Package for industry too little and too late: Zardari

Author: Online

KARACHI: Former president Asif Zardari on Thursday rejected the prime minister’s compensation package for the textile sector, terming it as too little and too late.

The former president emphasised that during the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) rule, Pakistan has long lost its hard-earned competitiveness, which had previously been achieved through the industry-friendly policies of the PPP. He recalled that the Pakistan textile exports had peaked during the PPP tenure to 13.4 percent of the national GDP, and has ever since sharply declined to only 7.8 percent of the GDP during 2016.

Zardari said, “Other governments all over the world have been incentivising exports to take away Pakistan’s share in the global markets, while our own government failed to respond in time.”

The former president also flayed the government’s decision to withdraw subsidy on fertilisers. He said, “It’s an inhuman decision and is a conspiracy against the poor and the under privilege section of our rural population.” Zardari said he believed that this decision is not only going to severely affect the country’s agriculture sector, but it will also drastically increase the poverty level in the rural areas of Pakistan.

He said the government’s decision that it will only compensate the farmers of Punjab is an attempt to destroy the interprovincial harmony.

Only to achieve some cheap political mileage the Nawaz government on the one hand withdrew a subsidy of Rs 400 per fertilizer bag and on the other hand it was secretly compensating farmers of their own political constituency, Punjab.

Zardari warned that the government is playing with fire; as such measures are going to create provincial rifts and disharmony. This, he said, creates a sense of deprivation among the people of other provinces.

Zardari demanded that the decision to withdraw subsidy should be immediately reversed. He said the PPP stood with the farmers.

Agricultural and financial experts believe that as a result of the withdrawal of this scheme the share of the agriculture sector in the national economy and its capacity to drive growth and development in the country will diminish very soon.

The former president noted that agriculture experts pointed out that the upcoming crops of sugarcane and maize are going to be critically affected by this decision.