Daily Times

The Pakistan Business Forum (PBF) has expressed the optimism that the interim federal government would help improve fiscal indicators of the country.

Forum’s Vice President Chaudhry Ahmad Jawad told the media here on Saturday that, in a letter to the caretaker prime minister, the PBF hoped that he would focus on economic revival, besides paying attention to uplift of deprived areas of Pakistan.

Ahmad Jawad said that Pak Rupee depreciated by Rs 163 against the US dollar during the last five years, which had adverse effects on the common man’s living, businesses and manufacturing sector, besides imports and exports of the country. He opposed free float policy on currency, initiated by the last parliament, as it resulted in unprecedented decline of rupee against the US dollar.

Since 1947 until 1988, Ahmad Jawad cited, Pakistan approached the International Monetary Fund (IMF) four times; however, from 1989 onwards, successive governments had made it a custom to get an IMF package instead of reducing their expenses.

He claimed that no government had ever paid a serious heed to revival of agriculture sector or work on small and medium enterprises to make them more viable to transform the country’s economy in the long run. Thus, instead of building the capacity to pay back loans, the government continued to borrow to service the previous loans.

This situation demanded effective steps to stabilise the Pak Rupee besides ending market speculations.

“As we believe that the real exchange rate of the US dollar against the Pak Rupee is less than Rs 200, and for all practical reasons, the current depreciation cycle is the direct result of speculative trading, lack of regulatory oversight and mismanagement of the forex market,” he asserted. The PBF vice president urged the interim government to stabilise the currency to propel the economic activity.