MULTAN: Economists from southern Punjab have drawn attention of the government to serious economic problems and called for steps to resolve them.

The Chairman, Economics Department of Islamia University, Bahawalpur, Professor Dr Karamat Ali, said that the poor state of the economy was a result of years’ of wrong policies.

He suggested: “We should take agriculture sector along with the industry and both the sectors could not run without water and power”.

“To tackle the power crisis the government should motivate the people to save electricity and should fix the consumption limits. The government should set up thermal power units in collaboration with international power producers.”

Electricity can be generated through hydel power units with the consensus of all the four provinces, Dr Karamat said.

Similarly, nuclear technology can also be used for this purpose along with the defence use, while electricity can be produced by solar energy units for domestic use.

He said that a campaign should be launched to encourage the masses to conserve water and sprinkle irrigation methods should be adopted. After formulating a fair water distribution accord among all the four provinces new dams and water reservoirs should be constructed.

Dr Karamat said that no food shortages existed in the country and it was manipulation that created the crisis. “It is the result of mismanagement and defective policies of the government institutions.”

He said that the country produced a bumper wheat crop during the last season, but a crisis was fabricated by the middle man due to the negligence of government agencies.

He further said that no developing or poor country can afford to buy expensive vehicles by ignoring development of a public transport system. The increasing number of vehicles had created fuel shortage.

By improving public transport system the country would not only be able to save fuel but it would traffic problems and environmental pollution would be reduced, the economist observed.

He said to give a boost to the financial sector the government had allowed banks to give loans, credit cards and leasing of luxury items which has added to inflation.

Khawja Muhammad Shoaib of Farmers Vision Forum said that there was a need to increase the volume of exports to reduce trade deficit.

He said that the policy of liberalising imports resulted in a rapid increase in trade deficit and only mobile phones cost Rs1.6 billion to the national exchequer last year.

Pakistan being an agrarian state has an advantage that it could easily overcome its food crisis after improving its agriculture sector, he observed.

He said that the country’s population growth rate was 2.7 per cent and it needed 7 to 10 per cent additional power to sustain its economic growth, but not a single power house was installed nor a dam was constructed during the last 10 years.

Also, no initiative was taken to exploit the massive coal deposits in Sindh for power generation.

The President of Rahim Yar Khan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mian Mehmood Ahmed, said a few power plants in the country were non-functional and the government should immediately make these units operative.

He also called for the construction of Kalabagh Dam.

He suggested that besides announcing a schedule for opening and closing of markets, the government should fix days for closure of various industrial units on rotation basis.