All Pakistan Business Forum (APBF), appreciating the new government plan of merging more than a dozen federal divisions into their previous ministries, has called for a merger of Ministries of Commerce and Production & Industries, as the amalgamation of unnecessary divisions would help shave off unwarranted expenditure incurring on keeping their administrative paraphernalia.
"Bifurcations of these divisions and ministries have damaged industrial growth due to lack of co-ordination and political influence, as subordinate institutions are lacking direction and capacity," said APBF chairman Nabeel Hashmi in a statement on Saturday.
In economic rescue plan evolved by the APBF central executive body, he suggested the newly-elected government to devise a comprehensive policy showing the right direction in the upcoming budget to address the business community's concerns.
He expressed the hope that the newly nominated Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif would overcome the economic challenges by utilising his best abilities. He listed the energy deficit, inter-corporate circular debt, bleeding public sector enterprises, high fiscal deficit and low tax base as the biggest and most immediate challenges that warrant the attention of incoming government.
He urged the policymakers to devise comprehensive strategies to fix these problems, insisting to swallow the bitter pill right now so that the positive effects of these measures can start reaping results. He asked for experienced and competent persons to head important institutions, which are highly politicised and need cleansing with good and honest officers.
Boards of various organisations are almost defunct and need to be restructured, he added. For instance, postal department, overseas Pakistanis, labour, manpower, housing, works, sports, culture, youth affairs and several other organisations were taken out from the control of different ministries and made independent establishments. These divisions were carved out just to accommodate in the federal cabinet a large battalion of former lawmakers belonging to the ex-ruling coalition parties.
Elaborating on his emphatic demand, the veteran business leader, who also served as a chairman of the PAAPAM, said that the federal government must present a detailed economic policy outlining its key focus for the next five years and highlighting short, medium and long-term plans for the national economy along with the budget document. Like the past government, the interim government has also been callous towards power outages, he said. "Reverting to two-day weekly off is not a permanent solution. Instead, there is need to generate more power, curb line losses and power theft and act against those officers who show negligence in collection of electricity bills.
He said that National Tariff commission and Engineering Development Board both need strategic interventions to bring them up to the mark. Trade development authority needs to be made lighter and private sector involvement in policy and funds allocations is of urgent need.