LAHORE: The Central Shoora of the Jamaat e Islami, Pakistan, has called upon the government to build a self reliant economy by freeing the country from foreign loans, retrieving the public money lying abroad and improving the taxations system.
A resolution adopted at a meeting of the Shoora called for eradicating corruption and unnecessary spending.
The Shoora noted that the government was working on the principle of fiscal deficit with more imports and less exports which caused foreign exchange problem. It said that the fiscal deficit was, to a great extent, being covered by remittances. However, foreign loans from the IMF received on harsh terms had to be returned with compound interest and was huge burden on the economy.
It said that the kisans and workers were not given their due return for the hard labor. It said that a big chunk of the population was not getting pure drinking water and electricity was not available to a big part of the country. Similarly, although natural gas had been discovered at different places but the rural and far flung areas in Balochistan and other provinces were still without gas. On the other hand, an artificial gas shortage had been created and gas crisis had been caused for domestic consumers and in the CNG sector. It said that in spite of an agreement for gas supply with Iran, the government had not taken any practical steps in his direction under US pressure.
The JI Shoora noted that the rulers who had claimed to solve the load shedding problem within six months, had in fact, added to the load shedding problem during its twenty months rule.
In another resolution on agriculture, the JI central body urged the government to immediately announce the support prices of paddy, potato, cotton, maize and vegetables. It proposed support price for non-Basmati paddy at Rs. 1200, Basmati paddy at Rs. 2500, cotton at Rs. 4000 per maund, maize at Rs. 1800 per maund and sugar cane at Rs. 250 per maund. It also demanded abolition of GST on agricultural inputs and clearing the arrears of sugar cane growers by the sugar mills.
The Shoora demanded ban on duty free import of vegetables and other agricultural products from India. It also demanded building dams to save the kisans from the losses caused by floods and draughts. It noted that no dam had been built in the country since 1974 whereas India had built dozens of big dams on the three rivers allocated to Pakistan,, Chenab, Indus and Jhelum, thus committing water aggression.
