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Imran Khan has formally launched 'No one Sleeps Hungry' programme

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Waiting for usual culprits to storm in and dispute this great initiative.

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he talks about the No One Sleeps Hungry programme, and new schemes that will launch soon like direct payments to lower income families so they can use that money to combat the inflated prices of everyday things.

He really needs to bring positive reforms and policies to reduce problems... these things are great but why not accelerate local govt peoples problem will be solved through local govt structure even faster...
 
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no charity will feed next 100mn pakistanis which will be here with in 20 years . reduce population or be ready .

Look at videos of Pakistan in 1990 when it had a population about 100 Million less than we do now and you'll find little has changed:

These arguments about "overpopulation" have been made since 1798 in fact it may have been ongoing since the times of Tertullian in 160 AD:

Pakistan's large and burgeoning population is actually a massive boon for the nations economy not a hindrance the problem has always been you have governments, both military and civilian, particularly since the 90s that have no clue how to develop the countries economy.

A prime example is the discovery of Thar lignite shortly after Zia's assassination in 1988 through a program he initiated looking for water in Thar. Pakistan is an energy starved nation that imports its oil and gas so what did the country do with this immense domestic resource of fuel that would have created jobs in Pakistan and saved it tens of billions in foreign exchange?

Nothing.

Even now we've continued to do largely nothing.

How about collecting taxes and investing in local industries to eliminate imports, investing in agriculture to increase per acre yields, investing in the development of critical infrastructure like housing and water sanitation, investing in mining?

Waiting for usual culprits to storm in and dispute this great initiative.

Lol, well I'm not sure if I'm the usual culprit but I disagree with this approach and think it's absolutely wasteful.

Pakistani governments seem to operate on the model of "feed a man a fish you feed him for a day..." that's it.

The economic liberalization imposed on Pakistan by the Nawaz Sharif government in the mid 90s and followed up on by Musharraf via his FTA to China and just continued under Zardari essentially equated into one large welfare scheme that subsidized everything for everyone.

Based on my previous calculations those tariffs accounted for ~4% of GDP in tax revenue hence why Pakistan's tax to GDP fell below the 10% mark and stayed that way for years.

As per the WB it appears that Pakistan collects more tax revenue as a percentage of the overall GDP than China, Bangladesh and India do... so why is our economy so much worse off?
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/GC.TAX.TOTL.GD.ZS?locations=PK-IN-BD-CN

It's these welfare programs/schemes.

We're spending so much on imports and social welfare programs and taking on so much debt to do it that there's less than nothing for industries while future governments are inundated with ever mounting debt and large portions of our yearly budget needing to be allocated just to pay off the interest on those debts.

At least what Khan is doing is targeting those subsidies towards the poor which is far better than what the previous governments did but this will accomplish little to nothing in the long run.

We need investment in the FBR to collect taxes, they've been chronically underfunded for maybe decades. Back in FY14 I calculated their budget was somewhere around 500-1400% less than what it should have been considering the size of the Pakistani economy especially when you compare their budget to the IRS, CRA, JTA, etc... and their respective economies.

The FBR doesn't have the money to hire the staff, buy the equipment or purchase the necessary third party services they need to do their job effectively. It needs money to hire and train lawyers specialized in prosecuting tax evasion cases, needs people to perform audits, needs to hire people to investigate/canvas on foot, needs data scientists and super computers to analyze company payroll and imports/exports data as well as satellite imagery to map out incomes based on property and asset ownership.

However if what the FBR collects is just thrown away on imported food, fuel and other consumables it does nothing for Pakistan in the long run.
 
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Pakistani governments seem to operate on the model of "feed a man a fish you feed him for a day..." that's it.

Go argue that with the European governments who have social benefits - ask them to get rid of those because feeding man a fish is pointless.

IK is introducing social benefits system in Pakistan and it is much needed as a large % of poor don't even have jobs to feed so reducing inflation is not going to cure their starvation. Creating jobs takes time, especially after the near bankruptcy situation left by PMLN. Now that this government has some financial breathing space, these initiatives are the correct ones to target the poor and give them relief.
 
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On a side note, people who used to vote for one plate of food - who would they vote for when they get monthly moneys from government every month and free food through these mobile kitchens and shelter homes. 500K+ persons served meals in last few months alone in just a handful places.

Will they vote for those who will take all this away from them?
 
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he talks about the No One Sleeps Hungry programme, and new schemes that will launch soon like direct payments to lower income families so they can use that money to combat the inflated prices of everyday things.


The steps he is taking and the policies Imran is introducing will provide the future we all want.

The sad fact is, things take time, especially when you are already in financial difficulties, we need to have a little patience, and I'm sure we will have a society we all desire, very soon, inshallah.
 
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Go argue that with the European governments who have social benefits - ask them to get rid of those because feeding man a fish is pointless.

I'm not saying this is bad, I'm a big believer in universal healthcare and other social welfare programs that help not just the poor but the vast majority of people, particularly a people as proud as Pakistani's, aren't looking for welfare they want economic development and jobs to be able to support their own families.

Those nations you're speaking of are industrialized countries with long established industries which can support those social welfare schemes.

Pakistan isn't anywhere close to being able to support these programs while taking money away from critical investments like into the FBR.

When those nations were in their early stages of development those social welfare programs didn't exist it's only after decades of economic/industrial growth and reinvestment did they start establishing these systems.

For example, Canada's universal healthcare system officially started in Saskatchewan in the 40s, was only adopted by like 2 other provinces and the the federal government didn't step in to help until the 60s whereas it wasn't until the 80s, a whole 200+ years after independence, that it is what you see today.

My view is that it's far more imperative to get the FBR the funding it needs to do its job and then use the tax revenue collected to invest in industry and infrastructure particularly low/middle income housing which will have a far larger impact on the overall economy and helping the poor in the long run since construction jobs largely employ the poorest and least educated in society.
 
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