NAIROBI (Kenya): Mir Afzal Khan, Minister for Commerce and Tourism, today [May 11] evoked a big sympathetic response from the developing nations ... when he told [the] United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Pakistan and other poor nations strongly feel that the present international economic system is unacceptable because it is essentially oligarchic in nature “and does not fulfil our need”. Mir Afzal Khan, who is leading the 13-man Pakistan delegation to UNCTAD IV, drew wide applause when he said: “Developing countries do not and cannot participate in the present international economic system on the basis of equality” — which the system lacks.

He said: “This system must be changed because it is inequitable. The enormous gap between the developed and the developing countries has increased in the last 20 years. … In the words of the Prime Minister of Pakistan our rejection of this unequal relationship does not derive from ideological, ethical or geographical considerations. Injustice cuts across all these barriers. Our struggle is against injustice and not against any country or class of countries.”

Published in Dawn, May 12th, 2026