Thinking beyond ‘towels’

“The budget is alright, given the limited room for the government to manoeuvre and the constraints it had to deal with. If we don’t want to touch the ‘sacred cows’, sell the loss-making state-owned businesses (dragging down the government’s fragile fiscal house) or fix the power sector, then the (new) budget is fine,” observed Mian Mohammad Mansha, chairman of the Nishat Group, one of the country’s largest and most diversified business conglomerates, which also owns the MCB Bank, during an interview with Dawn over the weekend. “If we want to make this economy competitive, we will have to make difficult decisions; we will have to go after structural issues and fix the basic problems dragging down the economy. Let me also tell you one thing: there always is room for tough decisions no matter how heavy the constraints are,” the billionaire textile, automobile and banking tycoon argued. “Correct the fundamentals of the economy, strengthen the foundations upon which the economic superstructure is built to create a business-friendly and investment-friendly environment. We must fix our justice system, law enforcement, education and bureaucracy and downsize the government by pulling it out of the businesses it has no business running.