Protest against budget 2011: Allocating anger
Protesters say budget should provide for poor not the powerful.
FAISALABAD:
The Workers Party Pakistan (WPP) and Association of Women for Awareness and Motivation (AWAM) staged a large protest rally against inflation and the 2011-2012 budget on Friday.
The rally was joined by representatives of trade unions, student unions, political parties and civil society organisations. The protesters marched from the District Council to Circular Road, and they were chanting slogans against the defence budget, increased foreign loans, corruption, inflation, less wages and privatisation of state owned enterprises.
The charged protestors were carrying placards and banners inscribed with their demands. “We want to take a stand for the middle and lower classes. Poor people in this country are living in hell and no one seems to care. The new budget has ignored their plight completely,” said protester Rehman Asif. The speakers demanded that the defence budget be presented in the national assembly and that it allow for an increase in the funding for education, health and the social sector. “We need to stop operating on the premise that nearly all our budget needs to go to the army,” said protester and WPP member Shahnawaz.
The protesters said that the government must seek ways of converting unproductive spending into productive investment.
“It needs to reduce the gap between national revenues and expenditures by revenue collection from influential persons and institutes,” he added.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 19th, 2011.
The Workers Party Pakistan (WPP) and Association of Women for Awareness and Motivation (AWAM) staged a large protest rally against inflation and the 2011-2012 budget on Friday.
The rally was joined by representatives of trade unions, student unions, political parties and civil society organisations. The protesters marched from the District Council to Circular Road, and they were chanting slogans against the defence budget, increased foreign loans, corruption, inflation, less wages and privatisation of state owned enterprises.
The charged protestors were carrying placards and banners inscribed with their demands. “We want to take a stand for the middle and lower classes. Poor people in this country are living in hell and no one seems to care. The new budget has ignored their plight completely,” said protester Rehman Asif. The speakers demanded that the defence budget be presented in the national assembly and that it allow for an increase in the funding for education, health and the social sector. “We need to stop operating on the premise that nearly all our budget needs to go to the army,” said protester and WPP member Shahnawaz.
The protesters said that the government must seek ways of converting unproductive spending into productive investment.
“It needs to reduce the gap between national revenues and expenditures by revenue collection from influential persons and institutes,” he added.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 19th, 2011.