A public emergency meeting was organised by Haqooq-e-Khalq Movement (HKM) as news emerged that the government was introducing budget cuts in the health and education sector as part of the bailout agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Scores of people attended the meeting, including representatives of labour organisations, lawyers, students, journalists and progressive activists.
Participants of the meeting highlighted the crisis confronting students in the form of the rising cost of higher education and decrease in immediate returns from college degrees because of the shrinking job market. Under the instructions from the IMF, government has announced 50 percent budget cuts in higher education and has apparently also cancelled scholarships for university students.
The health sector will also be affected by IMF-guided policies. The government has announced an end to free medical check-ups at public hospitals. These measures are being implemented as prices of essential items continue to soar.
Dr Ammar Ali Jan, one of the organisers of the meeting, said that the economic crisis had not been caused by the people, but was the result of callous policies facilitating elites.
“The major problem of our economic crisis - the widening gap between our imports and exports - prevails because it interests the elites but the consequences are only for the common people. Real estate cannot be taxed properly and the military budget cannot even be questioned. This transfers the entire burden on to the public by cutting social spending – such as budget cuts in health and education.”
Jan said IMF’s conditions were geared towards facilitating global capital and local mediators. “We have seen the disastrous results of the liberalisation of trade in 1980s which widened our import-export gap and led us to privatisation which only gave more space to new mafias and corruption of the elite. The same happened in Russia, Latin America and Europe.”
He added, “One example is the liberalisation of the banking sector in Pakistan during 1980s. Since then, banks have stopped investing in industry and agriculture. All investments have shifted to real estate and consumer financing or lending to the same government to whom they once served. It appears that the people are not only subsidising the IMF and banks but the elites as well.”
Jan said the government absolved itself of any responsibility by saying that they were bound to answer to the creditors - to the United States or the IMF. “The question is now bigger than economic conditions: Will people even be consulted in any major decisions that impact their lives? Does the civil society, political parties or even the state have any will of their own? If not then there is neither democracy nor is there any representation, nor are we a sovereign country,” he said.
Jan said the idea behind the campaign to resist IMF’s conditions was to question where governments had been spending the loaned money in the last 40 years. “We must also ask why we are blindly following the same policies which have caused us more harm than good. Everyone is aware that we have not improved in any social and economic indicators.”
He claimed that the movement aims to resist IMF’s onslaught on the public. “All political parties are silent on this matter. Why? One reason: they all follow the same philosophy of neo-liberalism. All of our spending is used either in debt repayment, defence budgets, administrative costs or providing amnesty schemes to the elites. This needs to be challenged. We need to invest more in the public rather than cutting social spending. We have more urgent issues to tackle like the water shortage faced by common people and climate change.”
“Instead of relying on an external and temporary oxygen mask for our survival, we need to focus on internal reforms,” he said.
Talking to The Friday Times, academic Aisha Ahmad said that Pakistan was high on the list of countries that owed IMF money in terms of loan repayment.
“We have amassed significant amount of debt as a result of consistent bailout packages our governments have received. Bearing this in mind, one might ask: why does the IMF keep lending to us? Why is it that when successive governments fail to meet IMF benchmarks, the fund is only too happy to revise them instead of forcing Pakistan to adhere to its macroeconomic prescriptions? If a teacher lets a student cheat on an exam and the student goes on to do terribly at university, who is to blame? Surely the teacher deserves some blame.”
Will Pakistan’s economy improve if the government is successful in implementing reforms? “Not necessarily,” Ahmad. “The costs associated with the package will be harsh, particularly on Pakistan’s poorest. Because the IMF believes in lean government, it will make cutting public services a condition on us. We are already seeing this happen in the higher education budget which has been slashed by 50 percent. Healthcare, public transport and local development budgets will be the next casualties. Short-term economic recovery does not mean recovery in earnest. You can treat symptoms but it will not rid you of the disease.”
It was in the meeting that through popular mobilisation, seminars, teach-ins and protest rallies, HKM would continue to raise awareness on the issue.
Speakers at the meeting included Ammar Ali Jan, Faheem Amir, Niaz Khan, Fahad Ali, Muzammil Kakar, Amna Mawaz Khan, Farooq Tariq, Ghazain, Haider Kaleem, Imran Kamyana, Sibt e Hasan, Salman Sikander, Haniya, Ajwa Zulfiqar, Dr. Qasim Awan, Dr. Hamid, Muneeza Jehangir, and Imtiaz Alam spoke at the event. The meeting was chaired by Zahid Ali and Awais Qarni.
All speakers were critical of the government’s decisions. It was unanimously agreed at the meeting that the need of the hour was to organise and stand against policies which take education and health away from the people.
It was announced at the meeting that a sit-in protest will be held on May 24 in front of the office of the Higher Education Department of the Punjab. A National Day of Action would be organised to agitate IMF-imposed policies.
Participants of the meeting highlighted the crisis confronting students in the form of the rising cost of higher education and decrease in immediate returns from college degrees because of the shrinking job market. Under the instructions from the IMF, government has announced 50 percent budget cuts in higher education and has apparently also cancelled scholarships for university students.
The health sector will also be affected by IMF-guided policies. The government has announced an end to free medical check-ups at public hospitals. These measures are being implemented as prices of essential items continue to soar.
Dr Ammar Ali Jan, one of the organisers of the meeting, said that the economic crisis had not been caused by the people, but was the result of callous policies facilitating elites.
“The major problem of our economic crisis - the widening gap between our imports and exports - prevails because it interests the elites but the consequences are only for the common people. Real estate cannot be taxed properly and the military budget cannot even be questioned. This transfers the entire burden on to the public by cutting social spending – such as budget cuts in health and education.”
Jan said IMF’s conditions were geared towards facilitating global capital and local mediators. “We have seen the disastrous results of the liberalisation of trade in 1980s which widened our import-export gap and led us to privatisation which only gave more space to new mafias and corruption of the elite. The same happened in Russia, Latin America and Europe.”
He added, “One example is the liberalisation of the banking sector in Pakistan during 1980s. Since then, banks have stopped investing in industry and agriculture. All investments have shifted to real estate and consumer financing or lending to the same government to whom they once served. It appears that the people are not only subsidising the IMF and banks but the elites as well.”
Jan said the government absolved itself of any responsibility by saying that they were bound to answer to the creditors - to the United States or the IMF. “The question is now bigger than economic conditions: Will people even be consulted in any major decisions that impact their lives? Does the civil society, political parties or even the state have any will of their own? If not then there is neither democracy nor is there any representation, nor are we a sovereign country,” he said.
Jan said the idea behind the campaign to resist IMF’s conditions was to question where governments had been spending the loaned money in the last 40 years. “We must also ask why we are blindly following the same policies which have caused us more harm than good. Everyone is aware that we have not improved in any social and economic indicators.”
He claimed that the movement aims to resist IMF’s onslaught on the public. “All political parties are silent on this matter. Why? One reason: they all follow the same philosophy of neo-liberalism. All of our spending is used either in debt repayment, defence budgets, administrative costs or providing amnesty schemes to the elites. This needs to be challenged. We need to invest more in the public rather than cutting social spending. We have more urgent issues to tackle like the water shortage faced by common people and climate change.”
“Instead of relying on an external and temporary oxygen mask for our survival, we need to focus on internal reforms,” he said.
Talking to The Friday Times, academic Aisha Ahmad said that Pakistan was high on the list of countries that owed IMF money in terms of loan repayment.
“We have amassed significant amount of debt as a result of consistent bailout packages our governments have received. Bearing this in mind, one might ask: why does the IMF keep lending to us? Why is it that when successive governments fail to meet IMF benchmarks, the fund is only too happy to revise them instead of forcing Pakistan to adhere to its macroeconomic prescriptions? If a teacher lets a student cheat on an exam and the student goes on to do terribly at university, who is to blame? Surely the teacher deserves some blame.”
Will Pakistan’s economy improve if the government is successful in implementing reforms? “Not necessarily,” Ahmad. “The costs associated with the package will be harsh, particularly on Pakistan’s poorest. Because the IMF believes in lean government, it will make cutting public services a condition on us. We are already seeing this happen in the higher education budget which has been slashed by 50 percent. Healthcare, public transport and local development budgets will be the next casualties. Short-term economic recovery does not mean recovery in earnest. You can treat symptoms but it will not rid you of the disease.”
It was in the meeting that through popular mobilisation, seminars, teach-ins and protest rallies, HKM would continue to raise awareness on the issue.
Speakers at the meeting included Ammar Ali Jan, Faheem Amir, Niaz Khan, Fahad Ali, Muzammil Kakar, Amna Mawaz Khan, Farooq Tariq, Ghazain, Haider Kaleem, Imran Kamyana, Sibt e Hasan, Salman Sikander, Haniya, Ajwa Zulfiqar, Dr. Qasim Awan, Dr. Hamid, Muneeza Jehangir, and Imtiaz Alam spoke at the event. The meeting was chaired by Zahid Ali and Awais Qarni.
All speakers were critical of the government’s decisions. It was unanimously agreed at the meeting that the need of the hour was to organise and stand against policies which take education and health away from the people.
It was announced at the meeting that a sit-in protest will be held on May 24 in front of the office of the Higher Education Department of the Punjab. A National Day of Action would be organised to agitate IMF-imposed policies.