The government should come up with a comprehensive agriculture policy, having an appropriate size of landholding of 5 hectares each and distribution of 8.25 million hectares uncultivated but cultivable land to 1,650,000 landless farmers as its ingredients.
Besides, 4.1 million hectares private farms are presently under tenancy. This needs to be replaced with employment. As a result, the country's per acre yield could be improved manifold. This was stated by Abdul Basit, a former senior vice president of Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), while talking to Business Recorder here on Saturday.
He said that such measures could push the GDP growth by 16 percent. Pakistan has an area of 79 million hectares, out of which only 23.68 million hectares are being cultivated, while 8.25 million hectares have been left uncultivated. It was mainly because of the owners, who had remained British loyal servants and were least interested in effective utilisation of their lands for agriculture production, he added.
Besides addressing other problems, the government should also look into the governance issues that have now started taking their toll. "I am fully convinced, and understand well, that it is not the right time to speak like this but I think the suggestion would help the government reach the core of the problem the country is facing at the moment" he added.
Talking about the devastated effects of unprecedented flood in most parts of the country, Basit said: "Had our diplomats sitting in Pakistan's foreign missions abroad taken the issue of floods a bit seriously, the foreign assistance would have by now started pouring in, but unfortunately, despite a massive loss we have yet to receive a single penny from any outer source.
This is a big failure on the part of those who are sitting at the helm of affairs. Unfortunately, we have never given due attention towards our relations with the rest of the world." On the governance issues, he said that World Bank linkage of $6 billion aid to improve governance was "enough to make the point that we as a country are fast losing our reputation".
Corruption has crept into every sphere of life. "Our policies have no backing of the real stakeholders. They are never consulted, but suddenly informed, that the policies have been framed and they would be implemented soon. Particularly, the economic governance is at the lowest ebb, he added.
Despite a clear-cut message from the business community that it was not ready for 'value-added tax' or 'reformed GST', the concerned government departments are adamant to implement it at every cost. "The machinery which has failed even to broaden the tax net, how can it implement a whole new system of taxation," he said.
"Despite having all the resources, we have yet to achieve our due status in the global market. Nobody is taking care of cost of doing business that has jumped to the highest level in the region. Only a few days back, the State Bank of Pakistan increased the policy rate by 0.5 percent. It should have been better if the State Bank of Pakistan had taken the otherwise decision and announced to bring policy rate down to single digit."
But the people sitting at the State Bank of Pakistan are unaware of the ground realities. They are unaware that the new investments are almost negligible. They are unaware that the foreign investment has declined to alarming levels, he added.
Abdul Basit said that the government would have to take the private sector on board vis-à-vis economic policies if it is interested in economic revival of the country. "Everybody knows that we don't have any agriculture policy, but nobody is ready to take the initiative," he said.
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