The article by ADB representative, titled 'A plea to Pakistan: Fix Your Economy', which appeared in Far Eastern Economic Review (FEER) on January 10, may isolate Pakistan and further aggravate the economic crisis of this country, said Talha Mehmood, chairman of Senate standing committee on interior here on Tuesday.
Talking to Business Recorder, he urged the government not to take the article lightly, and should talk in strong terms to ADB, and have this man removed from the department that deals with Pakistan.
"The comments of the ADB representative are a gross interference and an insult to the Pakistani nation, and the Pakistan government should give its response, in public, otherwise the people would consider that the government had sanctioned the article," he said.
The long-term solution, Talha said, "is to take bold steps" to rebuild the country's economy and end any dependence on foreign loans. "We have capacity, and potential, to end our dependence on foreign loans, and lead the country towards economic development and prosperity", he said, adding that the government should realise this potential. The senator urged the government to increase the storage capacity of the existing dams, besides initiating the construction of new dams, to address the power shortage in the country,.
"It is time to pool our efforts for development and betterment of the country, and not to indulge in the politics of provinces", he said, adding that if these trends were not given up it would weaken the federation and Pakistan would be the ultimate loser.
"At present, the country is facing a shortfall of 5400 megawatt electricity and private power companies have stopped generation because of the rising circular debt. The government should take some revolutionary measures to address these problems," he said.
The senator said: "The government should use coal reserves, solar energy, wind power, and other innovative measures to meet the energy challenge," and added that it must build up consensus and remove all bottlenecks in construction of big dams in different provinces. He said that besides creating problems for the common people, power shortage has badly affected the industrial sector, which in turn has badly damaged the economy.