This is apropos a Business Recorder op-ed "Impoverished by democracy" carried by the newspaper on Saturday. The writer, Syed Bakhtiyar Kazmi, has raised some very important questions. In my view, the people, including politicians, who let this happen should hang their heads in shame.

According to the writer, for example, "What have we, in the last 12 years, done for industrialisation? How many import substitution industries were established and how many more jobs were created in the industrial space? Obsessing about LSM growth or decline really does not help, they are just statistics - where exactly have we increased our industrial capacity, and what new industries were established in so many years? The unfortunate answer is that to encourage competition and innovation, we are importing more!"

Do we have any plausible answers to his questions. There has been a massive reduction of industrial activity or capacity in the country in 12 years. Ours is an impoverished democracy. It is deprived of fertility like impoverished soil.

TAHIR KHAN (ISLAMABAD)

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020