(June 17, 2020)
President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum and All Karachi Industrial Alliance, FPCCI’s Businessmen Panel Sr. Vice Chairman, and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain on Wednesday said for the very first time in the history of Pakistan, all mafia gangs have targeted masses with a renewed force.
Business mafia groups are attacking masses facing coronavirus, lockdown and economic meltdown are being attacked from every side while there is no system to effectively check the plunder, he said.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that consumer protection activities are restricted to media and statements while the profiteers are looting the general public in every possible way.
Talking to the businessmen, the veteran business leader said that the law of the jungle is prevailing while there is no protection for those who are engaged in the legal business.
The former Minister noted that those supervising the feeble laws lack a system to know the cost of production and this weakness is frequently exploited.
He noted that developed nations lay special emphasis on the protection of rights of masses and an example is made of those who dare to violate the rights of people but the situation in Pakistan is otherwise.
He noted that cost audit is mandatory for all manufacturers in India while it is also required for profitable services like health, education, and real-estate which should also be introduced here to provide relief to masses.
There is provision for cost audit in the local law but it has been left to regulators which has opened floodgates for corruption, choked economy, made officials rich and masses poor and increased dependence on loans.
He said that the economy should run on the basis of economic rules and not like the law of the jungle. Local markets are flooded with fake, substandard, costly and smuggled goods, he said, adding that targeting owners of filling stations in a province is unjustified.
