PIAF conjures up 7-point economy reviving plan

Pakistan Industrial and Traders Associations Front (PIAF) has presented a seven-point action plan to revive the economy.
In a statement issued here Thursday, the PIAF Chairman Engineer Sohail Lashari said that political harmony, a ten-year energy plan, Methodology to end corruption, Plan to enhance Agricultural yield, minimum dependence of foreign, domestic loans, lowering of markup for the sake of industrialization in the country and a plan to improve law and order situation are the features of the PIAF Economic Revival Agenda and the government should immediately initiate work on these points to get rid of economic ills being faced by the trade and industry.
The PIAF Chairman said that political uncertainty has caused undue damage to the economy as it was not only the foreign investors who stayed away but at the domestic front there was hardly any investment. He said that due to wrong economic policies the graph of unemployment was going up with every passing day.
Engineer Sohail Lashari said that it is high time that the government should prepare a ten year energy plan so that the business community could be able to continue their businesses with peace of mind. He said that only because of massive fluctuations in electricity rates the businessmen avoided to take any foreign orders. He said that recent increase in petroleum prices would hit the business activities hard as it is going to make Pakistani merchandise uncompetitive in the world market. He said that the government should immediately evolve a methodology to win consensus on Kalabagh Dam that is the only solution to cheaper electricity.
PIAF Chairman said that an announcement of the methodology to end corruption would help revive the government reputation that has plunged in the recent years due to multiple reasons. He said that corruption in rental power projects had sent a very wrong signal to the international community. Engineer Sohail Lashari said that if right measures are not taken with immediate effect, the farming community would suffer heavily in near future. He said that government heavy dependence on domestic and foreign loans is also earning a bad name for the government therefore the government should curtail its non-development funds to meet its day-to-day expenditures. Over markup rate, the PIAF Chairman said that in Pakistan the process of industrialization has come to a complete halt as the markup rate is the highest in the region and the steps are direly needed to bring it to single digit. Last but not the least, Engineer Sohail Lashari said that all the provincial government would have to form liaison committees to control law and order situation in the country.