Re: Shahid Javed Burki on Pakistan lop sided economic growth///
Considering how selective you Mush supporters are, I will highlight this portion, which is very telling when considering this is a response to the dictators direct challenge... Notice how these vilagere DONT support the dictator...
"Musharraf has announced he will end poverty," Hussain said. "It seems he will end the poor."
While city-dwellers complained that Musharraf's dismissal of the Supreme Court, suspension of the Constitution and shuttering of independent media were illegal, villagers complained that they had driven up prices.
Since the Nov. 3 emergency, the price of wheat has risen by 25 percent, from $7.50 for 40 kilograms, or 88 pounds, to $10, villagers said. Rice has risen by 25 percent as well. Mustard oil prices has risen by 75 percent, from $1.33 a kilogram to $2.33. Even before the emergency, they said, prices had been rising over the last several years.
"Here, a poor person earns 100 rupees a day," said Shahed Imran, a 22-year-old tea stall owner. "How can he support his family?" A hundred rupees is the equivalent of $1.60.
Pakistani and international economists agreed. Pakistan's inflation rate was 10 percent last year, they said. While the economy has boomed under Musharraf, with 6 percent growth a year on average, nearly all of the growth has come in the urban service sector in areas such as banking, construction and stock trading. Farming has remained stagnant."