Only Islam’s economic system will resolve the plight of the poor masses. The current budget that is a product of the capitalist economic
principles only protects the interests of colonialists and a few
capitalists. This budget will even deprive the poor of his only meal of
the day. This budget has once again proved the fact that no matter
whether it is a dictatorial regime or democratic one, both these ruling
systems implement the same exploitative capitalist economic system.
The capitalist economic principles are structured in such a way that it makes the rich richer and the poor, poorer. That is why Pakistan’s last sixty years of the musical chair of alternating between dictatorships and democracy, miserable plight of the masses never changed. Moreover, since both the ruling systems implement the same exploitative capitalist system, that is why both dictatorship and democracy suit America.
In the current budget, following the World Bank dictates, billions of rupees subsidies are being withdrawn from electricity, gas, wheat, ghee etc, burying the poor masses alive. Furthermore, instead of collecting Kharaj, Ushar and Zakah from well off and rich people, haraam taxes like that of GST is being charged from common man, amounting to Rs 75 billion in excess of the previous year. In the current democratic dispensation Kharaj and Ushar can not be collected from big landlords because these very landlords are the members of the legislative assemblies hence how can they make laws to tax themselves. It is the same elite group that allowed a debt write-off of a mammoth 54 billion rupees to their near and dear ones but they are not even ready to consider forgiving a few thousand rupee loan of the common man. The recent so called National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) is a clear evidence of the disgusting fact that in the democratic system an elite group can turn black into white and white into black by using their legislative powers. In such a system the betterment in the lives of the poor is a mirage and can never be achieved.
An open example is America itself, whose economy is worth trillions of dollars but she is still unable to fulfill the basic need like food, clothes, house and health of a considerable chunk of its population, thanks to the capitalist system. If the economic trickle down could not happen in big economies like America and China then what is the chance of poverty alleviation in Pakistan with the same capitalist economic system. Solution to the whole humanity’s economic problem, including Pakistan’s, lies in the Islamic economic system which contains clear and details injunctions regarding monetary policy, currency, ownership, trade, revenue generation and all other aspects of the economy. Furthermore, both Majlis-e-Ummah and Khaleefah, does not have the authority to alter or amend these injunctions. In this way, neither a few capitalists nor the colonialists can economically enslave the masses.
Naveed Butt
The Official Spokesman of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Pakistan
