Analysis of Poverty and Education Decline in Pakistan

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Thank you very much for the presence of all the friends from the media. We need to discuss a few important matters, and we will start with the report published in the media.

There are reports regarding the World Bank and other financial institutions that the level of poverty in Pakistan is increasing very rapidly. The two standards that are mentioned are one that they have created as a national barometer in Pakistan, and the other given by the United Nations.

In terms of compliance, you can see in the region that if we take four countries—Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka—the situation in Pakistan is that the poverty rate is 23% according to international standards. The line indicated by the United Nations, below which people are living, is 5.3% in India, 6% in Bangladesh, and 2.7% in Sri Lanka. You can estimate from this.

If we measure the standard of Pakistan, it shows that 39% of people in Pakistan are living below the poverty line, while in India it is 10%, in Bangladesh it is 19%, and in Sri Lanka it is 6%. This indicates that poverty needs to be eradicated in Pakistan. Not only is there no policy to address this, but the actions that governments are taking are increasing poverty. Moreover, it is becoming very clear that the middle class, which is the political, social, societal, and economic backbone of any society, is rapidly shrinking in Pakistan and is heading towards poverty.

If you listen to the ruling class, it will seem that all the conditions have improved, the economy has taken a great leap, this has happened and that has happened. But the practical matter is that in the last four to six years, when we assess the poverty rate in all four provinces, the highest increase in poverty has occurred in Punjab, for which the most money is spent on media, the most advertisements are given, and events are organized. It has been found that the poverty rate in Punjab is increasing very rapidly, with an increase of 41% compared to what it was five years ago.

Similarly, you can review every sector. If there is no education, then how can the country move forward? How can it develop? This is a country with a population of 250 million, but the state of education is such that it is still... You saw in the past days that in Punjab, there has always been an opinion that the educational system here was better compared to other places, but in government institutions overall, the situation is that 52% of the children have failed in the new class, and among them, 60% are from public schools and 40% are from private schools. This indicates that the work that the government is supposed to do is not being done.

This is not the only case; it is one measure. The second measure is that the schools do not function properly, and then they say that we will outsource it to run the schools. Maryam Nawaz has already outsourced 11,000 schools. They have a target of 25,000, as if educating is not their goal and they just want to get rid of it. These heavy budgets neither can be properly utilized, nor can they do anything for the nation like private institutions do. Those institutions that operate with very low fees, how do they cover their expenses? There is no policy that promotes education, and then those with very high fees are very mediocre. This means that in Pakistan, the attainment of quality education is not possible for more than a few percent, two or four percent of people.

This is a total failure of the government. To say that this is a provincial subject or a federal subject—the government in Punjab is of the PML-N, and not just today, but for the last 40 to 45 years, there might have been a short break, but otherwise, it has been the government of PML-N; in fact, it has been the government of the Sharif family. If so, why is the decline in education happening so rapidly? Universities are not receiving funds, there is a close watch on colleges, and they also want to privatize them. Five hundred properties have been identified that the government is looking at selling.

They say cover your expenses, but what are the expenses? An 11 billion ship, what are the expenses? Arrivals and departures, protocols. This means how expensive the ruling class is for the nation, how burdensome it is. You see their protocols. Imagine the situation and then their behaviors. On one hand, poverty is increasing, and on the other hand, indulgences are increasing, and the same is true for the other three provinces.

Yesterday, Mr. Bilawal was saying that in Karachi, we have our mandate. Mashallah, what word do we use for this? When saying this, a person needs to have courage, right? And this courage is fully within them. They faced the worst way in the local elections. We were defeated, lost seats, and did not receive votes. The Jamaat-e-Islami was in first place, had more seats, and occupied the seats. They arranged the constituencies according to their preference beforehand and then occupied the seats. Still, when it was not enough, 25 people were bought from PTI and a fake mayor was made. Then, when the national elections were held, seven national assembly seats in Karachi were fake seats of the People's Party. If you have the courage, let Bilawal come with Form 45, on which all polling agents are present, and then say that we have some mandate.

The people of Karachi hate the People's Party; in fact, now people all over Sindh have started to do so. It is a transaction of necessity; there is a feudal system, there are interests. There are big landlords, small landlords, and then a whole system of social control in which people see no choice and look to the establishment that has a complete hold on the People's Party. They have an A-plus team, and they get all their work done through them. Corruption happens, they loot, they destroy the city of Karachi, Hyderabad gets ruined, Larkana, Sukkur, Naudero, Ratodero, Jindodero, Kashmore, and Kankot get devastated, and they are handed over to bandits and robbers.

They go, but the establishment keeps its hand on the People's Party because they believe that through it, the whole process is managed. So besides this support, what does the People's Party have? On one side is the PML-N, and on the other side is the People's Party; they are in power. They are governing together in three provinces and at the federal level; this is the PDM. So this entire mixture, and the kind of mandate they talk about, which they say they are doing a lot—they are only talking about Karachi in the whole of Pakistan.

What is the mandate of all these people? Instead of providing relief to some, they want to continue programs like the Benazir Income Support Program. The more investigations we conduct, the more information we gather, it turns out that 38 to 40% of its budget probably reaches the right families—meaning it reaches families, whether right or wrong is another matter. The rest operates through middlemen. Initially, through identification cards they used to meet, then it became an ATM, but the ATM is for rural people, laborers, farmers, and poor people who are not educated and who are not given any facilities. So this entire system of middlemen that is connected with parties and governments, they engage in corruption.

This program is funded by our tax money, it does not reach the common people, and for those who do receive it, what do they actually get? If a family receives seventeen or eighteen thousand rupees in three months, they are being made beggars.

They are not providing education, not conducting free IT programs. Where is the world heading? It is the era of artificial intelligence, but they have no way to advance the Pakistani nation and do any work to eliminate poverty.

And the surprising thing is that the IMF allows them to continue the Benazir Income Support Program. When it comes to the abolition of the levy, they say that the IMF is an obstacle, but if the corruption that is ongoing is being allowed by the IMF, then this itself is a question for the IMF.

The government does not reduce expenditures; I have heard that an additional three hundred million rupees are being spent on the renovation of the Prime Minister's House. Look at their cars, look at their free petrol, look at their free transportation.

When they travel abroad by these ships or when there is a meeting outside and they take a full army with them, it becomes very heavy and expensive for the nation. So, no one is ready to make any reductions, nor are they willing to lower the interest rate.

It is said that this bank, our State Bank, is now autonomous. The first question is, how can a bank of Pakistan, which is the bank of the state of Pakistan, be autonomous? This means you have taken our entire economy out of the realm of government and the state.

A second state is operating within the state, and if that is not the case, and the nine-member committee decides, and six members of this committee are from the government, nominated, then why don't they lower the policy rate?

Why are they continuing to promote the curse of interest and saying that if we reduce it, inflation will increase? This is also incorrect. The Jamaat-e-Islami committee has proven that this is not the case at all.

If this policy rate is reduced by three percent, the levy will become zero, and there will be no need to impose it, but they do not do this; they want to obtain easy money.

They rob the people's pockets, and then when there is an uproar, when there are protests, they announce a package. Well, even if sixty to seventy million people benefit from the package, there are two hundred and fifty million people living in Pakistan.

And in which the number of middle-class and poor people is up to two hundred million, or even more, it will be up to two hundred and twenty million. So then tell me, what do you have for them?

This levy has nothing to do with the price of petrol, so it should be abolished. Now, they mention something about petrol. Saudi Arabia has announced that for Asian countries, they offer a rate of five dollars per barrel. Now, the petroleum division of Pakistan, it just goes on; they go on holiday from Friday to Sunday and come back relaxed. During this time, other countries in the region will advance.

If we do not take these holidays, and we file a case against the levy in the constitutional court, the judge goes on leave. If there is any opportunity for Pakistan, then government employees and bureaucracy go on leave, and as a result, those who need to move forward and work do not do so. The oil refineries in Pakistan are not operating at their optimal capacity.

The refinery that was previously known as Synergy is a debtor to the government of Pakistan. It is currently operating at only twenty percent capacity, even though it has access to a good deep-sea port. It has its own advantages. If the efficiency of twenty percent is increased to seventy percent, Pakistan will benefit by seventy billion rupees annually. Money comes from here; it is just a management issue.

It is a matter of government policy. I have told you this in a small way; if you want to check, go and check with those ministers, and they don't even know about it. They all come to give statements saying that it cannot happen. So these are all things that need to be looked at.

In Pakistan, this levy should have been used to upgrade refineries. This was the Petroleum Development Levy, but it was not done. In one year, last year, one thousand five hundred fifty-six billion rupees were collected as levy.

The entire movement of Jamaat-e-Islami—I went to Charsadda yesterday, it was a very large gathering. People are completely ready, and they are saying that we will not go here and there in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, we will go straight to Islamabad.

The protests in Batkhela, Timergara, and Mardan are big gatherings. We are now changing; there is a large gathering in Kalu Khara, a gathering took place in Lahore. This means that these events have happened at a time when the long march has been paused. This means that there is momentum. As for the meeting with the Prime Minister that Mr. Hussian Iqbal has talked about, that meeting is still on.

We ourselves said that you should meet and resolve the issue of the levy, but what is the problem? The problem is that if their minister states that we cannot abolish the levy, then I want to ask Mr. Shahbaz Sharif: I wonder why they want to meet with us? You called so much that as soon as we arrive, we will meet, and then provide some relief, and do this, and do that, so please tell us the agenda for the meeting.

Alright, a call has come from your side that a meeting can be arranged. We also said we will do it in two or three days, but when you do not have an agenda, we have no desire to meet with you and then start again from where we left off. If your agenda includes the fact that you will end the levy, if your agenda includes providing tangible relief to the people of Pakistan, then we will meet. If you do not have this in your agenda, there is no point in meeting afterwards.

We need to reduce the price of petroleum; this was not a desire, it was not a party game, it was not something based on which we were just making efforts to appear in the media in fifty-one cities.

Holding a sit-in for more than a month is no small matter; major parties get exhausted when there are significant activities. It is the Jamaat-e-Islami that is now working on this in public. There is no personal agenda, there is no leader's agenda, this is not the party's agenda. Therefore, we believe that the Prime Minister should clarify that if there is relief in his agenda and the abolition of the levy, then there will be a meeting; otherwise, I have no interest, and the meeting will take place on the streets.

And we will move forward. We are peaceful people and we have made our peacefulness clear in the last two and a half months continuously, and before that, our track record is the same. But if you think that this peacefulness is our weakness, if you want to create chaos, if you also want disorder, if you also want fire, if you want corruption, then the Islamic Jamaat will not do this work. However, it will take time due to public pressure, obviously, which is a continuous and ongoing task.

It takes more time, but it is sustainable, and God willing, the public pressure will force you. This choice is now with the government to address this issue of the Pakistani people with dignity or as a result of public pressure.

I am compelled. There is no desire; we have no issue of political point scoring, otherwise there are many things that you can do: create a fuss, come out, and then you can comfortably sit at home for a year or two while people keep saying how great the injustice has been to you.

Such politics happens in Pakistan, where people comfortably do their politics while keeping the workers hungry, but Jamaat-e-Islami does not engage in such politics. We address the issue, and this issue is now very clear. In two to three days, on the twelfth, we will consult and then after that we will clearly provide a line of action. Now it is in the government's court that their agenda includes clear relief and the elimination of the levy.

There is a major crisis with wheat right now. Sowing is about to start from October 15, and in the past few years, the way the governments have demonstrated incompetence, on one side the farmer is facing wheat... the rate was not properly set. Do you remember two years ago the Punjab government set the wheat rate at thirty-nine hundred rupees and then backed out? This is the worst example of governance, that a government sets a rate and then goes away from this. You can imagine what impact this has on the entire economy and agriculture. Then last time they decided on the rate, but according to that, money was not available everywhere. People received an average of up to three thousand rupees.

Farmers sometimes get even less than this, but if flour is available in the market for an average of five thousand four hundred and fifty rupees, then tell me, who has the two and a half thousand in between? In transportation, in storage, in supply, how much money does it cost for the farmer? This means that those who are connected to the government, who do not pay the farmers fully and do not provide cheap bread to the public, are the mafia that is destroying our entire agriculture. They are doing so in collaboration with the government, in collaboration with the Punjab government, and in collaboration with Maryam Nawaz's government. The government will have to answer for this.

Compared to last year, the price of DAP has increased by one hundred rupees. Mr. Farhan Shukar was fourteen thousand two hundred and now it has become seventeen thousand, an increase of three thousand rupees. Similarly, I have come from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa; there urea is available in the black market. If it is being found in black, then why is it not available to them through legal means? Have you managed this here? It is also expensive here. When you provide expensive urea, provide expensive DAP, and do not give the farmers their full money, then this is what will happen.

Pakistan was better in one sector, and the PML-N and PDM government has also ruined Pakistan in that sector. As for education, I have informed you; the health matters are in front of you regarding the PSDP fund. They will not provide relief to the nation to bribe the MNAs. If they bribe the MNAs, these are all the things on which we are working; our committee is completely alert, and our workers are fully prepared. And once again, I address all the workers of Jamaat-e-Islami and to all those who are supporting us, I am saying to be fully prepared. If nothing clear comes from the government, then God willing, a long march will also begin and we will head straight towards Islamabad.

It will begin and then, God willing, we will force the government through public pressure. Thank you very much for the relief to the people. Look, one factor is certainly present that there is currently a lot of chaos in the country and uncertainty. There are discussions about governor's rule and also about emergency, which is obviously unacceptable in any case. We did not want Jamaat-e-Islami to contribute to this. We want to go out for the relief of the people; we did not want this work to happen in order to fulfill any agenda if the government takes advantage of any one of us. That is why we chose a reasonable path in which we considered the Prime Minister's perspective and also wanted to save Pakistan from this turmoil.

But if someone thinks that they have handled this, and when they do not address the issue, then we do not know what your negotiations with PTI are; you should do that and negotiate. For this, we say that there is a solution to the negotiation issue and it should be done properly. Whatever relief needs to be given, it should be given. Obviously, if the issue is about Khan Sahib's access and his health, then there is no unreasonable demand; it should be fulfilled. But using this as a foundation, you continue to oppress the public; this cannot happen. Therefore, a lot of time has been given. Now if a clear agenda does not come forward, then afterwards we will start.

Look, in the case of Jamaat-e-Islami, understand one thing: we have no such rush for us to go and organize any event. We want to solve the problem, just understand this well. Look, the thing is that we are in contact with all these parties and you have seen. When we were carrying out the petroleum levy movement, while the sit-ins were ongoing, I had contacted all the parties, held meetings, and spoke on the phone. Everyone had supported it. After that, there is this long march of the PTI, and they had come to us and the opposition. People had said that we would call an APC and we unconditionally supported the APC. Regarding some parties, they then mentioned that after this, a national agenda is also prepared for this APC, then we are obviously ready for it and we have contributed before as well.

But it is clear that each party has its own policies and systems. In this entire process, we cannot do this: if there is something we are carrying that can provide relief to the public, then we abandon it and find out that another problem has arisen. Therefore, Jamaat-e-Islami has done a lot. We have chosen this path with careful consideration, and we have long experiences regarding these alliances and the collective struggle in all these contexts, as well as in accordance with the demands of the times and by observing the conditions of the people.

What I understand is that this is the only path that will result in relief for the people. This is a test case; if we succeed in providing this relief to the people with the help of Allah and the cooperation of the public, then politics in Pakistan will also change. And the conditions of the people in Pakistan will, God willing, change because the politics that is happening so far is not addressing the issues of the people, is not addressing their hunger, is not addressing their plight, but rather the agendas of the parties. It is happening to personalities, it is happening to families, and that is why we have chosen this path after much thought, and thanks to Allah we are following it. I hope, God willing, the matter will progress. Ask them about the kind of statements they make.

And when these people have to meet, they come together; when the State Bank needs to be made independent, they all do it together; when General Bajwa needs to be given an extension, all these parties come together; if Sanjrani needs to be made the chairman of the Senate, then the military...

If courts are to be established, all these are sour. Sometimes I feel this is a disagreement among these people, so you should ask those who have given statements. They ask us, and we say that there should be no political prisoners. We say that Khan Sahib should be released, and regarding the charges...

But they have kept them inside, so everyone else should also be inside, and at the very least, women should be released immediately. I traveled all night.

I have come simply and before this, you have seen all the rallies are also ongoing, our signature campaign is also running, people are active all over Pakistan. There is a mood at what time and what work to do, so it is not a trivial matter that continuous protests are happening in forty-two cities and the demonstrations are ongoing.

The protest is ongoing everywhere, so everything has a mood, and I am coming back to the same point. We do not want to engage in event manipulation where we can revive our politics for a year or two by rallying the workers.

So you don't want to address the issue, we want to address the issue. Now it is with the government, they had called, there will be a meeting, there is no issue with the meeting, the issue should be addressed now if their Minister of Petroleum or any other minister says this two or three days before the meeting.

If the levy can be abolished, then if the agenda is not clear, there is no benefit to the meeting, and then there will be a long march, and then there will be discussions on the road, God willing.

There are discussions that you mentioned about international situations, that Pakistan is in a defense agreement with Turkey and Saudi Arabia. You will remember that when this agreement was made, we welcomed it and also demanded it and expressed this desire that if Iran is also included, if this work is done, it will create a tremendous sense of unity and harmony among Muslim countries at the international level. As far as you mentioned about Yemen, then Pakistan...

The government has clarified that our military or our aircraft or our people have not been used in the bombing in Yemen, so obviously we take their statement at face value, but I must say that defense agreement is of great importance in its own right, as Turkey has also clearly stated in it that the government of Pakistan should respect this agreement and should not get involved in any kind of disputes that occur among Muslims.

One should not jump in; there will be no benefit from it, only harm, and as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said, we should just stick to that regarding the operation or terrorism you have seen.

The issue at hand is a national issue. When the National Action Plan was created, two types of actions were determined: one was kinetic action. Initially, both the military regime and the political regime had acknowledged this matter.

Kinetic action was taken and educational institutions are destroyed, there are no health facilities, the conditions in all these areas are terrible, so in such circumstances how can you take the public along? Any operation against terrorism requires public support.

If it cannot happen without it, then the federal government and the provincial governments should have set aside their politics and united for the nation a long time ago, and the federal government should have played a better role. Nevertheless, there is still time for everyone to come together.

Let's come and address this issue, and it is clear that this is not just a local issue; America is involved in it, some of our old friendly countries are involved, Western powers are involved, Israel is involved, and there is also an issue in our neighborhood.

The Afghan government is unable to maintain control, and we keep telling them that their land should not be used for terrorism. So, where these large factors exist, if we fight our small battle, we will cause damage to the people, to the soldiers, and to the nation. This is unacceptable.

If it is not acceptable, then this issue should be addressed comprehensively on one page. Thank you very much.