Pakistan , they claim , like many other Asian countries , is having a boom time . Growth has soared, foreign debt has been cut, and the nation's consumers have gone on one of history's greatest shopping sprees, splashing out in record numbers on anything from fridges and flats, to luxury cars. The World Bank has given the programme a big thumb's up, and foreign investors show signs of renewed interest.
But reported by the BBC , Kaiser Bengali , a Professor of economics at Szabist University, says many have gained nothing from all the reforms. Pakistan's Government insist the poor have gained under the new economic regime, but Professor Bengali does not agree .
Instead, he says, there has been an alarming growth in inequality.
"Try to imagine," he says, "a man who sees the expensive cars in the street, but comes home unable to feed his children, because he can't find work. He is angry."
"Or an educated man who cannot support his own parents. He becomes ashamed of himself."
"Anger may lead people into crime, or self harm. Suicide rates are going up," he says. "But people also turn to religious radicalism. We see this in Pakistan every day."
It is a great pity that all this anger and rage is not turned against the cause of their poverty , the capitalist system , and the solution being sought in the socialist alternative , rather than seeking it in the dead-end political cul-de-sacs of reformism and religion .
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