Poor born to serve the rich: Pakistani politician

A Pakistani politician has come under attack from colleagues after saying that the poor are meant to serve the rich.

Sardar Mohammad Yaqoob Khan Nasar, a Senator from the ruling PML-Nawaz party, made the controversial comments at a meeting of a Senate committee on Thursday, the Dawn reported on Friday.

It all began when Taj Haider of the Pakistan People's Party began a discussion on how Pakistan had become the property of the ruling elite and that all decisions were made in the interests of the rich.

"The poor of this country will never get to decide their own fate," he said.

To this, Nasar remarked that if everyone were to become wealthy, there would be no one to grow wheat or to work as labourers.

"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," he said.

Haider countered that socio-economic classes were man-made and God had nothing to do with it.

Another Senator, Mohammad Usman Khan Kakar, also said that God created all people as equal and that the poor were not meant to serve the rich.

But Nasar could not be convinced and said: "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," he said.

--IANS

mr/rn