KARACHI: Former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has said the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is of no use as the bureau has hindered economic development of the country due to constant fear of undue accountability on government functionaries.
Flanked by PML-N leader Miftah Ismail here at a local hotel on Friday night, Abbasi said that the ‘The Game of Thrones’ will not go on forever. “If there will be no throne, then what would it be worth fighting for?” He said people were looking for martial law due political crises, adding that it appears all the political parties who are in power have no solution.
Earlier, he said our problems were solved by elections, but now the division has increased to such an extent that fresh elections too did not seem to solve our problems.
On fresh census, former premier said those who live in Karachi should be counted, adding that it is surprising that the population of Karachi has decreased by one million
“I am a native of North Punjab, there are thousands of people living in Karachi. They are coming from all over the country and living here in Karachi, let them be counted”, Shahid Abbasi said He said the census has also become controversial in the country
He was of the view that country needs a new system, route and administrative structure at this time
He added that the biggest lack in the country at the moment is the leadership and no one has a solution to inflation “We have to think whether the constitution has developed the country or not. But we need to learn from the past. Multiple martial laws in the past have also not been able to take the country out of the quagmire either,” he said.
He said three consecutive free and fair elections will help resolve the political leadership crisis that we see now,” he said.
Abbasi said increasing exports by $20 billion would help the country come out of its economic crisis.
Former Finance Minister Miftah Ismail said that the country cannot run without social justice.
Miftah Ismail said the rate of food inflation in rural areas is around 50 percent and in urban areas it is around 47 percent.
He said in Pakistan, 60 percent of people are those whose income is not more than 35 thousand rupees
“Forty percent of Pakistani children are stunted due to lack of food and 17 percent of children are malnourished. Due to the recent floods, this will add another 2 million children”, Miftah said
He said middle class is also facing difficulties in meeting their expenses, adding that taking two billion dollars from Saudi Arabia and more money from someone else will not work.
Miftah said every day millions of children in the country go to sleep hungry, 5% children are out of school besides 75% of children could not read two sentences correctly. In order to move towards economic improvement, he said the entire structure of the government will have to be changed.
Miftah questioned the results of the recent census in Karachi and said that it is unbelievable that the population of Karachi has decreased, which the current census claims.
He said that Karachi census projection of 15 million is incredible when Nadra data shows that there are 19.8 million with NICs and B-Form registered in Karachi.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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