Chairman of National Business Group Pakistan, President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum, and All Karachi Industrial Alliance, and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain said on Wednesday that an increase in tax revenue in proportion to the size of the economy and the restoration of the energy sector is necessary to run the economy. He said that Pakistan’s economy has been shrinking for many years, investment is waning, and the tax system needs to be robust enough to support the country’s operations.

Mian Zahid Hussain said that the tax system must be modernised and automated, the concept of filer and non-filer should be eliminated, and everyone should be legally obliged to file tax returns. The veteran business leader spoke to the business community and said the government should reduce its expenditures. Otherwise, all measures aimed at economic recovery will be ineffective. The business leader said useless ministries should be abolished, in which the most corrupt departments should be given priority.

He added that the departments that could not be closed should be merged with other departments and that creating unnecessary ministries should be stopped. Ministries designed to please politicians should be shut down, and the sale of failed state-owned companies should no longer be delayed.

Mian Zahid Hussain said that more than twenty million youth are unemployed in the country. Still, the Ministries of Youth Affairs are doing nothing.

The Civil Aviation Authority should be brought under the Ministry of Defense again; otherwise, its fate will be like that of the PIA. He said the government’s decision to abolish the Public Works Department is right. Still, the Ministries of Works should also be repealed.

After the 18th Amendment, there is no justification for keeping the ministries of the provinces in the centre and spending billions of rupees on them, so they must also be abolished.

Mian Zahid Hussain said that the government is trying to bring economic stability to the country. The substantial decline in inflation, increase in exports and remittances, improvement in agricultural production, and current account surplus speak volumes about the government’s and SIFC’s improved performance. However, political instability is not ending. Improving the country’s conditions is not only the government’s responsibility but also the duty of all leaders.

Therefore, the opposition should also play a positive role by abandoning the policy of increasing political instability in the country. They can only remain in politics if there is a country where they can play politics.