The Pakistan Economy Watch (PEW) on Monday said useless mega projects have played a key role in bankrupting the country. These projects have not served the country but politicians and their favorite bureaucrats.
Unnecessary projects are made by borrowing billions of dollars, which benefits politicians and the country suffers, it said.
For several decades, the masses are told that completion of a certain project will usher in a new era of development and prosperity, production and exports will increase; inflation and unemployment will end but these lies have never come true, said Dr. Murtaza Mughal, President of PEW.
He said that before every such project, the masses are told that it will make Pakistan a developed country, but such moves end up making politicians and their close bureaucrats more prosperous while the lives of people become more miserable.
He said that important institutions like the Planning Commission are kept weak for unholy designs, and if necessary, a new department or authority is created to serve political purposes.
Incompetent bureaucrats do not know how to run the institution, but they are experts in pleasing politicians which results in annual losses of hundreds of billions of rupees to institutions, he observed.
Those who claimed to set up industries across the country have pushed the country into an unmanageable debt trap for political and material gains.
Dr. Mughal said that the last year Pakistan received foreign direct investment of two billion dollars, while Singapore, which has a population 42 times less than Pakistan and an area1093 times lesser than our country attracted an FDI of 92 billion dollars.
This is because rules are respected in developed countries while breaking the law is considered a privilege in our country.
