'Country cannot develop till feudal system exists'

26 January 2000

The News
International

By our correspondent

KARACHI: Majority of the speakers at the ICN forum on "Pakistan Day: a need to re-evaluate our priorities' viewed that country could not develop and flourish till the time the feudal system was not done away with.

Only a limited number of people belonging to a couple of parties were ruling over the country one after another and exploiting of the masses was continuing ever since the inception of Pakistan. Respect of humanity, provision of life needs and education should be the national agenda, the speakers underlined.

Provincial Ombudsman, Justice Haziq-ul-Khairi said retracing the past to find about our priorities we would find that our politicians had no plan at all and thus failed to deliver political and economic rights and securities to people. It was a serious negation of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, Allama Iqbal and Quaid-e-Azam. It was sad that the English and Hindus never allowed the due political and economic right to Muslims in the undivided India, while the feudal system could not be eliminated after the creation of Pakistan.

Referring to the constitutional provisions, Justice Khairi said elimination of exploitation had been described in Article 3 of the Constitution, but it remained unfulfilled and various types of exploitation, including forced labour, discrimination in jobs, maintenance of private army/guards by Sardars continued. He said the constitutional binding of considering Urdu as the national language was still unheeded, and in turn, remains the main cause behind the dual system of education.

Dr Shahid Hasan Siddiqui, a senior economist, said the process of privatisation of industries and banks had not been transparent and the present government should set up a high-powered committee to look into the matter. Quoting some examples, he observed that some of the industries had been given away at scrap prices and should be brought back to government.

He said the clear-cut objective of privatisation should be publicised and if it was for the sake of paying off foreign loans then the amount earned through privatisation should be properly used. He opposed the idea of appointing foreign-based experts and advisers and observed that only home grown people could give a home grown package for the development of country and for the real benefit of masses.

Prof Hasnain Kazmi, senior social scientist, lamented that hypocrisy and biases had taken roots in the bases of nation and peoples were in search of respect and life needs. He said the West had not accepted the creation of Pakistan whole heatedly despite the passage of a considerable time and countries were busy influencing the life-style and economy of Pakistan. He stressed that contradiction between words and deeds, injustices and poverty should be eliminated from the society and held that elimination of poverty was conditional to the elimination of the race for money.

Shameem Kazmi, social worker, Hakeem Nasim Ahmad Qasmi, senior Tabeeb, Mian Arshad Mahboob, industrialist, and Khalid Iqbal, President of The Linker Welfare Association, also spoke on the occasion. During the question-answer session some of the audience also called for early restoration of democracy, accountability, elimination of show-off, process of open bidding for privatisation, reducing imports, increasing exports and appointment of professionals in various sectors.