October 20, 2007	Saturday	Shawwal 7, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Oct 19: More than three dozen people protested on Friday against the World Bank and other International Financial Institutions (IFIs) in Pakistan, calling to resist these organisations for aggravating and perpetuating poverty instead of reducing it.

Loud but peaceful, beating drums and chanting slogans, the resisters marched up and down the road in front of the World Bank offices.

Men, women and children carried placards with strong condemnatory messages like “No aid for unfair trade”, “World Bandit,” and “Mega development mega destruction”.

The protestors claimed that they had been displaced as a result of World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB) funded mega projects like Tarbela Dam, Ghazi Barotha Hydro Power Project (GBHPP), Chotiari Dam, Left Bank Outfall Drain (LBOD), Taunsa Barrage Emergency Rehabilitation and Modernisation Project (TBERMP) and the Chashma Right Bank Irrigation Project (CRBIP).

“We have gathered to protest against the World Bank’s apathy and indifferent attitude towards the poor communities in Pakistan who have long been suffering due to the bank’s recipes and policies to support mega projects that have been causing loss of eco-system and lives and livelihoods of thousands of households,” Actionaid’s Rukhsana Shama said.

“We have been compelled to give up our ancestral homes and agricultural land because they want to expand dams,” a protester said.

In a memorandum handed to the World Bank and Asian Development Bank representatives, the protestors expressed their concern over the bad governance structure, decision-making processes and debt policies of these institutions even after six decades of their establishment.

The protesters termed the visions of these bodies stagnant and undemocratic, and their policies anti-people.

The rally coincided with the launch of the World Development Report by the WB on Friday and ahead of the meetings of International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank from October 20- 22.