Dr Kaiser Bengali Receives Backlash On Misleading Figures

Leading economist Dr Kaiser Bengali received backlash as he wrote misleading figures of the mortgage amount of F-9 Park and condemned the government’s decision of mortgaging public property.

Dr Kaiser has served on several key positions and has a close association with Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).

He was the Consultant for Economic Affairs and Head of the Chief Minister’s Policy Reform Unit, Government of Balochistan.

Earlier, he was Advisor to the Chief Minister of Sindh for Planning & Development. He was also the first head of the Benazir Income Support Program (BISP) and designed the program too.

Dr Kaiser was also Sindh’s representative on the 7th National Finance Commission (NFC).

According to reports, due to financial issues, the federal government has decided to mortgage the F-9 Park in the federal capital to obtain a loan of about Rs500 billion through issuing bonds.

Dr. Kaiser Bengali raised an objection and expressed his disapproval on keeping a public park as a mortgage.

Dr. Kaiser Bengali wrote misleading figures in his tweet as he wrote $US500 billion as the security against bonds and owing to this blunder, he received backlash from the public.

Twitter users questioned that mortgaging a public park for $US500 billion was a win-win situation for Pakistan as its external debt amount to $US112 billion.

With that amount, the Twitter users said that the amount to be obtained from it was enough to pay country’s debt not only once but five times.

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He questioned that if the government wasn’t able to pay the loan will the public property be auctioned?

He also pointed out that certain public places were sacred and should not be put up for a mortgage and wondered if Quaid-e-Azam’s mausoleum will be mortgaged next.

Earlier, several institutions, buildings, and roads have been mortgaged during the tenures of successive governments to get loans through national and international bonds.

The F-9 park (Fatima Jinnah Park) is a public recreation park spread on 759 acres of land. The park is one of the largest covered green areas in Pakistan. It is named after Fatima Jinnah.

This is not the first time that public property is being mortgaged.

The government had previously mortgaged Jinnah International Airport to get a loan of Rs 500 billion as well as a power generation plant to borrow Rs 200 billion.