KARACHI, Oct 12: Dr Kaiser Bengali, Managing Director of the Social Policy and Development Centre (SPDC), a private sector research organization, is resigning by the end of this year following a series of dramatic developments since May this year.

Funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the SPDC has started coming out with two regular publications every year since 2000. One of these publications is the annual report which deals with a specific subject.

A few of these subjects were the implication of IMF's Extended Structural Adjustment Programme on Pakistan's social and economic life in 2000, Growth and Poverty in 2001, State of Education and on other subjects in the subsequent years.

In the latest publication that gave a detailed analysis of the 2004-05 federal budget, the SPDC document challenged and questioned government's claims of industrial growth and substantiated the assertion with facts.

"Energy consumption in industry has gone down but production has increased," is one of the observations of the SPDC document. But what made the government uncomfortable was the detailed and well argued chapter that pointed out that income disparities have become much more alarming, and poverty has aggravated in Pakistan.

According to the knowledgeable sources, the Pakistan government sought intervention of Mr Moeen Qureshi, a former caretaker Prime Minister. Mr Qureshi is the Chairman of the SPDC Board. He was in Pakistan during May this year when he was asked to convey to the Canadian government of Pakistan's displeasure on the contents of the SPDC publications.

By August, the things reached a stage when a top bureaucrat of Sindh Government, who is now with the federal government in Islamabad was almost to take over the office of the Managing Director. But the Board of Directors of the SPDC took a stand and refused to accept the new Executive Chief as it would have impaired the independent image of the SPDC.

The CIDA did not demand a change in the top position but is reported to have conveyed to the Board of Directors that it would not like any implication on its relationship with Pakistan government because of the SPDC affairs.

Finally, Dr Kaiser Bengali is reported to have decided to resign on his own from the office after working for about three and a half years. He has succeeded Dr Pasha when he went to United Nations Development Programme in 2000.

He refused to offer on any comments on the loud whisper going around on his resignation. "I have worked here for last three and a half years and enjoyed," he said and made it clear that he would not leave Pakistan.

Researchers in SPDC say that Dr Bengali introduced many innovative systems in the SPDC and managed to bring down annual budget from Rs45 million a year to Rs36 million a year. The research work and number of publications increased which caused sleepless nights to those in the finance ministry and the economic Affairs Division.