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To whom
we report?
Once again federal and provincial govts have closed all educational institutions because of COVID-19 but have not given any relaxation to private school teachers.
Now question which arises in every private school teacher’s mind is that to whom we report our problems? Announcing vacation and closing school is easy but paying teacher is very difficult task for government. Government should also think about private school teachers.
ANTHONY SAHOTRA
Larkana
Another lifeline
Regardless of the efforts made by Pakistan to comply with FATF recommendations, it could not come out of the Grey list. Pakistan has made some significant constitutional changes and took action on MTVS, cross border currency and BNI controls, extended cooperation in TF (terror financing) cases and applied sanctions on AML/CFT violations. Pakistan has remarkably progressed from 5 to 21 complied items of action plan within a year. The positive side of the current plenary meeting has been the positive remarks for Pakistan’s active stance on the issues highlighted in the action plan and the sanguine element of the meeting were the provision of another lifeline from FATF that proved a thwack for the rival forces trying to push Pakistan in the blacklist.
The geographical and strategic importance of the territory is proved to be a mitigating factor for blacklisting risk. Along with the applauding element and acknowledgment of any blacklisting off the table, the warning element with extension cannot be ignored. All deadlines for the action plan have expired and significant sustainable progress has been demanded until February plenary meeting. FATF has identified deficiencies in 6 items of 27-item action plan and asked for the prosecution and penalties for terror financing and effective implementation of targeted financial sanctions against all designated terrorists plus the strict scrutiny of funds transfer.
The warning element of the meeting is the action that would be taken if compliance of lacking items would not be worked upon resulting in taking all members on board to advise business relations and transactions with Pakistan. The government needs to enforce laws properly and has to focus on the performance of law enforcement agencies to ensure the sustainability and progress of the economy as staying on the grey list and expiry of deadlines can affect the economy badly and hinder the smooth relations with business community.
AYESHA ASAD
Islamabad
Challenges
of small distributor
Since pandemic Covic-19 has impacted the entire world; in this time of the crisis, we have a segment in our supply chain management that is being adversely affected by the economic downfall. Small distributors/wholesalers are always on the higher risks due to inflation and other business-related challenges and this prevailing economic dip has worsened the situation for these crucial players of supply chain management like never before. There is a need to disrupt the status quo by facilitating innovative and technology-driven approaches to providing high quality, low-risk financing to small distributors who tend to go underserved by traditional lenders.
Recently, I learned that Karandaaz is inviting firms to participate in the Innovation Challenge Fund for finding innovative solutions for small distributor financing. The main objective of this challenge is to provide high quality and low-risk financing solutions to small distributors by inviting local financial institutions, Fintechs, advisory and research firms, data analytics firms and international organizations of similar nature to come up with innovative & tech-friendly ideas.
I believe this is a great opportunity for organizations in the know to propose pro-distributors solutions and approaches so that wholesalers & SMEs can be benefited in real-time. The selected idea or business plan will be providing grant funds for the development, operationalization and testing of the Small Distributor Financing solution.
SADIA ALI
Rawalpindi
Hobbling economy
Since the covid-19 appeared, economies of the world fell down. It hurt undergrowth economies like Pakistan the most. So, G-20 delayed debit servicing that under-developed and developing countries may survive during this horrible pandemic. In this regard, it has been a very few months that the economic trend in Pakistan has started to improve.
Manufacturing industries are moving towards recovery. Textile industries are factually performing well. Data shows the record sales of cement and automobiles in the country. Current account goes surplus and US dollar hits the lowest of the last 6 months. The stock market has outperformed and gained confidence of investors.
Besides, all the lucky figures and rising curves seem temporary and will be effective until government’s economic recovery package worth 900 billion rupees and the tariff relief for industries are continued. Strengthening of rupee can be related to the State Bank’s “Roshan Digital Account” initiative for Overseas Pakistanis, which is not a permanent solution. The quick moving indicators can change rapidly if second wave of Covid-19 leads to another unbearable lockdown for the hobble economy.
Government should not rely on these temporary solutions as it is much needed to take tough decisions. The real and long-term solution lies in tax reforms, agricultural reforms and economic and governance reforms. Shabbar Zaidi, ex-Chairman, FBR, in his open letter has clearly indicated the lacking tax collection system of Pakistan. Only the historic agricultural reforms can protect us from sugar cartels and prevent artificial shortage of food items like flour. Solution other than reforms will let a surviving economy to survive all the life.
FARAZ ALI SHAH
Lahore
