PPP questions govt’s construction package
Islamabad: President PPP Sindh Nisar Khuhro and Senator Taj Haider, Member PPP Core Committee in a joint statement analyzing the construction package announced by the government have said that the package on the one hand sanctifies black and ill-gotten money of the elite while on the other it pushes the prices of residential plots and house rents beyond the reach of even the upper middle class of our society.
Basically it is a windfall profit package for the developers, property dealers, speculators and the tax evaders. Speculators whose funds had been blocked in massive bookings in stalled construction projects can now reap huge profits without even paying capital gains tax.
The two PPP leaders have said that it was surprising to note that the dollar rates had fallen on the very day the interbank interest rate were reduced by the State Bank of Pakistan. Normally it should have been the opposite. The only plausible reason for fall in dollar rates appears to be that illegal wealth kept in the shape of dollars is being legalized and being brought in the market to reap the windfall profits resulting from the construction package.
As Chairman Bilawal Bhutto has repeatedly pointed out the choice is between the people and profits. In this case the windfall profits are tax free as well. The tragic truth of our society is that that those who build palaces and luxury apartments for the corrupt elite do not have a single room house of their own to live in. If the working classes have to be given their birth right of owning a dwelling place on Allah’s land then a program for the transformation of katchi Abadis into decent living localities for the residents and other homeless has to be started. What is even easier to do is to level government land not only in large cities but in small towns as well and create small residential plots for the poor available at very cheap rates. They will build their own houses. Employment opportunities, economic uplift, state revenues and the number of new housing units shall be many times more this way compared to the fake construction package legalizing ill gotten wealth.
The two PPP leaders said that all attempts to revive the fraud of market economy through illegal and discriminatory measures were condemnable and bound to fail. Corona virus had buried market economy for good and now all states will have to make people centered plans to be able to ward off disasters that even the most developed countries championing market economy are facing today.
