This picture is from Faisal Mosque, Islamabad and almost every newspaper in Pakistan published it on Saturday, just a day before Eid-Ul-Fitr. This poor guy had to come to a mosque because he can no longer sell his kidney in the “Kidney Bazaars”. After the arrest of the Kidney Gang of Lahore, our government had to bring a new law, thanks to strict orders from Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary. Just last week, Shaukat Aziz gave us this good news during an interview on ARY Digital that poverty have been reduced from 36% to 24% (I always wonder who comes up with these figures anyways?). He proudly said that thanks to the wonderful work by our government, we have eliminated poverty significantly. Perhaps, he meant the poor.
Here in Pakistan, everyday we hear the tall claims of progress and prosperity from the ruling elite and on the other hand we find a totally different picture on ground. I do not need to say more. They have become totally disconnected from the reality that they have no idea whatsoever about the problems of ordinary people of Pakistan (Yes yes, due to security reasons we don’t feel safe in Awaam). Or may be, people complain all the time for no reason and I am just being cynical. May be Mr. Pervez Elahi is absolutely right when he says everyday in television commercials, paid by our tax money, “Har Qadam Khushhaali Ki Janab”
Darwaish Bhai,
A tragic story indeed, the poor and wretched of this land still remain the super underclass of this land of the pure. When will we as a nation wake up to our ills, when will we govern for the poor and for the weak, for the silent many and not the rich few.
The PPP originally the party of the poor should be the saviour yet I know that BB’s impending return will bring us no good news in this regard irrespective of her ranting and raving. My most recent post titled ‘Welcome Home Benazir Zardari’ is well worth a read at http://www.otherpakistan.org/archive.html
Feimanallah
Wasim
THIS IS JUST A SHAME FOR ALL OF US. PEOPLE WITH MONEY ARE GETTING RICHER EVERYDAY AND POOR PEOPLE ARE GETTING POORER EVERYDAY. WE SHOULD COME TO THE STREETS AND ASK OUR GOVT. WHAT THEY ARE DOING. INSTEAD OF SPEDING ALL OF THE MONEY TO STAY IN THE POWER AND DO NOTHING FOR THE PEOPLE. THEY WILL GET “BADDAWAAS” OF THESE PEOPLE.
“MAZLOOM KI AHH ARSH KO HALA DATEE HA”
We live in Pakistan where we have two kind of ppl, one of them has money and others dont have any coz the inflation is too high and if any poor guy has something he cannot live within that insufficient money. We got grant from all over the world on the earthquake but the ppl there still lives in JHOONPRI and they have single washroom
and do any1 knows y this happens ??? just bcoz of us coz we don’t bother to ask the officials abt the taxes we pay and they have rights to spent our taxes anywhere they want even in MUFAHIMATI ORDINANCE
I’ve been given to understand that almost none of the kidneys harvested this way (from the poor off the street) can be used in any safe or effective way as transplants for the critically ill. Most of them are thrown away. Why then does this continue to happen? It doesn’t make sense.
As long as money continues to get poured in to defense, not much will be available for the poverty reduction. I do not trust numbers given by Aziz and co. the bottom line is that a line item in the budget itself speaks volumes about the state of poverty in Pakistan.
This photo gives us all a grim reminder of the state of the underclass.