Economic Collapse
By Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd)
Westridge, Rawalpindi
Federal Minister Syed Khushid Shah informed the house that due to poor law and order situation and power and gas crisis in the country many industrialists have been forced to shift their industries abroad to countries like Bangladesh where apart from other conducive conditions for the industry the taxes are lower by 18 per cent.
A banker friend told me sometime back that about 18 big industrialists of Faisalabad had shifted their plants to Bangladesh and Jordan as it was no more viable for them to operate them in Pakistan. The trend is alarming to say the least.
There is already unemployment in the country and labor is facing great hardships due to forced shutdowns. No foreign investment is coming or expected in the near future. On top of it if the existing industry also closes down or shifts abroad it will create a vicious circle of more unemployment and loss of jobs. Are our rulers alive to such disconcerting conditions? Apparently not, or else they would have taken measures on a war footing to arrest the situation. Instead they are busy in foreign tours, quibbling on petty matters among themselves, indicting Moonas Ilahis and Qadir Gillanis or thinking for mid-term polls to save their souls. God save Pakistan from such petty minded selfish pigmies who have no vision at all for the future of the country and the nation, Ameen.
