The panellists were Dr Ehsan Malik, Hussain Ahmed Sherazi, Sadia Sohail, Saher Malik and Farooq Tariq. The seminar was hosted by Sikandar Lodhi.

Dr Ehsan Malik demanded the government prioritise the production sector and incentivise the production sector ranging from raw material to final product producers which will create employments. He said government jobs will not control unemployment. He said a number of steps taken by the government for COVID-19 control were appreciated globally while now it should focus on controlling inflation and price hikes. He suggested prioritising the rural sector for service delivery.

Hussain Ahmed said the performance of the government is against its claim. He said according to the government’s claims that it controlled the Covid-19 without affecting the economic activities and met the revenue generation targets. He said the single curriculum and Ehsas Programme are appreciable steps by the government. He suggested dams and a large scale manufacturing and discouraging politically motivated accountability. He asked for focusing on controlling utilities tariff to provide relief to the public.

Sadia Sohail asked for constructive criticism for improving the government's performance. She said the government was aware of inflation and price hike but globally COVID-19 increased the problems. She said the government made institutions free from political influence in three years and worked for human development and introduced tree planting, water storages and sewerage projects whose impact will come in future. She said legislation for social justice was part of the government’s priorities to control crimes and it focused on police reforms. Saher Malik said comparison of the government performance with its manifesto explains the performance as low-income group was adversely affected by the government’s policies and action. She said commoners were struggling for survival. She urged a focus on poor people’s basic issues of food, shelter, health and education. Farooq Tariq said the highest ever price hike and inflation was outcome of the government’s three years performance. He said increasing the price of life-saving drugs was injustice in the present government. He said devaluing the rupee to increase exports was not a good policy. People are facing consequences of strict IMF conditions for loan programme. Every month electricity tariff and gas and petroleum prices were intentionally increased, he said and asked for focusing on public issues and instead of privatising public institutes to resolve issues.