Whose money do they spend? |
26.02.2004 |
The people of Thar, Thal, Cholistan and Balochistan are suffering from malnutrition, snake-bites, drought and disease. Who will help these unfortunate souls? Do we not have any institution to help them get their rights?
According to a news report of December 7, 2003, the decomposed bodies of 70-year old Professor Ghazi Khan Jhakrani and his 65-year-old wife were found in their house in Malir, Karachi. The bodies were taken to the JPMC for autopsy and reportedly it was found that both had cancer.
It was estimated that they had been dead for 15 days. Professor Jhakrani taught at the Jamia Millia College, Malir, and after retirement, as long as his health could allow, he supported himself and his wife by giving private tuitions. The couple had no children.
According to people living in the vicinity, the two actually died of starvation because of long delays in the payment pension and other dues. Whatever the cause, they died in painful and miserable circumstances.
Despite repeated claims by those in government of making a positive change in the lives of the poor, Pakistan remains in the clutches of poverty. Slum dwellers are fighting for survival. They have no access to basic amenities like clean water, health care and education.
With a daily income of Rs50 to Rs70 and a family of 10 to feed, these basic needs have become a luxury. Malaria, tuberculosis, respiratory and abdominal diseases, dysentery and various other ailments have made a permanent abode in such areas.
In the famine-stricken parts of Sindh, an amount of Rs250 million was needed for the treatment of TB patients, and our government was not able to provide this sum. How could it mobilize this sum after colossal expenditure on defence requirements?
Most senators, MNAs and MPAs are rich people who have accumulated wealth through various means. They got a bill passed unanimously in parliament increasing their salaries and fringe benefits. There is also a wide gap in salaries, fringe benefits of the highest and lowest cadres in the public and private sectors and armed forces.
In a country where many people do not have access to clean drinking water, food, shelter or clothing, why on earth do the rulers have a lavish lifestyle? Whose money do they spend? Their own or the state’s?
It is pertinent to mention here that a tank costs four million dollars - an amount which is enough to immunize four million children. A Mirage 2000 costs 90 million dollars and this amount is enough to provide primary education to 30 million children.
A modern nuclear submarine costs 300 million dollars and such an amount deprives 60 million humans of clean drinking water. Similarly, the money Pakistan paid to France for three Agosta submarines could have provided primary education to 17 million children and clean safe drinking water to 67 million people.
Despite this, our rulers have an urge to accumulate wealth by every means possible. This craving to accumulate wealth through all means is a distinctive feature of our society and was a distinctive feature of all ignorant societies in the past.
The millions living in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, deprived of their rights and justice, are simple, honest and hardworking people. They are the backbone of the nation. The only things they have got in return have been false promises and an unjust system of governance.
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