PPP leader gives businessmen guarantee he will bring in investments to Pakistan n Says Pakistan has to go to double digit exports n Regrets he had advised Imran to sit together but he did not pay heed his narration.

LAHORE    -   Former President of Pakistan and PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday called for comprehen­sive dialogue on ‘Char­ter of Economy’ so as to put in order effec­tive and collective mea­sures for bringing du­rable improvements in the country’s economy.

He expressed these views while speaking in a Discussion on Char­ter of Economy orga­nized by Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Indus­try (FPCCI) here at the Federation’s Region­al Office. FPCCI Presi­dent Irfan Iqbal Sheikh and SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Indus­try (SAARC-CCI) Vice President Mian Anjum Nisar also spoke on this occasion, while a large number businessmen and industrialists at­tended the session.

Asif Ali Zardari said that improving the eco­nomic situation was need of the hour and in­evitable for the future generations. 

He claimed that he guaranteed to bring in investments to Paki­stan, if the business and industrialist communi­ty of Punjab got on the same page. He said that he believed, Pakistan had to go to double dig­it exports that did not mean USD 20 billion but USD 200 billion.

Pakistan had no shortage of resources and manpower there­fore ‘we have to im­prove our economy by ourselves’ because big foreign investors de­manded big returns and they repatriate five times of their invest­ment. "Punjab has big business tycoons and they should get united and make investment in any sector, and we guarantee them securi­ty of their investments and dividends." He said that Pakistan People’s Party had always tak­en best care of business community. He quot­ed Mahathir Muham­mad of Malaysia, when he had visited Pakistan, as saying ‘Make wealth­ier your countrymen first then tax them’. “So the whole question is that we keep trying to turnout juice of those people who are already taxed and who will be­lieve in 21 percent Ki­bor Rate. Economic planning should not be for five or ten years but for our coming generations. China had worked out economic planning for 50 years and we also have to follow the suit,” he maintained.

The PPP Co-Chairman added that if Pakistan’s exports reached up to USD 300 billion, everyone would forget about the expenditures of any sector or institution, asserting that the na­tion would have rise above this mind-set that who was spending what.

In Sindh, he said, the provincial government increased the prices of commodities wherever it found some space and that hike affected the prices across Pakistan, and ev­eryone blamed him of that move, explaining that he increased the prices in an effort to tackle the im­ports as the country was running short of foreign exchange reserves. Sindh government was promoting public-private partnership even in road sector so as to save the pre­cious foreign reserves of the coun­try, he added. Asif Ali Zardari said that politicians and parliamentar­ians formulated the economic pol­icies and running businesses was not their job as it was the mandate of business community.

He said that he had advised Imran Khan let sit together and sort out the country’s matters in the parliament and also deliberate on Charter of Economy but he did not pay any heed his narration.