Islamabad: A Pakistan senator came under fire from the fellow lawmakers for controversial comments that the rich and poor population has been created by the "God" and one should not interfere in the system.
Senator Sardar Mohammad Yaqoob Khan Nasar of ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) passed these remarks during a meeting of the Senate Functional Committee on Devolution yesterday.
The discussion started after Senator Taj Haider of Pakistan Peoples Party said that the country has become the property of the ruling elite, and that all decisions were made in the interests of the rich, Dawn reported.
"We have sent hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis abroad to work as labour and send foreign exchange (apparently) in the national interest and claimed that soon it will be proved that offshore companies were also made in the national interest. The poor of this country will never get to decide their own fates," Haider said.
Nasar responded by saying that if everyone were to become wealthy, there will be no one to grow wheat or to work as labourer.
"This is a system created by God, and he has made some people rich and others poor and we should not interfere in this system," Nasar said.
The PML-N senators' remark triggered a strong reaction, with Senator Haider saying that socio-economic classes were man-made phenomena with which God had nothing to do with.
Senator Mohammad Usman Khan Kakar also said that God created all people equal and that the poor were not meant to serve the rich.
However, Nasar could not be convinced and said that "once in China all people were considered equal, which did not work out well".
"Those who cannot get an education and cannot earn more have no right to live the life of a bureaucrat," Nasar added.
Mir Kabeer Ahmed Mohammad Sahi, chairman of the committee, then gave the example of the US, where he said the country's president shops in the same store as ordinary citizens and that the presidents children also go to public schools.
To this, Nasar said that the principle of equality is not even implemented in parliament where members of the National Assembly were given development funds and not senators.
Most of Pakistani lawmakers belong to very rich families which control the political and economic systems of the country.
