KARACHI: The Union of Small and Medium Enterprises (Unisame) invited the attention of Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif to the urgent need of declaring economic and financial austerity to cope up with the critical situation, a statement said.

Unisame President Zulfikar Thaver said that the Prime Minister needs to declare austerity and cut down all extravagant spending of the provincial and federal governments on unnecessary protocols, travelling and parties.

The imports of luxury goods especially big cars, fancy goods and cosmetics must be discouraged forthwith, he added.

There is a need to examine the burden imposed on the economy through indirect imports by Afghanistan as all their foreign exchange requirements are met through Pakistan open foreign currency markets and remittances are made to their suppliers from Pakistan.

The rupee depreciation and the parity rate of the dollar against rupee is due to the heavy buying of dollars by the Afghan traders, which has also caused unmanageable inflation, Thaver said.

The Unisame Council members stated that there is a need to learn from Sri Lankan economic fallout, while urging for immediate measures to curb all extraordinary expenses, wastage and unnecessary spending by elite society, institutions and government at large.

There is a lot of wastage of electricity, fuel, food and even water, they said, adding that the government needs to set a good example by curbing its own expenses and frivolous style.