The Pakistan Economy Watch (PEW) on Monday said that the elections were successful due to the masses, the judiciary and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)’s failure is being attributed to corruption, energy crisis, destruction of independent institutions and ill-informed decisions by some dual national advisors in the past five years, it said.
After a roaring victory, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Chief Nawaz Sharif should initiate nation building by prioritising economic revival. They must create a just taxation system, which does not tax the poor to serve the rich, said President PEW Dr Murtaza Mughal. Otherwise, the PML-N will meet the same fate as the PPP in the 2018 elections. He added that Pakistan Tehrik e Insaf (PTI) Chief Imran Khan should also cooperate for the greater national interest.
He said that Pakistan has less than seven billion dollars of foreign exchange, tax collections remains at lowest in absence of any initiative to tax mighty and energy crisis has taken toll on the economy.
Mughal said that the new government’s real challenge would be getting an International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan to salvage the sinking economy, making a good budget, taxing agricultural income and introducing energy reforms.
Six years ago, the power sector needed Rs 59 billion in subsidies. Now, it needed Rs 311 billion with no improvements. In the current fiscal year, the former government borrowed Rs 1 trillion from domestic sources, despite getting a $1.8 trillion from the US, he informed.
The PEW president said that Pakistan’s foreign debt stood at $40 billion in 2007, crossing $60 billion in the five years of PPP’s government. He warned that total foreign debt may pass $75 billion come 2015 if serious reforms were avoided.