Political conflict adversely affects economy, society: experts

LAHORE:Growing political confrontation in the country has become a serious issue for the economy and people of the country so the bigger political parties should sit in parliament with open heart and take each other in confidence and devise a national agenda of economic growth, prosperity and public wellbeing.

These views were expressed by the experts in the Jang Economic Session on “Impact of Political Confrontation of Economy - Experts Opinion”. The panelists were Dr Qais Aslam, Sohail Lashari, Sajida Mir and Rozi Rizvi while hosted by Sikandar Lodhi.

Dr Qais Aslam observed that political confrontation had been adversely affecting the economy and society so the political parties should jointly evolve a national agenda. He said 19th century laws could not be implemented in 21st century. He believed that the reforms were unavoidable in all sectors. He called for focusing on agriculture and livestock sectors for food security while conversion of agriculture land into construction and housing sector was injustice. He stressed on the need of putting the economy in the right direction for economic revival while reducing the burden of indirect taxes. Sohail Lashari said that political conflict damaged the country while all stakeholders should follow single point for economic betterment. The businessmen and traders play important role in economy but never appreciated. He called for ending political instability for revival of business environment. He urged the need of reforms with effective strategy and public private dialogue. He said the politicians should wake up as the country could not afford further political instability. Sajida Mir said that political confrontation to settle personal differences was not in favour of the country while political parties should work for the national economic growth. She said letting the others down for point scoring should end while the government should learn from the past mistakes and give the respect, food, shelter, security and other basic rights to the voters instead of giving the slogans of Change. She said on the political front the history of 1977 was being repeated in the country.

Rozi Rizvi said that when COVID-19 pandemic spread across the globe it was expected that the political parties would forget the political differences and sit together for the way forward.

However, it was disappointing that it did not happen. She called for focusing on the economy and politics. She said the inflation was not new rather continuation of the past while the government attempted to provide relief to farmers and commoners through Kisan and Ehsas Programmes.