Pakistan NGOs walk out of World Bank consultations

May 18, 2001

KARACHI: A radical alliance of professionals, branded as Anti-Globalisation Forum, walked out from the World Bank-sponsored public consultations on Country Assistance Strategy (CAS) started on Thursday at National Institute of Public Administration (NIPA), where over 100 angry protesters demanded dismantling of the Bank.

Zubeida Alwa, country manager Pakistan at the World Bank's headquarters, led the opening plenary session of the public consultations deliberating upon the general introduction of objectives for the day, background on the CAS and consultations and overview of general economic environment and challenges facing Pakistan.

As the proceedings were about to enter into four different group discussions, Arif Hasan, a renowned town planner, raised an objection to the format of the programme proposing to the organisers to open up debate on past policies and failed projects sponsored by the Bank in Pakistan. His point was deferred while responding to other queries.

This prompted a coterie of approximately 125 NGO activists, university teachers and students to stand up and raise slogans against the policies and planning strategies of the Bank. "Down with World Bank ... No to World Bank policies", the NIPA auditorium echoed with similar slogans as prominent economist Dr Akbar Zaidi and Arif Hasan came out.

Later, a parallel meeting under the forum's aegis was held at the NIPA lawns, where experts from different fields exchanged their joint course of action aiming at dismantling of World Bank, International Monetary Fund and World Trade Organisation. "We wanted dialogue. Since the agenda could not be made flexible, only walk out was the option," Dr Riaz Ahmed of International Socialists Group, told The News.

The World Bank offered the citizens of Pakistan an opportunity to participate in a consultation on the World Bank's CAS for Pakistan for 2002-2004. The Bank also invited comments on the CAS, which can also be submitted at its website: www.worldbank.org.pk. But the protesters were critical over the procedure of compiling the strategy report.

A joint statement says a large number of Bank-supported projects and programmes remained failure. "It is necessary to review the projects and identify the causes of their failures so that they can be addressed. We are concerned that the Bank wishes to build on these failures," it added.

Prof Muhammad Nauman, associated with Shehri-CBE, said the World Bank public consultations on the CAS would be of no use for discussion in split topics unless failures and faults attributed to the Bank's projects were not thoroughly discussed.

"We believe that the first step for World Bank to take is a realistic review of its past policies and projects in Pakistan. It aims to reduce poverty but ample facts are available to prove just the opposite," he suggested.

Director of Urban Resource Centre, Muhammad Yunus believed that the nature and content of the consultations must be meaningful, which could only be possible through collective decision on the principles, procedures and process of consultations by different partners in the consultation on CAS.

Yunus held that Bank's procedures such as hiring of foreign consultants when local expertise is available and procurement process were responsible for stifling professional and entrepreneurial development in Pakistan, besides increasing costs manifold. "We term this public consultation a drama to impose pre-planned programmes," Yunus commented.

The Anti-Globalisation Forum also staged a demonstration within the NIPA premises showing placards with radical objections to the world financial institutions. The joint statement signed by representatives of over a dozen organisations and institutions further says that the basic aim of the World Bank and other financial institutions is to benefit the capitalist structures comprising local elite, international institutions and transnational corporations.

"Through this local and international network the exploitation of the masses is intensified manifold," it adds. "We have had enough. The best service the World Bank could provide is to dismantle itself and the world will be free of poverty."