BUSINESS community is urging the Government to allow manufacturing material stuck at the key port of Karachi into the country, warning that a failure to lift a ban on imports will leave millions jobless. According to them, industries such as steel, textiles and pharmaceuticals are barely functioning, forcing thousands of factories to close and deepening unemployment.
It is regrettable that parleys with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) were allowed to linger on and the resultant uncertainty is compounding the economic crisis. However, it is also a fact that the Government had no other alternative as it tried to convince the Fund not to insist on some of the harsh conditions and as a result an accord on resumption of stalled instalments consumed an unexpectedly long time. The woes of the business community are also understandable as shortage of raw material has already led to closure of hundreds of factories in parts of the country. Alongside a shortage of raw material, soaring inflation, rising fuel costs and a plummeting rupee have battered manufacturing industries. The textile and garment industry is responsible for around 60 per cent of Pakistan’s exports and employs about 35 million people but reports claim about thirty percent of the textile mills have shut down operations completely while the rest are working at less than forty percent capacity and this would obviously have a serious impact on exports besides complicating the unemployment problem.
Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association says forty of its units were at the brink of closure due to short supply of raw material while 600 out of 2500 factories in Peshawar have reportedly already closed for the same reasons. The ban on imports is also exacerbating the price situation as steel prices have gone beyond the reach of the common man and poultry meat is touching Rs. 700 a kilo mark. In view of the critical position of the foreign exchange reserves, which have plunged below three billion dollars, and a steep fall in remittances by overseas Pakistanis, a ban on imports is understandable but its negative impact for the common man could have been minimized if, instead of a blanket ban on imports, only luxury and non-essential items were targeted and that too much earlier. Now hopes are pinned on the IMF deal and release of the tranche but it is not a sustainable solution to our economic malaise and the national leadership should sit together and formulate a consensus approach to handle the situation in a pragmatic and sustainable manner.
