Government's tall claim of achieving growth rate of over 8 percent has not been able to bring about any economic relief to the lives of the poor and deprived them who are struggling for economic survival owing to galloping inflation in the country.
This was the gist of People's Assembly organised by Omar Asghar Khan Development Foundation (OAKDF) on 'Poverty a People's Problem' here on Saturday to mark the death anniversary of the former federal minister for local government, rural development, Omar Asghar Khan, who died under mysterious circumstances on June 25, 2002 shortly after he launched Qaumi Jamhoori Party after resigning from Musharraf's cabinet.
Participants, who travelled from the far-flung areas of Hazara division, Abbottabad, Haripur and Mansehra, on the call of OAKDF to attend the assembly, appeared to have lost their faith in the present government and its economic policies.
Over 500 participants of all ages, including a large number of women, attended the people's assembly. They paid glowing tributes to late Omar Asghar Khan and said, he (Omar) throughout his life struggled for the rights of oppressed and deprived.
Addressing the people's assembly, Chairperson OAKDF, Ali Asghar Khan said the idea of organising such assemblies was conceived by Omar Asghar Khan to create political space for ordinary citizen and ensure that their voices and concerns are heard in the corridor of the government.
He said these assemblies provide platform to the citizens to debate, analyse and define their own political agenda and unite them on a platform to make their voices heard.
Earlier, the participants taking part in the debate said they would continue to suffer as long as the present system of governance exist and called for shared efforts to quash the prevalent anti-people system and bring about social and economic revolution to ensure poor rights. "We should not pin any hope on the government and get ourselves organised and united to strive for a democratic and peaceful society in which equity, tolerance and justice is its hallmark. We have to get rid of the problems of poverty, unemployment and unequal distribution of resources," said a participant from Hazara. He regretted that none of the elected representative tried to solve these problems, as it became low priority for them after they got themselves elected.
Another speaker, Manzoor Ahmed said the poor of the country have been striving hard to get out the poverty but deplored that the government policies were not helpful. He said the government should have taken some tangible steps for poverty reduction instead of spending huge amount to purchase cars for the well off members of the assembly.
Comments
Comments are closed.