Widespread poverty doesn’t discourage Pakistani leaders to live like kings

Pakistani leaders have become accustomed to live like kings, not proverbial but real, with total indifference to sea of poverty surrounding them. In a country where a large number of people are forced to somehow maintain their existence, human or otherwise, the elected representatives of the people almost all of them belonging to ruling elite class comprising feudals, industrialists, businessmen not only see it fit to live in luxury that could shame the leaders of the developed world.

Ironic as it may be poor Pakistanis are represented by elected leaders who are enormously rich and keep getting richer by each day because politics is a business here in this land of pure. Politicians; elected or otherwise, sitting on treasury or opposition benches belonging to the same ruling class, don’t only live in absolute luxury but demand the luxury paid by the poverty stricken tax-payers as their right.

This is evident from the proposed budget allocation of over Rs 427.254 million for President House and over Rs 484.831 for the Prime Minister House in Budget 2010-11. The offices of the two top officials of the present democratic government of Pakistan will thus cost the poor Pakistanis, a sizeable number of whom are already trying to survive abject poverty, a whopping Rs 1.297 million and Rs 1.331 million a day- which is equal to 15.8 years labourer’s salary, which this government takes pride to increase to Rs 7,000 a month from Rs 6,000 previously.

In 2006 almost one-quarter of the 165 million population of Pakistan was classified as ‘poor’. Two years later over 17 per cent of Pakistan’s population was reported to live below the absolute poverty line of less than dollar a day.

Poor policies, ineffective management and rampant corruption are the primary causes of widespread poverty in Pakistan. According to Human Development Index report, based on 2007 data, published by the UN October last year “60.3 per cent of Pakistanis lives on under $ 2 a day while another 22.6 per cent live under a dollar a day.”