Commerce Desk

Islamabad: Dr. Murtaza Mughal, President of Pakistan Economy Watch (PEW), said on Saturday that the country has been going through a critical period for the masses since its creation.

Since the 1970s, families ruling Pakistan have claimed to serve the masses but have become billionaires, while the people began to crave bread, he said.

For the last 25 years, Pakistan has been adjusting its budget according to the terms and conditions of the IMF. Still, he added that the country’s conditions continued to deteriorate instead of improving.

Dr Murtaza Mughal said in a statement issued today that we have been facing problems like reduced net tax, uncontrolled expenditure, and unnecessary incentives and subsidies for the last 25 years because their resolution is limited to announcements.

He said that in the last twenty-five years, the neighbouring countries have made fantastic progress, while Pakistan has seen three short periods of artificial growth during which hefty loans were acquired.

However, the elite took the benefits or growth while people were left high and dry.

He said that even in the year 2000, Pakistan had signed an agreement with the IMF on strict terms, and presently, we are in the process of signing another harsh agreement with no signs of real economic improvement.

The IMF has created a single formula to get all countries out of the crisis in which the ground realities of a country are not considered. The IMF only pressures countries to cut spending, raise taxes, sell national assets, and devalue the currency.

The lender formula increases the problems of many countries, including Pakistan. Even in 2000, Pakistan faced problems like external debt, limited revenue, deficit, decayed energy and service system, employment to the growing youth population, food security, water scarcity, and health and education systems.

After 25 years later, we are still facing these issues. In the last twenty-five years, no serious attempt has been made to remedy the problems affecting the economy, but no budget has been introduced that would cause any fundamental changes in the country’s system.

Dr Murtaza Mughal said that the country’s population is multiplying, along with the unemployment and malnutrition crisis, and millions of children are not able to go to school. Still, no attention is being paid to this.
Nothing is being done to equip people with skills to make them valuable citizens. Employment opportunities are such that millions of educated people are fleeing the country, and there is no effort to stop this brain drain.

The alliance between the rulers and the capitalist class has made the country hell for the people. The country’s system constantly transfers capital from the poor to the rich, a perfect recipe for disaster.