Pak economist Pervez calls for resumption of trade with India

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan political economist Pervez Tahir has called for the resumption of trade with India to reduce people's woes, Dawn reported.

He called for cutting down Pakistan's federal cabinet size in conformity with the requirement of the 18th Amendment. Tahir made the remarks while addressing the participants of the Third Asma Jahangir Memorial Lecture organised by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan on February 15, as per the news report.

Tahir stressed that as federal development spending is financed by borrowing, it ought to be reduced to zero till the budget is balanced. He said that the defence expenditure of Pakistan "has a tail longer than....necessary," according to Dawn. In his remarks, Tahir recommended that the income of big landholders must be subjected to normal income taxation.

He called for imposing wealth tax, inheritance tax and estate duties and added that indirect taxes should not be increased, as per the Dawn report. Furthermore, Tahir stressed that provinces should devote 50 per cent of their income to the development budget and provide the corresponding current budget according to Article 25-A within two years.

"Property tax should be fully devolved to local governments for effective public service delivery and trade should be opened in the region to deal with the current account deficit," Dawn quoted Tahir as saying.

Recently, Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has termed the International Monetary Fund (IMF) deal as "treatment of cancer with disprin (aspirin)," Dawn reported.

He said the IMF agreement will only provide temporary relief as it will eventually lead the country to a major disaster as the burden of loans will continue to increase.

Criticising the economic policies of the country's government, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman said, "Do not destroy the country just to oust Imran Khan from the political arena," according to Dawn.

Imran Khan said Pakistan is plunging into a financial crisis and more chaos like Sri Lanka, as per the news report. Citing the latest report of the Fitch Rating agency, the former Pakistan PM warned that the situation would deteriorate.

Further, per the news report, the Fitch Ratings agency has downgraded Pakistan's long-term foreign-currency issuer default rating to 'CCC-', implying that the country has already reached the level of Sri Lanka.

PTI Chairman said he could see that Pakistan was heading towards default and added that the expected IMF agreement will only provide temporary relief as it will eventually lead Pakistan to a major disaster.