As the largest importer of weapons, the region must focus on resolving disputes through dialogue rather than weapons, says Ali.
True democracy and an end to nuclear arms race are imperative for peace and economic prosperity in the country.
This was stated by Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER) Executive Director (ED) Karamat Ali at a lecture
titled “Peace and Global Economy” at Government Postgraduate College for Boys on Tuesday.
Students, teachers and activists of civil society organisations attended the programme.
Ali observed that peace is directly linked to economy but when countries spend a major portion of their national budget on defence expenditure, the leftover budget cannot ameliorate the living standards of deprived communities.
South Asia, he added, constitutes 25% of the world’s population but is unfortunately housing 60% cent of the world’s poor. He further said that after India and Pakistan, Bangladesh has also joined the nuclear race which is not bad omen for the peace and economic wellbeing of the region.
As the largest importer of weapons, the region must focus on resolving disputes through dialogue rather than weapons, he added.
“The South Asian countries must divert military spending towards betterment of marginalised communities,” he said, adding that the suggestion could work without affecting the capabilities of defence apparatus .
About Pakistan’s defence expenditure, he said that after the Zia era, a major portion of national budget was spent on foreign debt servicing, defence expenses and bureaucracy and the leftover fraction of budget always proved insufficient for addressing the needs of a large population.
Ali also termed divisions on the basis of class, creed and caste as contributing factors of usurpation of rights and promoting hatred.
On the labour rights issues he said that 70% of informal labour industry is without laws while the remaining 30% lacks proper implementation due to which the rights of working class, that contributes to ensuring the economic activity of the state, are not protected.
About women issues, he said that their political role should be mainstreamed by making the parties bound to allocate 33% tickets to women contestants in the general election and the system of proportionate representation should be strengthened.
“If we are really interested about bringing improvement in the life of womenfolk we have to introduce system within political parties”
Published in The Express Tribune, February 27th, 2013.
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