Pakistan Industrial and Traders Associations Front (PIAF) is going to prepare an "Economic Charter" to bring the country out of economic mire. The decision was taken in a meeting of PIAF Executive Committee on Wednesday.
Chairman PIAF Sohail Lashari presided over the meeting while Vice Chairmen Nadar Kamal Osman, Junaid Iqbal Sheikh, LCCI Senior Vice President Sheikh Mohammad Arshad, LCCI former President Mian Shafqat Ali, Mohammad Ali Mian and PIAF Executive Committee Members were also present.
Speaking on the occasion, Sohail Lashari said that PIAF welcomes the vision of President Asif Ali Zardari regarding preparation of an economic charter in collaboration with economic experts and stakeholders as it has always played its due role for the economic progress and prosperity of the country. He said PIAF would conduct seminars, hold meetings with sector-specific associations, economic experts and government functionaries to prepare its recommendations for the revival of economic activities in the country.
He said that energy was the main source of economic growth an acute shortage of it has halted the economic and industrial activities besides jacking up the graph of unemployment. The government should workout a methodology to ensure cheap power generation through hydel resources to keep the industrial wheel on the move, he said. He also urged the government to immediately withdraw the loadshedding exemption being enjoyed by the VIP grid stations and implement uniform loadshedding schedule across the country.
Sohail Lashari said that it would be difficult for the government to achieve its growth target in the presence of such a big energy deficit as growth rate was already decreasing with a ratio of 2 percent annually. He said that the government had set 4.5 growth rate target for the year 2010-11 but failed to achieve it due to decreasing manufacturing activity in the country and revised it to 2.8 percent. He said that government should give weight to the proposals of business community otherwise it would not be possible to achieve the targets to be set for the year 2011-12.
He said that government should take measures on war footing to overcome the menace of loadshedding, which has become a monster and eating up the industrial sector. He said that bad law & order situation and high input cost had already destroyed the industrial sector while the unprecedented loadshedding is adding fuel to fire.