Government Claim of Breathing New Soul and Improvement in Economy is a Blatant Lie
On 1st February the Raheel-Nawaz regime’s Information Minister claimed in a press conference that the government has breathed a new soul in the economy. He tried to prove his assertion with various statistics, all unconvincing. The bullish trend in stock market, increase in foreign investment and foreign reserves and the drop in oil prices was presented as the outcome of the regime’s successful economic policies.
The reality is that the current regime is implementing the same capitalist economic system under the supervision of the I.M.F. as previous governments did. This is the same system which recently created a economic crisis of immense proportions in the West, its birthplace. The national debt of America, Europe and Japan are more than their GDP, taxes are lowered for wealthy and increased on poor and because of unjust distribution, wealth disparity between poor and rich has reached unprecedented levels. This reality led to demonstration under the banner of “we are the 99%” and “Occupy Wall Street” against the capitalist system in Europe and America. In Britain, six multinationals earned 14 billion pounds last year but paid only 0.3 percent of this in tax. This gap has been reported in an Oxfam report which states that by 2016 1% of the world’s population will be holding half of all wealth. American President Obama in 2014 in his State of the Union address said, “American dream is shattering”.
The real economic situation of Pakistan is that several children are dying daily in Thar because of hunger, new born babies die daily because there are no ventilators in government hospitals across the country and parents don’t have enough money to take their child to a private hospital. Pakistan is known for its production of wheat and rice globally but still half of its population is facing food shortage. People spend 80 to 90 percent of their income just on food and after this they don’t have money to spend on clothing, housing, education or health. This severe economic hardship is forcing people in cases to commit suicide along with their whole family.
The bullish trend in the stock market and increase in foreign investment and reserves are not true indicators of economic health. If this were so, in 2007 the global economic crisis would have not taken place in America as its stock market was performing exceptionally bullish and there was no shortage of dollars as it was printed them herself. Foreign reserves of Pakistan are not increased because of an increase in exports rather it increased because of borrowing billion of dollars from international lending institutions which has to be paid back with interest. Similarly, the decrease in oil prices at international markets is not because of government policy at all. Yet the regime has increased GST on oil from 17% to 27%, further burdening people with taxes.
The dream of real economic prosperity in Pakistan and of the whole world can only be materialized under the Islamic economic system. The economic system of Islam does not scream about scarcity of resources rather one of its prime objective is always eradication of poverty which is ensured through the just distribution of resources and wealth.
Shahzad Shaikh
Deputy to the Spokesman of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Wilayah Pakistan
Tuesday, 14th Rabii’ II 1436 AH
03/02/2015 CE
No: PR15010