KARACHI: “Whenever I visited the officials from the State Bank, they behaved just like officers of the World Bank or the IMF; which is bad thinking. We need officials of a Pakistani mindset to give relief to people. There are two aspects; one is from the bureaucracy who thinks we are earning huge sums but they don’t realize how many people were getting employment through these concerns, and how many would be affected through their one single wrong decision.”

Mian Nasser Hyatt Maggo, the immediate past President of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FPCCI) stated this while addressing the meeting held in honor of Governor State Bank Jameel Ahmed at Federation House yesterday.

Maggo warned that the supply chain is broken in the country and businesses are failing. I bet the policies being run at present if continued even for one more month, will see a lot of commotion and mass disorder in mid or end of March all over the country and nobody would gain from this situation.

He suggested the government launch an amnesty scheme and collect the dollars from the general people. Let people declare their dollar stocks and accommodate them instead of running after the IMF and World Bank for getting more and more loans and overburdening the economy. Please don’t run after IMF and the World Bank Pakistani people have enough resources to earn and collect dollars on the national level. The dollar crisis is the creation of our own commercial banks, they have created panic and earned windfall. Start investigating these banks with a representation from the FPCCI, you will get the results and solve this critical situation successfully, he said.      

He said the prices of raw materials are increasing enormously every week. Change your thinking in favor of Pakistan, not for others. Do not become the brokers of IMF and the World Bank, be Pakistani. The rating of Pakistani banks is getting worst the world over. I suggested to a few officials that if you don’t have enough foreign exchange please allow the documents to open accounts to traders whenever they will earn they could pay back. They replied that it will be Hawala/ Hundi. I said then what? This is not your headache. If there is an exchange rate of Rs 225 per dollar why should I deal in Rs 250 by hawala? Even then what you could do? Can you stop it? Did you stop smuggling?

Hawala/ Hundi always come into being due to the wrong policies of the governments why this is not in other counties of the world? The reason is the wrong taxation system and the bad policies. Don’t you know for a dying person Haram automatically becomes Halal? But you are not seriously thinking over these vital issues. Your duty is to check if the documents and papers are correct or not! Everybody knows today we are suffering from an emergency by facing the question of life and death but you people do not realize it. This is the height of ignorance.

There is an example of the neighboring country Iran which is doing barter trade with the European Union, India, Taiwan, and the remaining world but we are shy even to discuss this matter. In this crisis, we can save millions and billions of dollars without doing cash trade. But this is shameful that instead of sitting jointly with all stakeholders and getting solutions to this crisis we have closed our eyes. 

Later, while talking to “National Courier” regarding imported goods stuck up in the ports Nasser Maggo said if foreign bank messages to your local bank to release the goods to importers and pay back in dollars whenever you feel easy. What is the problem in accepting this deal? Here the situation is that goods imported by the trader is worth ten thousand dollars but the port charges and demurrage has been reached up to twenty thousand. People are bankrupting but the authorities are unmoved.

Published in The Daily National Courier, January, 20 2023

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