But it is not only the issue of poor and substandard education, unproductive graduates, who are unemployed having a peace of paper in their hands to certify their educational qualifications with out adequate skill and professionalism but it is a matter of the future of the young generation who are living as parasites in a society and are unproductive, lowering further per capita income and increasing the poverty level.
It is not only the poor families, who are spending their lives without even basic needs and are counting their days with complications and hardships but numerous other issues have further pushed the lives of the poor and young generation more miserable and have pushed the country at the verge of collapse, creating problems of other social evils, like increasing suicides, killing of their families and kids on account of hunger, growing theft cases, suicide attacks, target killings etc. Besides other economic issues like, growing debt burden, poor export, lower productivity, poor investment, issues of security, law and orders etc. The loyalty of the young and poor with the country is also in question. Actually, employment generation and higher ratio of the working force is a good indicator of socio-economic prosperity, development and economic stability and vice versa. All these social and economic issues are the result of our poor planning policies and lack of sincere and honest leaderships, otherwise our young generation is quite talented and this land is indeed very fertile and rich to feed honorably its nation in all respect.
Today, the growing energy crisis and load shedding and its increasing cost, is another alarming issue creating unemployment, being created on account of our poor planning policies, which has further not only made the life of the people miserable and at risk but also industrial and agriculture sectors are badly suffering and many industries and businesses have been closed on account of energy shortages, being known that today energy is the fifth very important factor of production. The collapse of the industrial and agriculture sector has not only increased poverty and unemployment in the country but has also increased the bills of our import expenditures but also has badly suffered our export sector as well. The every day increase in our import bills and decline in the export have raised expenditures many folds and has overburdened the country’s exchequer due to unfavorable balance of trade and payments. The industrial decline has further raised unemployment which has consequently adversely affected the per capita income of the country and export of the manufactured goods and agricultural products. Non availability of the energy and its growing cost for the industry, transport, businesses and tube wells installed for the irrigation purposes has further pushed the country in to the worse economic stagnation and inflationary spiral. Resultantly, the deficits in payments and trade have made the country at the verge of economic devastation and financial deficits.
The growing gas load shedding and increasing per unit cost is another setback for the economy of the country and is also not only increasing the miseries of the poor households and industrial sector but the transport sector is also suffering adversely. It is certainly quite apparent that in a country where neither energy is available nor cheap and frequent transportation facilities exists for the speedy supply of the labour force and raw materials to the industries nor their limited finished goods can avail the facilitation of the cheap access to the consumer market at national as well as international levels, how industry and agriculture will prosper and flourish and how income of the poor will increase and poverty will be eliminated? How the profit of the investors will increase and capital formation will grow? It is indeed beyond the understanding of the poor people of Pakistan that in spite of the fact that production of the gas has been increased many folds on account of the exploration of the oil and gas fields and it is indicated from the revenue of the government, which has been collected from this sector in the past few years as elaborated in the following paragraphs.
The government collected revenue of over Rs.138 billion from six different heads of oil and gas in the first six months of this fiscal year, up by over 106 per cent when compared with Rs. 67bn collected in the period last year. This was in addition to about Rs. 220bn as general sales tax on oil and gas collected in first six months, putting the total revenue receipts from oil and gas at about Rs. 358bn. As a result, the petroleum sector has emerged as the top revenue yielding sector for the government. According to official figures of the ministry of finance, the government collected Rs. 57.6bn as petroleum levy on oil products in July-December 2012-13 against Rs. 20.3bn collected during the same period last year, showing an increase of a whopping 184pc. Royalty on oil and gas stood at Rs. 29.8bn compared to Rs. 26.4bn in the first half of last fiscal year, an increase of about 13pc. On top of that, the government earned a windfall levy of Rs. 11.4bn during first six months of this fiscal year against zero collection under this head last year. Likewise, the government also collected Rs. 25bn as Gas Infrastructure Development Cess (GIDC) against no collection last year because the GIDC was introduced with effect from July 1, 2012. As a result, the petroleum sector has emerged as the top revenue yielding sector for the government and also for its investors, but unfortunately, these huge earnings are not appropriately utilized for the welfare of the general masses and all such resource generating institutions like P.I.A, Pakistan Steel mill, WAPDA, Railways, and such other departments are at the verge of collapse due to the incompetency and inefficiency of the previous Pakistan Peoples Party Coalition Government. Poor planning policies and incompetent technocrats and growing corruption could also be made responsible for this devastation and economic decline. The increasing external and internal debts burden in the history of Pakistan is another complex issue which very rightly depicts the inefficiency of the rulers and failure of their monetary and fiscal policy makers. The every day devaluation of the Pakistani currency and increasing dollar exchange rate is another conspiracy against this country, which is intentionally committed just to please their master’s and to give stability to their currencies and economy. The growing debt services burden is the outcome of our ill policies. According to the State Bank of Pakistan, the country’s foreign exchange reserves fell $154 million to $13.395 billion in the week ending Feb 8, from $13.549bn in the previous week. The payment of $146 million made to the International Monetary Fund in this month is not included in this data. The foreign exchange reserves held by the central bank slipped to $8.458bn from $8.586bn but that of commercial banks rose to $4.937bn from $4.888bn during the week. It indicates that financial position of the country is quite unstable.
In the circumstances prevailing in the country, where the intelligence agencies of India and Israel are destabilizing our country and are creating the issues of law and order in Pakistan and daily hundreds of our soldiers and innocent people are killed and sovereignty of the country is at stack. The fact of involvement of MOSAD and RAW is now no more secret and confidential, because the sudden death of an Indian spy Sarbajit Singh in Pakistan and the revenge, the official protocol and reaction of the Indian Government and their intelligence agencies in India have very openly exposed their involvement in the anti Pakistan activities since last several decades.
Therefore, it is the utmost need of the day to make the country stable, sovereign, and socio-economically prosper by reducing unemployment and poverty through our appropriate economic, political and educational policies. It is possible and achievable only if we provide a sincere leadership and a rapid and fair justice and quality education system to the general masses of the country in every walk of life.

(Prof. Dr. Asmatullah Khan, is a renowned Economist and a Retired Vice Chancellor of a public Sector University)

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