‘Unrest in Afghanistan to create economic problems in Pakistan’

LAHORE:If stability does not return in Afghanistan, it will create economic and social problems in Pakistan. India will try to create sectarian violence in Pakistan after losing its billions of dollars in Afghanistan. If required steps are not taken to improve CPEC project, it will create a number of issues and further delay the project.

These views were expressed by the speakers at Jang Economic session on ‘Afghanistan Situation - Challenges to Pakistan’s Economy’. The panellists were Iftikhar Tabasum, Rehman Aziz Chan, Basharat Ullah Malik and Salman Farooq. The session was moderated by Sikindar Lodhi.

Iftikhar Tabasum said Pakistan must be aware of India as it will try to destabilise the country after losing its huge investment in Afghanistan. He said to control smuggling from Afghanistan would be very difficult and it would directly affect Pakistan’s tyre, tea, cloths and other industries. He said actual volume of smuggling could not be estimated in Pakistan due to misdeclaration of trade while only $14 billion smuggling was estimated while it is higher than $44 billion. He suggested incentives for manufacturing sector to stop smuggling.

Rehman Aziz Chan said tax relaxation should be given to adjacent areas of Pakistan-Afghanistan border to control smuggling. He stressed special incentives and packages for industries in those areas to increase regional trade. He stressed the need to encourage Lahore, Gujranwala and Rawalpindi industrial clusters to establish industries in those areas to get better results. Officers of FBR and other institutions should be protected to promote bilateral trade with Afghanistan, he said.

Basharat Ullah Malik said Talban should learn a lesson from two decades of war. If stability is not established in Afghanistan, it will badly impact Pakistan, he said and added previously the US was careful for making any move in Afghanistan as American citizens were there but now it is not so. He called for effective planning to reduce smuggling, controlling sectarianism and load of Afghan refugees on Pakistan.

Salman Farooq said a major impact of Afghanistan’s situation on Pakistan could come in the form of refugees as Pakistan’s economy was already facing challenges. There was a need to mitigate refugees’ crisis. There is a need to explore international markets for Pakistani products. There is a need to focus on manufacturing, agriculture and value addition in service sector to get shares from international market, he said.