The gap between rich and poor is increasing rapidly. The new government should prioritize economic equality. Country has no future without a fair economic system.

(Jan-17-2024)

Chairman of National Business Group Pakistan, President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum, and All Karachi Industrial Alliance, and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain, said on Wednesday said the disparity between the wealthy and the impoverished is swiftly widening.

The newly elected government should make economic equality a major priority since, in the absence of an equitable economic structure, the nation will not have a future, he said.

Mian Zahid Hussain said that the government that will be formed as a consequence of the election ought to make economic equality a priority. This is because, just like in the rest of the world, the gap between the wealthy and the impoverished is growing bigger in Pakistan as well.

Talking to the business community, the veteran business leader said that a fair economic system is the need of the hour as the divide is growing, which is affecting the economy and fragmenting the social system.

According to the business leader, except in a few nations, capitalists have taken control of the world’s economies, which is why their assets are growing at an incredible rate while the general population is getting poorer.

He added that due to the prevailing economic system, the wealth in almost every country is being concentrated in a few hands, and if this trend is not stopped, world peace will end.

He furthered that during the COVID pandemic, almost all countries not only printed excessive currency but also adopted policies that greatly increased the wealth of capitalists.

In Pakistan, too, under the guise of the welfare of the people, the wealthy class was rewarded. After the pandemic, many countries stopped printing excessive currency, due to which inflation started to decrease at the global level, but in Pakistan, due to the devaluation of the rupee, fiscal deficit, and current account deficit, inflation broke all previous records.

Mian Zahid Hussain further said that the increase in the wealth of many of the world’s richest people by more than 100 percent on an annual basis is surprising, which reveals the weaknesses of the current economic system.

Currently, half of the world’s population owns only two percent of the resources, while large multinational companies have been earning an average of 52 percent annual profits for the past three years, he informed.

In some countries, it is not allowed to increase the wealth of the rich by squeezing the masses, while in all the remaining countries, it has become the norm.

He observed that the present economic system can only function if the full tax is collected from influential companies instead of continuous tax concessions, the power of the corporate sector in the country is not allowed to grow beyond limits, and exploitation of the people is not allowed.

The welfare of the people should be taken into consideration, and profit limits should be set instead of open profiteering; otherwise, despair, unemployment, ignorance, and anxiety will continue to increase in society. 

He warned that the consequences of such frustration would be very serious, and the rich would not be able to escape the rage of the masses.