Why are we poor?
Austerity begins at home : An appeal to the Chief Justice
June 4, 2022Why are we poor?
July 5, 2022Why are we poor?
Imagine a country where laws are made to promote plunder of resources by the elite. Consider a real life case of the expenses incurred in 2 years to pamper an EOBI Chairman. During the two years (March 2019 to Feb 2021), the EOBI Chairman received salary, medical , lab test, medicine, car, driver, domestic servants, internet, telephone, TA/DA/, Hotel, golf club membership, car, petrol, maintenance, and LPR amount of Rs28.3 million. (info formally obtained from EOBI under the Right to Information Act). All this when in the same EOBI office and building, the sanitary workers and the private security guards do not receive even the minimum mandatory legal wage of Rs25000.
This disproportional appeasement of elite is carefully crafted by disguising perks and allowances under many layers and in hidden compartments, such as membership of a golf club (+ 2 million) or a brand new Prado (+10 million). Ironically, while Pakistan’s each senior bureaucrat legally (sic) extracts from 10 to 14 million Rupees per annum, millions of janitors and private security guards are not paid even the minimum legal wage.
While EOBI as an institution goes overboard to please its chairman, it is utterly clueless about its primary function. 90% workforce of Pakistan is not enrolled under EOBI while the 10% enrolled are given a measly pension of Rs8500 per month. Clearly poverty was not ordained but skillfully built into our system.
None of these princely perks of the rich have been curtailed even when Pakistan fights a life threatening battle for its survival. Will the ordinary people of Pakistan speak up?
Naeem Sadiq
PS*** Three newspapers refused to print the above letter.