International Development: Social activists in Pakistan call for political revolution

At a forum in Islamabad organized by the Society for Alternative Media and Research and ActionAid, social activists claimed that only political revolution, and not foreign fed privatisation and structural adjustment programs, can rid Pakistan of its elitist economy and introduce an equity-based economy.

The forum called for Pakistan to stop borrowing from the World Bank and other such institutions as they allege the policies they dictate were robbing it of its economic sovereignty and producing more and more poor in the country.

One participant said Fidel Castro, was right in stating in one of his addresses at the UN that IMF and WB would never reduce poverty but would rather increase it and that he (Castro) was willing to be hanged from the building of the UN headquarters if his claim was proven wrong in future.