The Budget is an annual drama , full of sound and fury , signifying nothing . The Federal Government will announce the budget for 2013-14 this evening . Ishaq Dar , the Finance Minister , will be intoning and juggling figures , incomprehensible to the country’s 180 million deaf and dumb creatures . I laugh heartily at the regular comments of the super rich that the budget is the ‘poor peoples’ budget’ . The common people are not concerned because they have become stoics . They mostly live in villages under oppressive conditions without regular employment opportunities and without education , health care , potable drinking water and without electricity. The Government is not be trusted . In the USA , the budget is discussed for an entire year i.e after its presentation by the President to the next year’s President’s speech . But the USA is the USA while Pakistan is Pakistan . Our Financial Year is July-June . From the 13th ,the budget will be discussed for a fortnight only upto the 25th .With the majority of members on the Government side , the discussions will be an eyewash only. The only time when the country was not bored stiff by the high flown language of the budget was when Dr. Mahbub ul Haq was the Finance Minister in the mid eighties . He skipped over all the rubbish : the rhetoric before the actual budget relating to taxes and duties . He did not blame the previous governments of all wrongdoings under the sun .But he laid great emphasis on investment in the people viz. education and health which are taboo for the successive governments before and after him . He went to discuss the changes in taxes and duties . His budget speech was over in less than an hour . Since the creation of the country , the common people whose miseries are bemoaned by every political worth his salt . While their condition is becoming worse with each passing day , successive governments blames the previous governments or the vagaries of the weather , the poverty line has reached 45 -50 % of the country’s population . The Government is levying taxes more than the capacity of the people to pay under the dictates of the donor agencies . The GNPs , the GDPs and the Per Capita Incomes are but poor indicators of a nation’s prosperity . The Government’s figures indicate the Per Capita Income is $ 1380 . Yet it is not visible on the people faces . The successive governments pride on the number of cars assembled locally and owned by Pakistanis , the number of motor cycles , the number of refrigerators , deep freezers or air conditioners assembled locally . It never shows the number of children without education and health facilities , the number who are without potable drinking water . The Government figures indicate the number of houses in the country or by cities . They never indicate where they are located in posh localities or in slums . Prosperity and happiness are written on the faces of the people whereas the Pakistanis are glum and depressed . Countless people do not know where the next meal is going to come from . Education and health care is becoming expensive day by day . Even children in Montessoris attend tuition centres whose fees are around Rs 4000/- per month .All this tantamount to the ‘Education Genocide’. School drop outs are routine : the people inability to pay the expenditure related to education. The fault lies with the interest based economic system .The experts have been trained in educational centres modeled in the west : by modeled by Bretten Woods financial Institutions , the World Bank , the IMF which are interest based . Pakistan started borrowing from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in 1950 on their terms instead of the Government exploiting the country’s resources . The Bank’s interest rates are based on commercial banks rates prevailing New York . During the military regime of General Musharraf , the Prime Minister and Finance Minister , Shaukat Aziz , liberalized the imports of non essential items . Loans and credit , both foreign and domestic banks ( the latter to the influential few ), were easily available . Thus the elite lived beyond the country’s means . However , in the Civil Government that followed, the donors tightened their purse string in view of the adverse reputation of that Government . Resultantly , it went for bank borrowings and deficit financing both of them were injurious to the country’s financial health . During the past five years , the total , both domestic and external , ballooned to unimaginable proportions . One could visualize the grim face of Ghulam Ishaq Khan , one of Pakistan’s most stern finance managers . Three recent statements made by prominent people merit attention :- 1. The new Prime Minister , Mian Nawaz Sharif , has been quoted by the country’s media that every Pakistan , even a new born babe , is under a debt of Rs70000/ . 2. The Finance Minister has quoted the total debt at Rs 14 Trillion . Others quote a higher figure because there is a huge trust deficit between the Government and the people . This figure can be debated . He also indicated that the Government is prepared to go to the IMF for obtaining a financial bail out. 3. One of the country’s most eminent Economists, Dr. Ashfaque H. Khan , has also advised it in his article ( published in yesterday’s ‘The News’ ) ‘Time to go to the IMF’ for a bail out package. 4. Pakistan is in danger of a debt trap or a meltdown : each more vicious than the other. In the Capitalist system , most countries were in danger of a meltdown . They are borrowing from wealthy countries like Germany and France . The USA has to repay the Chinese loan of $ 16 Trillion . The country’s debt is equal i.e $ 16 Trillion . Men and women both from the developed world and third countries are working for longer hours or they are working in two or three jobs a day to enable them to live in comfort but they are not happy . Leisure , like everything ,can be had but at a price . The question that arises in one’s mind “what at cost “ . The world has seen the failure of the Capitalist System . This is the modern version of ‘Slave Trade’. Before the advent of the banking system , interest based income , the paper currency , the floating exchange rate , devaluation or revaluation , recession , stagflation ,the basket of currencies , people and nations traded either through barter or metals the most favoured ones were gold and silver . That is Islam advocates : the abolition of interest , the abolition of exploitation , the abolition of the Capitalist System and the abolition of paper currency . Allow the people to be happy and not in ‘human bondage ‘. Muslim Government and Muslim scholars must do their homework and establish a framework as an alternative economic system based on the Islamic teachings . Allow me to give an illustration . Riba has been categorized as a major sin by Allah and the Holy Prophet (Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him ) .The Government of Pakistan has set up a number of commissions/committees to recommend the steps to be taken for the elimination of riba from the Pakistan economy. The following reports are particularly mentioned : Elimination of Riba from the economy and Islamic modes of financing by the Council of Islamic Ideology dated December 20, 1991. Report Islami Nazim Mash’iat (economy)by by the Council of Islamic Ideology September 1992. Report on the Elimination of Riba by the Commission for the Islamisation of the Economy 1992. Report on the Elimination of Riba by the Commission for the Islamisation of the Economy 1998. In each Commission etc , reputed Ulema were members . In Reports mentioned at 1. 3 and 4 , Mufti Taqi Usmani was one of the members . But the element of riba remains . However , no solution was prescribed for Small Savings Schemes. The reason for my mentioning the small savings schemes is that one of my friends had his savings invested in one of the schemes offered by the National Savings Schemes , a Government organization . However , both he and his wife , aged 70 and 62 respectively and both sick are unable to work, are feeling guilty that they had violated Allah’s Commands . But , at the same time , they know wicked our society is . The Ulema say that riba is haraam . But they don’t tell us the workable solution whereby which they can invest without be robbed . On hearing of their predicament , I lent to the husband and wife a copy of ‘Our Dialogue’ , a book containing questions and answers , the latter given the Religious Editor of Arab News , a Jeddah newspaper . This been has been compiled by a gentleman living in Jeddah . On Page 259 of the sixth edition , a person asked a question from the Editor if he or other Islamic Scholar showed any halaal or permissible way to invest in an atmosphere of fear from being robbed in view if the increase in the number of bankruptcies and fraudulent dealings . The Religious Editor answered ‘ I admit at the outset that this is a thorny question for which I have no ready answer . I certainly appreciate the desire of every person who has some savings to invest them in a permissible way which ensures some good returns , at least to offset the loss he is bound to incur as a result of inflation . The problem of investors is again a very real one .The number of bankruptcies and fraudulent dealings is sufficient to make anyone who has earned his wages through hard work very reluctant to entrust those savings with any investment company . The situation has not been helped by certain governments which have dealt a blow to the very concept of using people’s savings in order to start profit making projects which help the economy of the country .They have advanced reasons for their action but their reasons remain dubious . The only practical way that I can suggest is to try to find a businessman whom you trust to be honest and God fearing . You enter into a partnership with him on profit and loss basis . Alternatively , you can join others who are in a similar situation and buy something for future sale which is unlikely to make a loss , such as property . The other alternative is the opportunity provided by the Islamic banks .’ My friend also browsed the sites of Pakistan Islamic banks . The calculations for profits of Meezan Bank which has Mufti Taqi Usmani as a Shahria Adviser , is a complicated affair . Any layman CANNOT understand the working . Finally I discussed the issue with another friend , Dr. Imran Ahsan Nyazee , a Professor of Shahria and Law at the International Islamic University , Islamabad , and who has written more than 60 books on Islamic Law ,in the presence of my other friend whose case was being discussed . He advised as under :- 1. Riba is forbidden in Islam . 2. The so called Islamic banks operating are not Islamic . 3. We can invest in Government savings schemes as a halaat e Iztarari . In this case , his views are similar to the Religious Editor , the Arab News , Jeddah. I left Dr. Nyazee’s book ‘Concept of Riba ‘ have half read . It was a difficult reading A. Allah and His Chosen Prophet ( Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him ) have declared a total war against ‘Riba’ (interest ). Are we ready to wage a war against Allah and His Messenger (Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him ) ? B. The Government of Pakistan introduced Islamic institutions like Zakat , Bait ul Maal (Finance ) and the Hadood Ordinance ( to eliminate crime ) during the regime of General Zia ul Haq . But the Government and influential segments of the society have made a mockery of them . The writer is not a world famous Economist’ . Mahfooz ur Rahman Islamabad June 12 , 2013
Posted on: Thu, 09 Oct 2014 03:08:12 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015