| I have been robbed twice recently. The first time was on 30 April at in the village of Pindi Bhatian, when I and my colleagues were accosted by a swarthy dacoit and seven accomplices. They pointed their guns at us, took our money and they left Rs. 40,000 the richer. The second time I was robbed was on 28 May, when the Government and its accomplice the State Bank of Pakistan deprived me and millions of other depositors like me - resident and non-resident, foreigners and Pakistanis alike - of our foreign currency deposits. They left us poorer by $11.2 billion. Of the two dacoities, I am inclined to condone the first. At least the dacoits in Pindi Bhatian do not draw their salaries from the public exchequer. |
| Was there any justification for such a peremptory action by the Government? Was there really a nexus, as the Government maintained, between the State of Emergency declared following the explosion of our nuclear devices on 28 May and the state of our foreign exchange holdings? Could the Government have taken any action other than freezing the foreign currency accounts, and could they have done more since other than giving depositors the cold shoulder? [EXTRACT] |
| Unpublished. Printed in THE BARK OF A PEN (2001). |
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