Pakistan’s finance minister, Mr. Ishaq Dar, has ensured in the Budget of 2014-15, that Pakistan will be ensnared in the IMF manufactured debt trap. This budget speech is only a longer version of an agreement signed with the IMF on 10th May 2014. Instead of basking in self-admiration and wasting the valuable time of the people with a long-winded budget speech, the Raheel-Nawaz regime should just distribute photocopies of the agreement it has signed with the IMF. In this budget, the regime has complied with the IMF in ensuring the sale of Pakistan’s valuable national assets in the name of privatization. These are those resources which Pakistan can use in order to generate revenues to meet her expenses, without needing interest based loans. Moreover, the budget is ensuring that the economy is further suffocated by imposing new taxes, even though the economy is already under great strain due to severe electricity and gas shortages.
The common man, whose back is broken by the enormous burden of direct and indirect taxes, is to be buried by an additional 231 billion rupees in taxes. On the other hand, the budget has provided tax relief measures to local and foreign investors to ease their buying up of the valuable national assets easily and further increase their profits many folds as part of privatization. Furthermore, the current budget has allocated 1325 billion rupees, which counts one third of its total size, for interest based debt repayments, even though interest is a great sin and will be used by the regime to justify more loans in the future in order to pay back the previous loans.
As usual, a traditional colonialist budget has been presented in which tax is increased on some items and decreased on other items. Raheel-Nawaz regime has not presented any radical concept which can tackle the basic issues confronted by the economy that could lead Pakistan’s economy to free itself from America and its colonial tools, IMF and World Bank, and stand itself independently.
Muslims of Pakistan must know now that whether it is dictatorship or democracy, they live under capitalist system. Whilst this situation remains, neither Pakistan nor its economy will achieve progress. Only our Khilafah will unleash huge revenues from the public properties, including Pakistan’s abundant energy and mineral resources, as well as from state property, such as machinery and heavy munitions, manufacturing, telecommunications, major construction and transport, as well as revenue from agriculture such as Kharaj. This will eliminate the need for foreign loans on interest forever. Therefore the people of Pakistan must join the struggle of Hizb ut-Tahrir in order to uproot this regime and the capitalist system, replacing them by the Khilafah.
Media Office of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Wilayah Pakistan
Wednesday 6th Sha’ban 1435 AH
04/06/2014 CE
No: PR14035