Many Pakistani analysts have argued that the massive amount of money dedicated to military and defense spending has hurt Pakistan’s political and economic development.
In a speech as part of a seminar organized by PILER & SZABIST one of Pakistan’s top economists, Dr Kaiser Bengali, said what others have written about in their columns and books. Dr Bengali “is not an ordinary economist, he is a guy who had been hired by different governments & sacked numerous times for not following orders. Has over 35 research publications in national and international journals and author/editor of 8 books on subjects ranging from unemployment, inequality, and poverty to education, water, gender, and regional development.”
Here are select quotes from Dr Bengali’s speech
“.. I say don’t pay taxes to this state… This state has no moral authority… They rob the people… suck the blood of common people & sell out the wine of that blood… I hardly have any tolerance left in me, I might knock their heads… These Mir Jaffars (Traitors) have handed over the country to IMF…”
“We currently have a finance minister and governor State Bank who have come from abroad. Since 1993, we have had these ‘fly in, fly out’ consultants [Moin Qureshi, Shaukat Aziz, Hafeez Sheikh, etc]. The technocrats that don’t have their roots in the people are there for the money.”
“Our political governments don’t have a say in foreign policy, and now they have very little say in the economy. The economy has been taken over by the IMF and the World Bank. In the past, Hafeez Sheikh didn’t even pick chief minister Qaim Ali Shah’s phone. Today IMF is dealing with the IMF to decide about Pakistan’s fate [qismat].”
“…Things won’t change until we come out in the streets and raise our voices. Closed-door conversations wouldn’t fetch anything… I will lead the protests if 10 Thousand traders will agree to come out..”
Regarding CPEC Dr Bengali: “…It is not a game changer, it is game over… at first, we have to fight with one East India Company “World Bank” which is already ruining the country than we have to worry about the another East India Company in making (referring to Chinese investment).”
Here is a link to the video of his speech
