Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: All the efforts to increase agricultural and industrial production as well as much-needed exports during the last few decades have not produced results due to a faulty political system in the country, a business leader said Sunday.
Experience has proved that the economy cannot perform unless the country has an improved political system, said Shahid Rasheed Butt former President ICCI.
He said that people of Pakistan are forced to consume the world’s costliest sugar and priciest flour on false pretexts which is a glaring example of misuse of authority by political class.
Shahid Rasheed Butt said that our electoral system is mother of all the ills, it has crowded out real representatives of the masses to pave the way for millionaires and billionaires.
The people from the middle class and poor sections of society cannot think about participating in the elections due to its exorbitant cost and other problems, he observed.
The moneyed class has hijacked the system, they get elected by spending tens of millions and get the best return on their investments in a short span thus making politics a profitable business.
Billion are doled out to politicians in the name of developmental works which if discontinued will discourage the billionaires from participating in elections and polluting the political system.
The business leader noted that the legislature is supposed to formulate laws but the majority is focused on making roads and buildings which should be the job of local governments.
The government should hold local bodies elections while every province should have their own provincial finance commission to ensure just distribution of resources.
He said that all the regulatory bodies should be made independent so that short term decisions to benefit politicians or major business groups on the cost of masses and country can be discouraged.
Mr. Butt said that interaction between tax officials and taxpayers should be minimized and tax returns should be simplified so that a shopkeeper can also file returns without the help of professionals.
