MULTAN: In the eyes of agricultural, industrial and financial experts of southern Punjab Pakistan’s informal economy, agriculture and cheap labour happen to the major factors that keep the national economy going despite the worsening indicators.

Dr Karamat Ali, Chairman of the Economics Department at the Bahawalpur University, said that the informal economy was far more resilient than the formal economy. “The man on the street has his own ways of surviving when the government fails to come to his rescue,” he said, adding that the masses do not pay heed to what the government policy is if it goes against their interest.

Explaining the point, Dr Karamat said that the government wants to bring down population figures, but people go against government efforts in this regard because more hands in the family mean more bread-earners. Likewise, the government wants to discourage child labour, but it works against the interest of the masses, especially in rural areas and, therefore, no wants to follow such policies, he added.

According to him, about 60 per cent population of the country is not affected by the current power shortage and rising fuel prices because “they have never made use of such facilities to miss them now.” It is the elite class that is worried, no the rural masses, he concluded

Jahangir Tarin, a former federal minister, said the impression itself that the country’s economy was still moving was wrong, as “the people have no confidence in the government.” People were selling their family silver, and in some cases even their children, to survive, he said.

Former president of the Multan Chamber of Commerce Khawja Muhammad Yousaf said that it was only a matter of time before the economy would collapse. Industrialists, he said, were actually surviving on the basis of savings that they had done when the sun was shining. Once the savings have also gone, the economy would take a nosedive.

Khawja Muhammad Shoaib, of Farmers’ Vision Forum, said that the agriculture sector and the element of cheap labour were together holding the country’s economy in one piece. He regretted the fact that despite its contribution to the national economy, the government was making moves against the agriculture sector, increasing the prices of agricultural inputs by 200 to 250 per cent within a year. After playing havoc with wheat and cotton crops, he said, the government was now after rice and sugarcane.