Dr Muhammad Yaqub was the former governor of the State Bank of Pakistan, which is equivalent to the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States. In his recent article in The News, he mentioned about the royal lifestyle of the political elite of the country and how rule and regulation mean to them. Dr Yaqub has specially mentioned Nawaz Sharif current prime minister of the country and how he is crazy about the mega and fancy project, which has at least no utility for the majority of the people living in the country who are living in rural areas and have no proper housing facilities and no access to health care facilities. Dr Yaqub mentioned how Nawaz Sharif started a mega project of motorway in his second term (right now Nawaz Sharif is fulfilling his third term) though all his economical planner told him there are no funds for this mega project but Nawaz Sharif took the initiative and built the project on borrowed money. Most important part of article is about the use of money given by the Saudi government to Pakistan after the nuclear explosion and trade sanctions in 1998. Nawz sheriff ordered the finance ministry to put that money in a special account in one of a state owned bank of the country, because that money was given on the personal favor for Nawaz Sharif so he wanted to use that money for mega projects without the approval of finance ministers and parliament and finance ministry did as they were ordered. Imagine such a big violation of the constitution. Now again the country has got aid from Saudi Arabia in 2014 and again, he has ordered the finance ministry to make separate development fund in the state owned bank so that he could use those funds on his choice of projects. The country at this time need strict economic management and need to break the begging bowl, but rulers are acting like Royal kings. At the end of the article, Dr Yaqub has mentioned the loopholes in the tax system and how to improve it,. Right now the country has almost no direct tax system. The government is collecting taxes indirectly by increasing the prices of tarrifs e.g.electricity, gas prices, etc. He has also mentioned how military establishment is doing extra spending without keeping in mind the financial condition of the country. This was a really a good article by a former governor of state bank of Pakistan and it really was eye opener how the politicians in those countries lives like kings and how their spending and borrowing habits are out of any constitutional framework. http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-9-240307-Prestige-and-poverty
