Pakistan Industrial and Traders Associations Front (PIAF) on Friday urged the government to strengthen and promote trade and industry for bringing down the graph of unemployment, enhancing Tax-t-GDP ratio and for the resultant economic revival of the country.
The PIAF Chairman Engineer Sohail Lashari was talking to a business delegation here at PIAF Central office. Chairman Lahore Township Industrial Area Association Chaudhry Iftikhar Bashir and President Kahna Kacha Industrial Association Mehomood Akhtar were also present in the meeting.
The PIAF Chairman said that the government knew well that the economy is passing through very critical phase because of unprecedented electricity loadshedding, gas shortage, deteriorating law and order and above all the fast widening fiscal deficit have pushed the business community to the wall and they were on dire need of hand-holding by the government.
Lashari said that heavy government borrowing has badly affected the process of industrialisation in the country. "Neither any new business venture came up nor Foreign Direct Investment situation improved." Had a little attention been given to the whole situation, the economy would have been on track today but unfortunately the politician remained busy in mud-slinging instead of guiding the government to the path to progress and prosperity.
The Chairman PIAF said that though the government decision to utilise Thar coal reserves for power generation is a very welcome decision but it would fail to give desired results if delaying tactics were applied to its implementation. The PIAF Chairman also lauded the decision to import Liquefied Natural Gas (LPG) to overcome gas shortage in the country.
He further said that facilitation to the industry would not only earn a good name for the government but it would help cut poverty and unemployment that are creating law and order situation in many parts of the country. He said that the government should take private sector onboard to deal with the menace of corruption and unveil the black sheep that are giving bad name to this resource-rich country.