Secretary General Pakistan Muslim League (Like-minded) Humayun Akhtar Khan said on Wednesday that to avoid any further financial crunch, the country should reduce non-productive expenditures by 1/3 while debt would have to be brought in line with Fiscal Responsibility and Debt Limitation Act (2005).
He was addressing launching ceremony of a book of Pakistan Muslim League (PML) Like-minded titled, "Roadmap to Pakistan's Recovery" covering 25 areas to be tackled including security, justice, education, health, youth, labour, minorities, media, terrorism, economy, energy, water, foreign policy, constitutional reforms and good governance.
Humayun said that in the book a number of practical solutions had been proposed in education and health sectors. Measures to guarantee employment to one member of each family of Pakistan, both rural as well as urban, have been suggested in the book.
He said that minimum wages have been proposed for rural labourers in addition to urban labourers. According to Hamayun, the PML realises that terrorism has reached a point where it poses a direct, long term and existential threat to Pakistan. The book proposes that causes of extremism in society should be addressed. It underlined stability in the region as imperative for security and economic growth, he added.
A low cost-housing programme has been proposed through which shelter will be provided to every family in Pakistan. In the energy sector focus will be on indigenous coal and hydel power generation. Existing capacity in power generation will be upgraded. The IPP policy would be revised to make it more attractive for the investors. Building new dams has been considered essential for the economy.
The PML proposes that after the 18th amendment and the NFC awards, provinces should follow prudent policies with respect to expenditures control and revenue generation. The public sector development programme will be re-designed to make it more effective and efficient, he added. Former foreign minister and PML Like-minded leader, Khurshid Ahmed Kasuri demanded that education emergency should be declared in the country and greater budgetary allocations should be made for education sector.
"Unfortunately, only 1.8 percent of the total federal budget is being spent on education, which is testimony to the fact that most important social sector is being ignored," he pointed out. Shamsul Mulk, former chairman WAPDA, said that it was the need of the hour to construct Kalabagh Dam in order to overcome the prevailing electricity shortage in Pakistan. He regretted that not a single step was being taken by the government to resolve the issue.
Without realising the sensitivity of the issue, the governments in Pakistan have been playing politics on this very important issue, he opined. Dr Ishfaq emphasised on the need to maintain the fiscal discipline that would help reduce fiscal deficit. "Fiscal discipline can be maintained by rationalising our expenditures, while current NFC award is not sustainable in the absence of binding constraints on provincial governments to protect this award," he added.
He said that agriculrure was more than just the four main crops that constitute only 30 percent of Pakistan's agriculture and the development of the livestock sector should also be taken seriously. "Private sector is the engine of growth and the privatisation is the only solution to get rid of financial crunch," Dr Ishfaq added.