January 26, 2008	Saturday	Muharram 16, 1429

KARACHI, Jan 25: Speakers at a function held on Friday said that US policies, after the 9/11 event had strengthened the military dominance in Pakistan, and observed that the military junta in Islamabad did not care for the aspirations of the majority of the masses.

The speakers were expressing their views at the launching of a book, “The unravelling of the 9/11 U-turn — essays in Pakistan’s economy and polity” authored by eminent economist Dr S. M. Naseem at a local hotel.

The programme was also part of the World Social Forum Week of Action (Jan 21-26, 2008) being observed with the theme: “Another World is Possible/Another Pakistan is Possible.”

The book is a collection of about 60 articles and research papers on a wide range of subjects relating to Pakistan’s economy and politics. Former finance minister Sartaj Aziz has written the foreword of the book. Dr Naseem, said that the new global policies had made Pakistan’s military leadership so influential that it was not ready to even listen to anyone. The West believes in a free and independent media but the military rulers in Pakistan would not heed or tolerate what the media says.

He said Pakistan’s political history amply demonstrated that the military rulers always preferred local governments over democratic institutions at the national level.

Dr Naseem pointed out that the country’s current leadership had been making daring moves towards the supremacy of the military institutions over the civilian ones. Making his point with reference to the post-9/11 policies, he said the regimes of Gen Ayub Kan and Gen Ziaul Haq did far less than what the Musharraf-led government had done in this regard although the latter had a shorter tenure.

Dr Asad Sayeed, also an economist, observed that “cronyism of military dictators goes unaccountable”, and agreed with the author that the 9/11 event provided the dictators more protection. At the same time, he added, civilian politicians were held accountable and thrown into prison off and on.

He wondered why the military rulers and their cronies should not be held accountable. “It’s a handful of the dictator’s cronies, say 50 to 60, who had created the recent sugar and present flour crisis,” he said, adding that these people possessed an enormous amount of money and none of them was held accountable.

He was of the view that that the action taken by the government against the judiciary was aimed at saving a group of stock brokers and those who had been benefiting from the “jungle growth of banking”, because the judiciary had taken on them and the cancellation of steel mill privatisation deal was one such example.

Dr Akbar Zaidi was of the view that US interference in Pakistan’s affairs after 9/11 had been causing hardships to Pakistanis and a majority of them were now suffering economically and socially.

In his view, most of the economic policies pursued by the Musharraf government did not have roots. “This bubble has now burst and is bringing miseries to the masses.”

Dr Aly Ercelawn and others also spoke at the function which was organised by the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research.