PESHAWAR: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has said that Pakistan is being squeezed economically as it has become a battleground for a new cold war.

Addressing a traders’ convention here on Sunday, he said that in the past, Afghanistan was battleground for the cold war between the United States and Soviet Union. However, the unipolar world was changing with the rise of China, he added.

“If Afghanistan was a battleground for previous cold war, Pakistan is for the current one, therefore, it is being squeezed economically,” said the JUI-F chief.

He said that Pakistan was nowhere to go as on one hand it was assuring a party that China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) was unlikely to work because influence of armed groups had spread to the focus areas of the project. On the other hand, Pakistan was asking Chinese to give it money for security, he added.

JUI-F leader says PM and army chief returned empty handed from China

Mr Rehman said that recently prime minister and chief of army staff visited China to persuade it to invest in Pakistan, however, they returned empty handed. “Chinese hosts told the visiting dignitaries that not only Pakistan was politically unstable but its security was also unreliable; therefore, they could not invest in the country,” he claimed.

He said that Pakistan was the only country in the region that was sinking economically. He said that the current parliament was not a representative of people. “A parliament that does not enjoy public trust cannot resolve their problems,” he added.

The JUI-F chief said that during the Raj, locals did not used to pay taxes on the grounds that payment of taxes would only prolong the colonial rule and would not be spent on their welfare. He said that even after 77 years of creation of Pakistan, people were not ready to trust rulers as they knew that the taxes being collected would be used to pay debts and meet conditions of International Monetary Fund.

He said that government should first build trust of people that the taxes collected from them would be spent on their welfare. “How people will pay taxes when they don’t know as to who is ruling the country. Those in the front are being controlled by someone else,” he added.

The JUI-F chief questioned as to how the country was supposed to make progress when only air and death were exempted from taxation. He said that only politicians, who understood the issues of people and needs of country, could steer Pakistan out of the present crises.

He regretted that the portfolio of finance minister in the country was always handed over to imported persons. He said that government imposed taxes on farmers while incentives were denied to them. He said that caretaker government imported wheat when the country’s crop was ready for harvest and now no one was buying wheat from growers. “Where this will lead in future,” he questioned.

Mr Rehman said that traders and industrialists should also be given incentives. “If businesses thrive then the circulation of money would lead to economic growth,” he said. He added that traders were the backbone of economy.

He said that the present law and order situation was deplorable and traders were being forced to pay extortion. On the other hand, he said, police stations in many districts of the province were closed down in the evening and the areas were controlled by armed groups.

The JUI-F chief pledged to resist any attempt to change constitutional and religious identity of the country.

JUI-F provincial chief Maulana Attaur Rehman, Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) president Faud Ishaq, Ilyas Bilour, former governor Haji Ghaulam Ali and other trader leaders also spoke on the occasion.

Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2024