Pakistan Industrial and Traders Associations Front (PIAF) on Thursday condemned the terrorist attack on census team including army officials, saying the business community fully supports the government and armed forces to carry on census across the country.
PIAF Chairman Irfan Iqbal Sheikh in a statement said that census was pivotal in shaping effective socio-economic and development policies. He said the policymakers had been driving the economy by looking back, using a 19-year-old rear-view mirror of 1998 census data. Billions of dollars thus wasted could have been saved if the policymakers had not blindly chased the policies for almost two decades on unproductive expenditure based on guesstimates, he added.
He said that the incident was a conspiracy against Pakistan. It is responsibility of all stakeholders to devise a mechanism to secure the nation's future and prevent terrorists from executing their nefarious designs. Such acts of terrorism have also taken heavy toll on business and investment activities in the country, therefore, a comprehensive solution to the issue was required to put economy on track of sustainable growth, he said.
PIAF chief underscored that all segments of the society should exhibit unity, while contributing to government efforts to foil nefarious acts of anti-Pakistan elements. This nation has been waiting since 2008 to fill census and fulfil its national responsibility. The sixth national census was due in 2008 but it was postponed till 2010, he added. The incumbent Finance Minister Ishaq Dar had allocated Rs 14.5 millions in the federal budget 2015-16 for the sixth national census and the military is providing security for the field teams of census along with other law and enforcement agencies.
The census would bring revolutionary changes in the political and economic atmosphere. He urged the government to speed up its efforts to control law and order in the country, and bring culprits to justice, besides ensuring foolproof security of general public as well as the business community.