(January 27-2023)Former President of Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) Dr. Shahid Rasheed Butt on Pakistan’s elites are insensitive, merciless, and irresponsible.
Total responsibility for looting the country’s resources and ruining the economy rests with the elites but the entire burden is always shifted on the people, he said.
Shahid Rasheed Butt said that the policies designed to promote the ultra-wealthy are increasing poverty in the country and eliminating the middle class.
The wealth of the elites is increasing at a rapid pace that is destroying the economy and society which must be stopped, he added.
Pakistani nobility is at the forefront of looting resources but they do not pay taxes to discharge their national obligation.
The elites know that economic inequality has terrible consequences and that paying taxes is necessary to bridge the divide between rich and poor and for the bright future of the country but they remains insensitive.
They have earned billions of rupees from Pakistan and have set up businesses and properties abroad therefore, they don’t care about the people and their problems.
He said that according to a recent report by a reputed non-profit, inequality has been going on all over the world for the past fifty years, but it has accelerated during the outbreak of the Coronavirus.
During the epidemic, the wealth of the ten richest people in the world doubled and other billionaires increased their fortunes while the income of ninety-nine percent of the people was hit and it became difficult for them to meet the necessary expenses.
The report states that since 2020, the wealth of billionaires is increasing at the rate of $2.7 billion per day, while people are getting poorer at the same rate.
If developed countries taxed their billionaires and billionaires at just 5%, $1.7 trillion could be saved, lifting two billion people out of poverty but it is not likely as the influence of aristocracy is the process of decision-making has increased substantially.
