A short exchange of views (End of September-start of October) from a WhatsApp group
Dr Khalil: The rulers of Pakistan are indebted, not the citizens of Pakistan!
It is often heard and read that Pakistan has accumulated so much foreign debt. Every Pakistani owes this much loan.
Well, did any citizen of Pakistan ever say to take the loan?
Whatever foreign and domestic debt there is, it was taken by the governments of politicians or military governments; it will be paid from the pockets of whichever political or military governments took these loans.
Straight and simple!
Someone 1: How and who will take?
Dr Khalil: A combination of many things and approaches. For example… public opinion. Public opinion pressure. A political slogan. Adoption of it by this or that group or party, or a government. Etc., etc., … and finally the Ritz-Carlton methodology.
Someone 2: But then, no matter who has taken the loans, we the masses are paying.
Poors are struggling merely to meet debt obligations accumulated by the ruthless elites.
The story is simple.
Dr Khalil: Not denying that. Trying to resolve and overcome it… and it starts with some ideas… whatever they are…
Someone 2: I am extremely disappointed with our policymakers, economic managers, and the elite. They seem increasingly disconnected from the struggles of ordinary people and, sadly, appear to have little regard for the hardships and concerns of the public.
Dr Khalil: If we see them as a continuity of the pre-partition Muslim Ashrafiya, we will not be disappointed. They imbibe almost all the traits of that Muslim Ashrafiya, including their bureaucracy.
I published a book in 2012 analyzing the character of the Ashrafiya and how they captured the state after the partition…
پاکستان میں ریاستی اشرافیہ کا عروج
In November 2021, Dr Nadeem Ul Haq (the then Vice Chancellor of PIDE) did a webinar with me on the theme of this book. The video is available on PRIDE’s YouTube channel.
PS:
Pakistani Ashrafiya subtracted all the British vocabulary from its thinking and practice, and after controlling the newly established state, it returned to its original Ashrafi mode. Relaxed and settled.
Note that Pakistani bureaucracy is not a replica of the British bureaucracy or rulers; they are non-biological descendants of Muslim Ashrafiya’s bureaucracy.
4 October, 2026