02-12-2008, 10:22 AM
[center] <!--emo&:flush--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Flush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='Flush.gif' /><!--endemo--><b><span style='font-size:21pt;line-height:100%'>Return to beggary</span></b> <!--emo&:flush--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Flush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='Flush.gif' /><!--endemo-->[/center]
IN your editorial, âThe debt trapâ, you have pointed out that Pakistanâs external debt burden has risen to almost $40 billion from about $33 billion in the last seven years. <b>This shows that the government, led by former prime minister Shaukat Aziz, had merely been fooling the people by claiming repeatedly that our begging bowl has been broken.</b>
What else can be expected from the leaders in whose tenure the expenses at the President House rose from Rs75 million in 1999 to Rs306 million now, on the PM from Rs98 million to Rs367 million and the National Assembly from Rs250 million to Rs1,006 million (Dawn, Jan 16)? The expenditure on the Senate, too, has gone up by nearly five times.
On the other hand, when citizens complain of the price of wheat flour and other essential items, the spin-masters in Islamabad quickly say that these are the cheapest in South Asia and even the world. One would like to tell them that medicines and many other things are cheaper in India and that eggs, for instance, cost nearly twice as much in the UK whereas the wages over there are many times higher than in this poor country.
One wonders if these people have any conscience. If they do, then they ought to remember that âYou donât have to live with the man you cheat, but you have to live with your conscienceâ. For, it is like a fire within, of which our wrongdoing is the fuel. Instead of warming, it will scorch us, unless the fuel supply is cut off, or the tears of repentance cool down its flames.
It reflects poorly on the president who in fact should have taken care of failures of his ministers and other officials.
<b>I. RAHIM
Karachi</b>
Cheers <!--emo&:beer--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' /><!--endemo-->