Austeri-tea

As if Miftah Ismail was not enough to rattle the financial matters, another PMLN so-called stalwart Ahsan Iqbal created a storm in a teacup by exhorting people to cut down on tea consumption so that the country overcomes the current foreign exchange paucity faced by the national coffers. In his infinite wisdom he tweeted that Pakistan is the largest importer of tea in the world with the bill in this respect coming to a whopping $590 million thereby implying that Pakistanis waste money on addictive habits such as drinking tea beyond their means. By throwing the ball in the people’s court he conveniently forgot that the most wastage of national financial resources of the country is credited to the high level of wasteful expenditure incurred by the ruling dispensations of which so-called Professor Ahsan Iqbal is a potent part. He also should have realised that many high-profile members of the regime that PMLN replaced had to eat their words when they faced severe criticism from the public on making similar exhortations. It is a pity to observe that light-weight politicians like Ahsan Iqbal try making their presence felt by waxing eloquent about matters they should better avoid. TW