Chairman of National Business Group Pakistan, President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum, and All Karachi Industrial Alliance, and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain on Monday said a highly flawed economic model is holding Pakistan back.

Pakistan can never become a successful economy in the presence of the present imperfect economic model, thefts and bad governance, he said.

Mian Zahid Hussain said that friendly countries and international institutions can lend money but cannot fix our sick economy and governance issues which will require serious efforts by the government.

Talking to the business community, the veteran business leader said that it is wrong to blame the international market for inflation in Pakistan as the dollar has been deliberately inflated to boost exports but scarcity of gas and mismanagement frustrated the initiative causing huge damage to the economy and the people.

The value of the dollar in Pakistan has not been increased by the developments in the global market but due to the worst economic situation which has made everything more expensive.

He said that there is no shortage of resources in Pakistan but they are being ruthlessly wasted.

Never in the history of the country have loans been used to increase the productive capacity of the economy, he said, adding that the wrong preference has reduced production, exports and boosted imports.

Mian Zahid Hussain further said that unless loans are used to increase productivity, it will be impossible to repay loans from domestic resources and new loans will be the only option for repaying loans.

With the passage of time, the conditions of loans will become stricter and the axe will fall on the people.

The business leader said that Pakistan cannot become a developed economy even if corruption is eradicated from the country because the current economic model is a combination of weaknesses and contradictions.

The sole purpose of the present malfunctioning economic model is to promote elitism at the cost of the poor which is not sustainable, he observed.

It is impossible to achieve tax targets and eliminate dependence on loans without fundamental changes in the economy but nobody seems to be ready for it.