THE federal government has not changed the minimum wage this year and it is still at Rs37,000 per month for 40 hours of work per week. At a time when wages for all federal government employees are going up by 10 per cent, this seems unreasonable and very unfair. MNAs and senators have gotten 200pc-plus increases and the Senate chairman and Speaker of the National Assembly are being given `obscene` increases.

Officers of the armed forces, according to a newspaper report, are being given 50pc and non-commissioned staff 20pc increases.

The finance minister defended the manifold increase in the salaries of the MNAs and senators, saying that many of them needed it. But he was apparently unable to see that many poor people, trying to get by on or around the minimum wage, also need increases.

Inflation was at around 12pc in 2024. The finance minister said that government employees were getting a 10pc increase as it was in line with the declining inflation rates. Does inflation not impact the poor? One would have thought the opposite.

Abdullah is in his 50s. He works as a daily wage earner. He has one daughter who works as domestic help. He does not get work every day so, on average, he makes only around Rs20,000 per month. They are able to keep body and soul together with the Rs25,000 his daughter earns.

But even then, with Rs10,000 going towards rent for their one-room dwelling, ensuring adequate food and other basic necessities within Rs35,000 for three people is not easy. Abdullah and his family are not eligible for the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP).

Amjad, who works as a driver, has a small family comprising his wife and two young children.

They live in a one-room rented space located on the fourth floor of a building. He can only afford a fan and a room cooler. But despite the cooler, May and June are so hot that his wife takes the children to her mother`s home every day between11am and 5pm. They cannot stay in their room during the day in the summer months. If they want to rent a place at ground level or the first floor, Amjad needs more money. But our finance minister seems to think that the poor do not need a higher minimum wage.

Abdullah also works as a driver, and has three grown-up children. Despite the fact that he and two of his children, who did not complete their schooling, work, they still cannot make ends meet as Abdullah`s wife is ill and her medicines are expensive. There is no healthcare available, of course, from the state. And neither is Abdullah eligible for BISP. He is already in debt and people have started to refuse to lend him more. But the finance minister does not think Abdullah`s family needs a higher income.

Majida`s husband, who had a small cycle repair shop when they got married, had an accident a year after their marriage and right after the birth of their child. He has been unable to work since. He broke his jaw in the accident and doctors had to wire his jaw to repair it. Now the family does not have any money for the procedure to get the wires out. The household difficulties have forced Majida to work as domestic help, though she has a year-old baby, but even with that they are in trouble as the husband`s wired jaw is getting infected and if he does not have surgery in time, his life could be in danger.

But the elites of the country are saying that the economy is on the mend. The finance minister does not see the rise in poverty numbers.

When he was told that the World Bank, in its latest report, is saying that more than 44 per cent of Pakistanis live below the poverty line, the minister said he needed to study and understand why the bank had updated its poverty line (which has been done globally) and the methodology being used by the bank, etc. Clearly pot shots when you have nothing to say.

Another popular ruse used by the neoliberals when told about issues of poverty, inflation andunemployment is to mention BISP as the way to address the needs of the poor. The finance minister also mentioned the approximately Rs700 billion allocated to BISP for the upcoming year as the way to address the needs of the poor. BISP was and is a great idea. It is doing good service for the very poor. But we have to understand that BISP is focused on the very poor. It does not do anything, at least for now, for the working poor, for those who live close to or at the poverty line level and for those who are in the lowerto middle-income groups. These groups would be much better served by the provision of quality education and healthcare facilities, better employment opportunities (which, again, the neoliberals say is not the responsibility of the state and that the state will only create the environment for the private sector to work) and better access to credit facilities.

But the state has no intention of providing better education or health to all. Though the rhetoric might be there, there are no actions to back the promises. Look at the paltry higher education budget allocation for the next fiscal year: public sector universities cannot even make salary and pension payments.

The poor do not have much space in the Weltanschauung of neoliberals focused on wealthcreating opportunities for the rich. Is it any surprise then that the state, yet again, has imposed more taxes on the poor, the salaried and middle classes, given them no relief, while it continues to subsidise and benefit the rich and not tax powerful interest groups? The measure of success for this government seems to be the rising stock market, the falling interest rate, the increasing foreign remittances and decreasing inflation. They cannot see the poverty or the needs ofthe poor.

But Brutus was an honourable man!• The writer is a senior research fellow at the Institute of Development and Economic Altematives and an associate professor of economics at Lums.