Call to focus on public, economic issues

LAHORE: The government should set priorities in accordance with public and economic issues because people cannot get relief without the economic growth in the country while economic justice can improve the situation.
These views were expressed by the panellists in Jang Economic Session on ‘how to satisfy the public in existing economic situation’. The experts were Agha Saidain, Qayyum Nizami, Ehtesham Rabbani, Mian Fazal Ahmed, Farah Naz Naqvi and Pervaiz Hanif, while the session was hosted by Sikandar Lodhi.
Agha Saidain said that people did not trust in government due to non-existence of basic facilities. He suggested evolving effective policies while keeping the public needs in mind and strict implementation on them. He called for getting rid of loans, giving representation to intellectuals in parliament to resolve public issues in a better way.
Qayyum Nizami said the economy was in deficit while public problems would not be resolved through metro buses and roads rather providing them quality education and clean water was the need of the hour. He said people were not getting food and job which exposed the failure of the government policies. He said people should be included in budget making and policies evolved in accordance with their needs to ensure relief to public.
Ehtesham Rabbani said the economic managers had adopted slavery which worsened public problems. He believed that effective public friendly policies could bring real growth in Pakistan. He suggested adoption of austerity measures. Mian Fazal Ahmed said country was not returning back on growth track despite the all-out effort while budget deficit reached 7 percent. He said workers’ remittance was supporting economy. He suggested promotion of modernisation in agriculture and industry, effective taxation and education system and elimination of babu culture.
Farah Naz Naqvi said that limited human resource was major hindrance in economic growth of Pakistan. She believed that lack of education and wealth had destroyed the society while various social issues could be resolved by equal education system. She suggested 20-year long emergency education plan. Pervaiz Hanif said sadly Pakistan lacked sincere leadership due to which public problems increased while rulers focused on artificial growth and development projects. He said that government should set priorities in accordance with public and economic issues as commoner could not get relief without economic growth. He believed that balance in demand and supply was crucial to reduce economic woes. He said Pakistan’s agriculture and industry had potential for rapid economic growth but there was a need to improve the conditions. He said public problems should be focused on to control social evils rather than going for orange train and metro buses.