.. by Naeem Sadiq
Never has one witnessed such an intense and unanimous sense of anguish, anger, and aversion amongst the ordinary citizens, against the wasteful squandering of state resources, extracted from the poor, and gifted on a platter to please and pamper the rich. FBR’s Rs6 billion wasteful vehicular extravaganza and the Parliamentarians pay jump from Rs180,000 to Rs519,000 per month are the two recent examples of this wasteful imprudence.
While pushing for a 188% rise in their own salaries, did it never occur to our parliamentarians that the minimum wage of 90 million workers was raised only by 15 percent (from 32K to 37K) and that too denied to 60% of the workers. Do they not know that the 12,000 sanitation workers of Sindh Solid Waste Board still receive illegal wages between Rs16,000 and Rs20,000 per month. Are they not aware that one million private security guards are made to work for 12 hours a day at one third of their legally entitled wage. Have they never seen railway coolies who must surrender one third of their daily wage to a railway appointed contractor every day. Did no one inform them of the 237 coal miners who lost their lives in 2024 because the state spent more time (and money) on gratifying the already privileged instead of improving the safety of mines and well being of miners.
Pakistan ought to relinquish the above mentioned (and other similar) wasteful indulgences and make a law that the salary of no government official will be more than 5 times the minimum legal wage notified for an ordinary worker. Pakistan’s progress is deeply dependent on the well-being of its ordinary citizens and not the one’s seeking 188% pay rise. ..28 Jan 2025, (Copied from the internet).
One thought on “Looting the poor to please the pampered rich”
According Stefan Dercon, a British economist, Pakistan’s elites are engaged in a battle for the capture of resources and power as part of a clientelist patronage state.