On Sunday, former President of the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI), Dr Shahid Rasheed Butt, said that the IMF, World Bank and other such institutions are promoting poverty and inequality worldwide. He added that they aim to increase the wealth and influence of Western countries by robbing the poor countries of their resources.

Shahid Rasheed Butt said in a statement issued here today that because of the tactics of these institutions, five percent of the world’s population has occupied eighty percent of the resources.

The majority of the richest people in the world belong to Western power, and he observed that IMF is adopting every legal and illegal tactic to increase their wealth; the business leader said that more than seventy countries, including Pakistan, are currently unable to pay their debts.

Self-interested elites can sell the country’s assets but cannot reduce spending control in most of these countries. Shahid Rashid Butt said that dozens of the IMF’s policies had ruined dozens of countries being forced to abandon national integrity and interests.

The ability of such countries to compete in the international market is lost, the economy falls, inflation increases, and people’s lives become more difficult. In these situations, the rich transfer their resources while intelligent people leave their countries and go to Western countries to increase the speed of their development, which is a serious brain drain issue.

IMF has never stopped any country from corruption and spending spree but has always victimised the common people. This institution has never brought any country out of the crisis but has worsened its situation, so the sooner the country gets rid of it, the better it is.