March 26, 2003	Wednesday	Muharram 22, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, March 25: The People’s Rights Movement (PRM) says the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper being prepared by the government to get financial assistance from the IMF and the World Bank will push the poor sections of the society further down the poverty line.

This was agreed in a series of successive meetings with political activists, students and trade unionists organised by the PRM in connection with the Pakistan Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP). The paper is a policy document being prepared by the government to meet the requirement of the IMF and the World Bank for receipt of concessional lending in future.

The meetings, the PRM said, focused on the history of adjustment policies in Pakistan and a steady increase in poverty and deprivation of a vast majority of the working class in the country since the late 1980’s.

It was agreed that the PRSP represented an intensification of adjustment policies under a new name and the continuing effects of privatization, liberalization, increase in indirect taxation, and removal of subsidies were likely to be even more devastating.

There was a debate in the meetings on the link between the militarism of the US and the neo-liberal economic advance being propagated by the IFIs through gimmicks such as the PRSP. It was also agreed that basically both strategies were aimed at gaining access to indigenous resources in countries like Pakistan and also securing new markets for products of northern corporations.

The participants of the meetings included representatives of the People’s Student Federation (PSF), Muslim Students Federation (MSF), NIH Workers Welfare Association, Railways Mehnatkash Union, CDA Union, UBL Workers Union, NARC Union, OGDC Union, Communist Mazdoor Kissan Party, Labour Party Pakistan, National Workers Party, Deharidaar Mazdoor Union, Rehribaan Union and the Akhbar Farosh Union.

The movement has been raising the issue of the PRSP, its undemocratic and exclusive preparatory process, and the crisis of sovereignty faced by the state over an extended period of time.

The PRSP is said to be near completion and is supposed to be presented to parliament shortly. In this regard, PRM is holding an all-party conference (APC) on March 29 to stimulate a critical debate on the issue and encourage all parliamentary parties to take a firm stand on the policy-based lending paradigm of the international financial institutions (IFIs).