January 19, 2008	Saturday	Muharram 09, 1429

HYDERABAD, Jan 18: Economic policies in Pakistan do not focus on people’s welfare but are formulated to serve the interests of rulers and lobbyists, according to Dr Qaiser Bengali, a noted economist.

He said that economists had warned against wrong economic policies and they had been predicting about an impending crisis for the past few years.

He was speaking at the launching of the Social Watch report for 2007 at the press club here on Friday. The meeting was organised by Social Watch Pakistan.

Accusing the government of manipulating data, he said that it had resulted in artificial wheat crisis.

Referring to the ongoing power shortage, Mr Bengali said that not a single megawatt of power had been added to the national grid because of tilted bank financing rules.

Dr Bengali said that even the idea of social security was unfamiliar in Pakistan and the state had disowned all responsibilities.

He said that people had no respect in their own country and they were being treated as ‘subjects’ instead of citizens, adding that the country had become a ‘cantonment colony’ after gaining independence from British colonialism. Briefing about the Social Watch report, he said that it mainly focused on human development as most such reports lacked emphasis on this subject.

He said that a new index ‘human capabilities index’ has been introduced in the report.

Terming the report neutral, he said that it reviewed 150 countries of the world, including Pakistan. He said that report also dealt with issues of women, children and privatisation.