Chairman of National Business Group Pakistan, President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum, All Karachi Industrial Alliance, and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain said ignoring Karachi is equivalent to playing with the national economy.

Karachi’s share in the country’s exports is 54%; it is the country’s largest employment provider and contributes over Rs4200 billion in taxes to the national exchequer.

Mian Zahid Hussain said that considering Karachi’s importance, the provision of electricity, gas, water, sewerage and infrastructure should be better.

Talking to the business community, the veteran business leader said that Karachi is Pakistan’s economic hub of Pakistan but all the important departments related to financial affairs are located 1400 kilometres from it in Islamabad.

Talking to the business community, Mian Zahid Hussain said following the torrential rains in Karachi in August 2020, resulting in heavy loss of life and property, and infrastructure package worth Rs1100 billion rupees was announced, which was never implemented.

He said that no one would like to invest in a city where rain can disrupt life, results in deaths and half of the city is inundated.

The business leader said that the government should reconsider the controversial priority list for the provision of natural gas to different sectors and give preference to the industrial sector to boost production, revenue, employment and exports.

He noted that gas had become a very scarce resource. Still, domestic gas connections are being provided due to political considerations, which add to this sector’s circular debt.

Mian Zahid Hussain said that countries rich in energy resources and those exporting gas would not waste this resource as we do. Most such countries would provide LPG or other fuels to the masses and prefer industry for delivering natural gas.

He informed that gas theft and leakage in the commercial and domestic sector is almost 10 percent while such loss in the industrial sector is one per cent, but politics always prefer the economy, which is against the national interests; therefore, residents should be shifted to solar energy.

He said the masses are braving long hours of load shedding, but no country or company is willing to sell LNG to Pakistan due to the international economic crisis.

He said that LNG tenders had been floated repeatedly with no response, which would intensify the energy crisis and add to the miseries of the masses.