LAHORE: PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari is pessimistic about the success of foreign experts in reforming the local economy.

“How can those (who are) unaware of the ground realities find solution to the prevailing economic problems here?” he asked at a seminar on ‘Current Economic Crisis and its Solutions’ here on Monday.

Mr Bilawal said a common man’s economy had been compromised with because of the ‘incompetence’ of the government. He lamented that the PTI government had made the economy worse in the last 16 months.

“You can ask common man, vendors, farmers or workers how they are living and barely surviving.”

The PPP chief said Prime Minister Imran Khan and his cabinet had decided not to go to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and relied more on Pakistan’s foreign friends. The money that was taken and its advantage that was assumed did not benefit as much and then the government decided to introduce stabilisation measures such as devaluation and increase in interest rates which were disastrous.

When the government went to the IMF, it didn’t have any clear plan and thus compromised on terms that went against the poor, he added.

The PPP chairman also pointed out wrong policies adopted in trade with neighbouring countries.

“We face difficulties in doing business with Iran, while we cannot trade with India. And when we trade with China, we turn a blind eye (towards facts) and sign whatever free trade agreements are offered.”

Earlier, leading economists Shahid Hafiz Kardar, Kaiser Bengali, Dr Hafiz Pasha and Qaes Aslam also painted a bleak picture of the economy.

Mr Kardar stressed on reducing interest rate and renegotiating with the IMF on the condition of bringing tax-to-GDP ratio from the current 11.6pc to 16.7pc in three years. He said this ratio was lower even in the economies much stronger and with higher per capita income than Pakistan’s.

Mr Bengali called for banning all unnecessary imports. He also suggested cutting down non-development expenditures by limiting the size of bureaucracy and also reducing non-combat expenses out of defence budget.

Published in Dawn, March 10th, 2020