KARACHI: Showing deep concerns over growing joblessness in the country, Pasban Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman Altaf Shakoor here Sunday demanded that economic policies of Pakistan should revolve around job creation to pull out millions of family from poverty.
He said successive governments in Pakistan, both democratic and dictatorships have only taken care of the vested interests of the elite class, ignoring vast majority of the poor masses.
He said our taxation system is based to protect feudal lords and tycoons of trade and industry but to extort higher taxes from working class people. He said without changing this approach we can’t attain national progress and prosperity.
He said industrial and agricultural sectors have immense potential to create millions of new jobs, but the government is saving the interests of ‘import mafia’ and even we have to import food items despite being an agricultural nation.
He said making new dams and canals on one hand and using water saving technologies like drip irrigation on the other hands can make Pakistan a grain basket by cultivating our vast arid and semi-arid lands.
He said our arid lands are our gold mines but they need proper attention as they alone can end rural poverty within a few years.
Altaf Shakoor said our failed education system is the main reason behind our growing Joblessness. We don’t need prolonged formal degree programmers but short technical job-oriented diploma programs that could lead to degrees.
He said instead of giving five year education and training to doctors, we should create five one-year stage-based diploma programs in medicine and surgery. A candidate completing all five diplomas may be awarded MBBS degree, but those only passing a few diplomas can become huge workforce of nurses, paramedics and medical technicians.
This approach should also be adopted in education and training of engineering, legal, accounting, management and other disciplines.
He said we should follow innovative ways in education and training with a main focus on job creation. He said making start-ups should be made a mandatory part of all education diploma or degree programmers so that students could focus on creating their own businesses instead of solely relying on salaried work.
Shakoor said urban centres are revenue engines and job creation heavens. He said megacity Karachi alone could do away with unemployment in Sindh province if its urban infrastructure is developed and more industrial areas, creek-ports, road and rail networks are developed around it.
He said the proposed Karachi-Hyderabad industrial corridor and Karachi-Keti Bander industrial corridor could change the fate of whole region and create surplus jobs.
He said creek ports and harbours in Karachi, Thatta and Jati could increase trade and fisheries to make millions of people free from poverty.
He said integrated commuter network in Karachi including the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) and Bus Rapid systems could change the face of the megacity, making it a modern and efficient livable urban centre.
He demanded of the government and chief of army staff Gen Syed Asim Munir to make an authority like SIFC to focus solely on job creation by bringing innovative changes in agriculture, irrigation, education, technical training and urban development sectors.
He said that our defence sector should also be improved by making military training mandatory for all citizens and raising a reserve force of civilians for the defence of the motherland.
He said the successful patterns of Switzerland, Singapore, Israel and other countries could be adopted here for compulsory military training of citizens and developing non- traditional defence systems.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023