The Centre for Policy Studies (CPS), COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CIIT) organized a Pre-budget Seminar at Islamabad Campus. Ambassador Fauzia Nasreen, Head, CPS, welcomed the participants. Chairman, Standing Committee , National Assembly on Finance, Mr. Qaisar Ahmad Shaikh, while inaugurating the seminar, said Pakistan’s exports were facing problems due to the exchange rates.
Dr. Hafiz Pasha, Ex-Finance Minister, pointed out that in the past nine months, the agriculture sector, which accounts for 47% of employment, has been in “deep trouble.” “We used to export cotton and food to our neighbors but are now forced to import them,” he lamented. Based on the old definition, the debt to GDP ratio of 70% was very high. “We need to get our statistics right, enabling the policy-makers to make the right decisions.
Dr. Vaqar Ahmed of SDPI said, youth employment should be made a priority in the budget. To double the GDP, employment of women needed to be doubled, like in Malaysia, he suggested.
Ali Shan Azhar, Analyst, High Commission of Canada, said, electricity load-shedding was more due to bad governance and less due to generation capacity constraints, resulting in a deficit of 5,000 MWs.”

Dr. Talat Anwar Advisor, CIIT, who chaired the Energy session concluded, the root cause of the increased load-shedding is the financial mismanagement that results in circular debt which again rose to Rs337 billion despite payment of Rs500 billion to IPP in 2013.

Source: http://pakobserver.net/ciit-seminar-state-economy-federal-budget/