Former finance minister Miftah Ismail has termed Pakistan a “one-per cent republic” that offers no upward social mobility to an overwhelming majority of its citizens. Speaking at an awards ceremony organised by the Management Association of Pakistan (MAP), he said there’s “something very wrong” with Pakistan. “The 1pc elite controls this country,” said Ismail who was in charge of the finance ministry for six months, reports Dawn. Citing the example of US billionaires Bill Gates and Steeve Jobs who came from nothing and yet built a fortune by dint of their talent, he lamented that almost all rich Pakistanis are beneficiaries of generational wealth. “(The last government) distributed Rs580 billion among the richest 1pc Pakistanis under the Temporary Economic Refinance Facility. The government itself is borrowing at 15pc but the rich people got money at 1pc only,” he said. The liquidity injection increased imports of machinery and widened the current account deficit because local business groups produced goods for domestic consumption only, he said.
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