Brig. (retd) Aslam Khan, Chairman of Pakistan Economy Watch (PEW), said on Thursday that the country is going bankrupt, but the politicians are still busy with their game. Despite the clear instructions of the IMF, the tax net is not being extended, but the burden is being increased on the existing taxpayers, the salaried class, and the public, he said. Muhammad Aslam Khan said in a statement issued today that the instructions of the IMF are being violated, which will affect the targets and jeopardise the IMF deal.
He said reforms are delayed while agriculture, real estate, and shopkeepers are not taxed for political reasons. Thousands of wealthy taxpayers are also being quietly removed from the tax net to get their support in the upcoming election, which is dishonesty, he added.
He said the politicians have failed to run the country because they focus not on national interests but on personal gains.
The ongoing political struggle has nothing to do with national interests, he said, adding that the decisions of politicians have turned a rich country like Pakistan into a failed state dependent on borrowing for survival.
Pakistan used to lend to countries like Germany, Japan, and China, and the Pakistani passport was respected worldwide, but now it has been the fourth-worst passport in the world for four years.
Those highly educated people who could have played an important role in the country’s development are fleeing from Pakistan, but despite this, the political actors are not concerned.
Aslam Khan said that more than 250,000 tonnes of sugar have been exported since January and that about 100 tonnes of sugar is being smuggled to Afghanistan through Balochistan daily.
Similarly, sugar and other food items are being smuggled from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which is only possible with the connivance of the concerned government officials.
No action is being taken against the influential flour and sugar mafia to relieve the masses, and authorities only rely on hollow threats.
Currently, the price of sugar has reached at least one hundred and fifty rupees per kg, and if the smuggling continues like this, it will exceed two hundred rupees per kilo in the market, he warned.