Government determined to provide relief to masses: Hafeez Shaikh.

ISLAMABAD -- Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Abdul Hafeez Shaikh on Wednesday said that Pakistan needed to learn some hard lessons from the mistakes it had made in the past in order to leapfrog ahead of other nations as a developed and sustainable economy.

Speaking at a session of the National Assembly in Islamabad on Wednesday afternoon, the adviser to the premier outlined the benefits of the economic policies of the incumbent government, and said that the current setup had taken some truly historic decisions.

"We should learn as to how some peoples and nations are ahead of others in terms of development. If we look at them, there are some stark realities that become clear about Pakistan. These realities are not related to military or civil governments," he said.

"One of these realities is that not a single prime minister has completed their designated tenure in the 72-year history of Pakistan. Liaquat Ali Khan remains the longest-serving premier in a single term. If we talk about sustainability and predictability, we should keep this in mind," he added.

"The second big challenge we face is the development of our people. There is not a single country in the world where the people are not educated, not skilled, and ignored, while the land prospers. If we want to stand with developed nations of the world, we need to pay attention to our people," he noted.

"The third problem that has historically plagued Pakistan is the issue of exports. Pakistan has found it very hard to sell its products worldwide, or to convince businesses to come and invest in the country. Countries like China, Malaysia and Korea have developed by doing business with the world," he maintained.

According to the adviser to the premier, another pressing issue for Pakistan was the abysmal rate of tax collection. "We have always been dependent upon other countries despite being an independent country," he said, adding that revenue collection has not kept with increase in business and wealth.

"There have been periods in this country where the economy improved, and growth took place. But this growth could not be sustained for longer than 3-4 years. If there was some growth in the 1960s, it vanished after 3-4 years. And if it came in the 1980s, it proved unsustainable too," he noted.

"So we have to understand why Pakistan can achieve a high growth rate but is unable to sustain it. If we take the example of China, it had a growth rate of 10 per cent for a long...

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