LAHORE: The Pakistan Kisan Rabita Committee will form an anti-inequality alliance to fight against the increasing gap between the rich and the poor in the country.

The proposed alliance, to be formed at the conclusion of the two-day Inequality Conference currently under way in Lahore, will hold demonstrations and undertake other steps for building pressure on the government to change its policies responsible for widening the inequality gap, reveals the charter distributed at the moot.

The alliance will call for rejecting market fundamentalism and building economic alternatives that put people and planet first, building just economies that do not discriminate against and exploit women, stopping climate catastrophe by protecting affected communities and ending the undue influence of the fossil fuel industry.

It also seeks to make worker’s rights the cornerstone of economic model and end corporate greed, making wealthy corporations and individuals pay their fair share of tax, rejecting privatisation of essential services, building strong responsible states and ensure social protection for all as well as putting land back into the hands of women and smallholder farmers and ending the dominance of agribusiness.

Prof Ammar Ali Jan said inequality is in fact a suicide attack on society. Blaming the government policies for adding to the economic inequality, he called for uniting all popular movements on a single platform to get the policies changed.

Prof Fahad Ali said economic inequality had no relation with religion. He said the poor areas of Balochistan were 40pc poorer than the poor regions of Punjab. He regretted the subsidy given by the government during Covid-19 was usurped by the capitalists, while the workers were either sacked or their wages were slashed.

Farooq Tariq asserted that inequality had promoted religious fanaticism in the country.

Published in Dawn, December 15th, 2021