ISLAMABAD (November 13 2008): The government should stop counter-productive foreign trips and princely expenditures for seeking monetary support, as it is losing confidence of the masses and tarnishing its own image, said President of Pakistan Economy Watch (PEW) Dr Murtaza Mughal here on Wednesday.
"A number of foreign trips of top leaders with hundreds of entourage are costing public exchequer heavily. What Pakistan is getting, in return, is sweet words and promises only. Leaders seem loosing ground back home",
Dr Mughal said while talking to reporters. "Besides global economic turmoil, political uncertainty at home and our track record of massive economic mismanagement, there is something wrong, which is forcing friends to turn their backs on our repeated requests," he said.
He said that the government was delaying revolutionary measures to avoid default and relying on the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which had not contributed towards the development of any country since its inception. Around 70 per cent of total loan acquired so far by Pakistan was believed to channelled back to Dubai, Malaysia and the US banks via pockets of politicians and bureaucrats, he said.
"However, masses are always asked for sacrifices that have never benefited from these borrowings," he said, adding that the government should avoid princely expenditures otherwise our delegations might not be welcomed anywhere in future. He called upon the present government not to break the record of former prime minister and president who tried to make a century of foreign tours, wasting billions of rupees.
Top political leaders joined hands and uprooted dictatorship, but now they were acting in a strange manner, creating problems for themselves and loosing trust of the masses, he said. "The government says they have no option but to swallow bitter pill of the IMF, but fact is that we have some other workable options, which are being neglected due to some reasons," he said.
