Karachi:Pasban Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman Altaf Shakoor has asked the government to start serious and solid preparations right now for the post-coronavirus era, as when this virus would end there would be a new world with new challenges and new requirements.

In a statement here Saturday, he said in the post-coronavirus era, many present factories and industries would be closed down and lot of new industries would emerge, requiring a new type of workforce. He said the government should immediately plan how to train our manpower for the future requirements of trade and industry. He said a sudden unemployment of millions of workers would be a great challenge. He said like whole world Pakistan would also face a worsening recession and economic downslide.

Altaf Shakoor warned that remittances of Pakistanis living aboard would sharply fall, hitting hard the national economy. He said mental diseases and depression amongst the affected masses would go all-times high. He said clashes and wars between different countries could not be ruled out. He said in these dire circumstances, it would be suicidal to depend on external forces. He said PDP economic experts have already been advocating for relying on our indigenous resources and our own experts.

He said to cope with the coming economic crisis the government of Pakistan should pay a serious attention to a rapid privatization of all loss-incurring entities. He said in future the government would not afford keeping these sick units under oxygen tent, by providing huge grants and subsidies of billions of rupees to them every month.

Altaf Shakoor said we need efficient government machinery that is free from corruption and nepotism and able to serve the nation and country, dedicatedly. He said all big national-importance projects like dams and water reservoirs should be started right now so that a lot of new jobs could be provided to millions of jobless workers.

He said Pakistan is an agricultural economy and we must have to give a serious focus to farming and industry. We can attain progress and prosperity by developing our supply chain with the help of China. He said increasing our friends in the world would give us new markets and also help in export of our manpower. He warned if the remittances of $2bilion a month are affected, our balance of payment would be seriously disturbed.