KARACHI: Letting his angry frustration wash over a long-winded speech at a conference of chartered accountants on Tuesday, prominent industrialist Muhammad Ali Tabba said the extended economic hardship has convinced him there’s no light at the end of the proverbial tunnel.

Addressing the CFO Conference 2023 organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan, Mr Tabba said he sees no leadership qualities in any political party.

He leads the Yunus Brothers Group, one of the country’s biggest conglomerates with stakes in textile, chemical, cement, power generation, real estate and commodity trading.

He said both democratic and authoritarian kinds of governments have remained unsuccessful, adding that “maybe a hybrid kind of solution” will work in Pakistan. The poly-crisis has now gone beyond the political system and engulfed the judiciary as well as the establishment, he said.

Mr Tabba aired his views two days after the representative chamber of Karachi-based businessmen demanded that the government address the volatile situation arising out of the political chaos and instability immediately as the economy was on the brink of “total collapse”.

The latest statistics show the output of large-scale manufacturing industries (LSMI) contracted by one-fourth in March from a year ago. Mr Tabba said LSM growth rate won’t go back up in double-digits despite the current low base, noting that the lost ground will be regained only slowly and gradually.

As head of a business group that owns numerous companies on the list of the country’s biggest dollar-earning entities, Mr Tabba said the size of the discount his firms must offer to snatch export orders away from regional competitors has doubled in the recent past.

Under normal circumstances, his export-oriented manufacturing entities would take orders at a five per cent discount to the rates offered by regional counterparts. Now the discount must be 10pc for Pakistani companies to book export orders, he said.

While India is attracting foreign direct investment from the United States, hypermarket chain Walmart is scaling back even its routine purchases from Pakistan. Blaming political chaos for low exports, he said foreign buyers worry about the ability of Pakistani companies to ship orders on time.

Throwing his stilted caution to the wind, Mr Tabba waxed lyrical about authoritarian governments with dubious records on civil liberties because they’ve delivered economic miracles.

He praised the Russian leadership for confronting the superpower head-on in its attempt to recreate a bipolar world order. In the same vein, he praised the hybrid model of leadership practiced in Iran, a country that has “survived without begging” from the world.

Calling corruption a major problem that’s been “trickling” from top to bottom, Mr Tabba noted that addressing the deep-rooted issue is going to be an “uphill task” for whoever comes to power. People shy away from investing because government departments are quick to create roadblocks, he said.

One has to use either their influence or “go the other way around” in order to overcome those roadblocks, he said while using a euphemism for bribery.

Published in Dawn, May 17th, 2023