(July 01, 2022)
Chairman of National Business Group Pakistan, President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum, and All Karachi Industrial Alliance and Former Provincial Minister Mian Zahid Hussain on rising inflation is resulting in severe hardship for the people. Still, it is better than the bankruptcy of the country.
Because of the recent tough decisions, the rupee is strengthening, and the dollar is depreciating, which will lead to a decline in inflation, he said.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that there is a limit to the cooperation of friendly countries, now they have run out of patience and the only option for Pakistan is to become self-reliant.
Talking to the business community, the veteran business leader said that the government would have to make some more difficult reforms to save the country, including eliminating subsidies, privatizing failed government companies, and eliminating theft and losses of electricity and gas.
He said that the government could save Rs3400 billion by focusing on the promotion of agriculture while ignoring reforms will bankrupt the country and people will not find necessities as things expensive today will become scarce tomorrow resulting in a civil war.
Presently affairs are being run on loans and by eliminating subsidies, but the government must balance the tax system, make industry and agriculture more profitable than other sectors, reduce the profits of non-productive sectors and distribute wealth among the people.
The standard of living of the masses has to be raised because if the people are starving for bread, how will they buy other things and where will the factories sell their products?
Mian Zahid Hussain further said that policymakers know that every foreign debt increases the burden on the people but they are addicted to it which has made it difficult to get rid of it.
Because of IMF loans, the economy always shrinks, jobs and business opportunities are reduced, fuel and electricity become more expensive, the currency depreciates and interest rates are raised, which breaks the backbone of the people.
The previous government had taken the same path while the present government has not yet started the real reforms which are evident from its first budget. If the reforms are further delayed, the country’s poor economy will remain the same, he said.
