7 replies to this topic

[SUPARCO]

Two-thirds of UK cabinet ministers are millionaires
Tuesday, May 29, 2012

By Asif Mehmood

LONDON: One of the leading consultancies of the world, specialised in analysing the financial affairs of the US and other influential politicians of the world, in its latest rich list, revealed on Monday that two-thirds of Britain’s cabinet ministers (18 out of 29) were millionaires.

Wealth-X report on Britain’s new cabinet “rich list” based its figures on salaries as well as declared shares and properties. The consultancy’s analysts estimated that British Prime Minister David Cameron’s net worth is £3.8million (Rs 550 million) with liquid assets of £190,000 from current and previous salaries - half as much as US President Barack Obama. His fortune was in part self-made and from “property, most likely funded from parents/inheritance”.

The richest cabinet minister is Lord Strathclyde, who is worth £9.5 million (Rs 1.32 billion), mainly from inherited wealth and a stake in his family’s estate management company. Baroness Warsi’s relatively modest £221,000 wealth was estimated to be 43 times less than Lord Strathclyde’s fortune. Philip Hammond, the defence secretary, is put at about £8.2 million, from stakes in a healthcare and nursing home developer and “consultancy work”. Jeremy Hunt, the culture secretary, is thought to be worth £4.7 million, from his stake in the educational publisher Hotcourses. Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister, has a fortune worth £2 million, while Labour leader Ed Miliband and his brother David are worth £1.9 million each. According to Wealth-X, the richest person in the British Parliament is Zac Goldsmith, whose £284 million fortune is described as an “inheritance from financier father”. Gareth Thomas, the shadow cabinet office minister, said, “No wonder David Cameron and George Osborne are so out of touch with just how tough the rest of the country is finding the rising cost of living. It also explains why the cabinet thought the budget’s tax-cut for millionaires was a good idea even as taxes went up for everyone else.

Wealth-X published a wealth report in March, which suggested that Mitt Romney, the Republican US presidential candidate, had $45 million (£29million) in liquid assets, as part of his $230 million fortune. In contrast US President Barack Obama was estimated by Wealth-X to be worth $10.5 million, and earns $400,000 a year as president. The richest ever challenger for the Presidency was Ross Perot, who ran in 1992 and 1996, and had a fortune worth $3.58 billion. Minister for the cabinet office Francis Maude worth £3.2 million, work as managing director at Morgan Stanley and having various directorships. Britain’s attorney general Dominic Grieve is having £2.9 million from private investment and funded by salaries as barrister and QC. US Secretary of State for International Development Andrew Mitchell is having £2.2 million.

http://dailytimes.co...y_29-5-2012_pg7_20

Salaam,

I'm not sure which tribe, clan, sardar, wadera group these people belong to but I would like to know why there's so much enmity against the rich in Pakistan?

In Pakistan, becoming rich is like committing a major sin and inheriting wealth in Pakistan is considered an even bigger sin!  No wonder everyone has to go abroad to save money.

Salaam

[BaburMissile]

Britain doesn't beg the world for aid money. Britain's people aren't malnourished. British politicians don't loot the money of their people. British politicians don't misuse aid money for their lavish lifestyles. Pakistani politicians are thieves and crooks who loot the wealth of their people. British politicians don't loot state owned companies for their own pleasure and benefit. Keep that in mind.

[SUPARCO]

BaburMissile, on 29 May 2012 - 03:21 AM, said:

Britain doesn't beg the world for aid money. Britain's people aren't malnourished. British politicians don't loot the money of their people. British politicians don't misuse aid money for their lavish lifestyles. Pakistani politicians are thieves and crooks who loot the wealth of their people. British politicians don't loot state owned companies for their own pleasure and benefit. Keep that in mind.

Salaam,

Do the people of Mianwali live in Farm Houses too like Imran Khan?

Salaam

[platinum786]

Imran Khan can provide the receipts to evidence where he got the funds to get what he has.

No other politician has done so. The rest of the crooks cannot.


British Mps are millionares, through inheritance, through business, not through mis use of state funds.

[Magnus]

The difference between a capitalist, democratic society and an Islamic welfare state is that the former concept is based on an enterprise. As long as the enterprise has a trickle down effect, the concept works fine. The upper hierarchy may go home with sacks of cash but the lower hierarchy walks away with necessities of life in bag. The problem in Pakistan is that there is no trickle down effect. No electricity, no jobs, no education, no clean water, no good healthcare = a society where the majority is not even getting fair share of "basic human needs" is why Pakistan is neither an enterprise nor a welfare state. Hence, the new term failed state was coined. It all began with Somalia.

The rich are hated everywhere, but the ways of expression may vary


Brits ruled 3/4th of this planet at one point, cut em some slack for owning a bit of pillage booty and totty
Don`t forget both Britain and US faced far worse economic battles than Pakistan in post ww2 and 30s era respectively.





If Pakistan wants to launch this economic battle, we should be hearing news of rationing and austerity measures rather than presidential booty caught up in Swiss banks or something of that sort.

Edited by Magnus, 29 May 2012 - 05:34 AM.

[platinum786]

http://m.youtube.com...yvjh4_NYE&gl=GB

[SUPARCO]

platinum786, on 29 May 2012 - 04:53 AM, said:

Imran Khan can provide the receipts to evidence where he got the funds to get what he has.

No other politician has done so. The rest of the crooks cannot.


British Mps are millionares, through inheritance, through business, not through mis use of state funds.

Salaam,

Brother Plati, I'm not saying Imran Khan is corrupt in anyway, I just don't agree with the notion that he's the only non-corrupt person in whole of Pakistan.  Today, anyone in Pakistan with a little wealth is considered corrupt.  Now this is not right.

Over 7 million Pakistanis live abroad.  They sent home $12 billion last year.  That cannot mean all that money came from corruption.  A lot of this money is going into people's personal savings accounts for which they have every right to do so and nearly every expatriot is building spectacular mansions in Pakistan.  This does not mean they're doing corruption in Pakistan to build a kothi there.

People work very hard abroad and are amassing huge personal and family wealth in Pakistan.  All that hard earned cash is going straight into their own or family's bank accounts.  Some of these families are living their lives full of luxury.  I know people who have built gigantic mansions in Pakistan and they don't even live there.  They infact pay or employ other people to live there.

Therefore I struggle to understand why everyone is suddenly calling every rich person corrupt?  I can only think of envy.  The funny thing is, many of those who are calling others corrupt seem to be living in big mansions themselves!

Come on yaar.  Pakistani people are better than this.

Salaam

[fc1000]

It is not the millionaires that Pakistanis are against, it is how they earned their millions.

Zardari is one of the richest person in Pakistan. He can lead billionaire lifestyle, yet no one knows what his source of income is.

If he was an industrial pioneer in Pakistan employing 1000s of people I would not question his wealth.

What I have problem is our politicians can lead jet set life style that only billionaire business man can lead in the west, yet they have no discernable business to show for.

I was reading Tariq Ali's article once, where he stated that Benazir wanted to lead a billionaire life style, but she could not afford this using old "Jagirdari" income. "Jagirdari" income makes you very rich in Pakistani terms, but you wud still not be in the same league as international billionaires - for a Pakistani politician to be in this league, the only way is to become "Mr 10%".

I wud be very happy if we could have similar oversight in Pakistan as in UK when it comes politicians income. MPs in the UK were thoroughly discredited for over claming their expenses - something like this would not even register in Pakistan. Plus most politicians in UK are millionaires b4 they go into politics not after. Zardari wud still be running a cinema in Karachi had he not married Benazir.

Tony Blaire is the only example of UK politician who has become richer after leaving politics, but he is not robbing the UK treasurey, he is using his contacts earning his money through consultation work for other countries, organisations and individuals who are prepared to pay him.

Our politicians (and generals) wud consider it an insult if they had to earn their money through consultation work. Our politicians consider working for their living beneath them - they consider it their divine right to loot Pakistan. Running an honest business or earning a living through a regular job is for ordinary people - not our esteemed politicians


This what Tariq Ali writes (http://www.counterpu...d-rashid-s-war/):

"Zardari may be a willing creature of Washington, but the intense hatred for him in Pakistan is not confined to his political opponents. He is despised principally because of his venality. He has carried on from where he left off as minister of investment in his late wife’s second government. Within weeks of occupying President’s House, his minions were ringing the country’s top businessmen, demanding a share of their profits.
Take the case of Mr X, who owns one of the country’s largest banks. He got a call. Apparently the president wanted to know why his bank had sacked a PPP member soon after Benazir Bhutto’s fall in the late 1990s. X said he would find out and let them know. It emerged that the sacked clerk had been caught with his fingers literally in the till. President’s House was informed. The explanation was rejected. The banker was told that the clerk had been victimized for political reasons. The man had to be reinstated and his salary over the last 18 years paid in full together with the interest due. The PPP had also to be compensated and would expect a cheque (the sum was specified) soon. Where the president leads, his retainers follow. Many members of the cabinet and their progeny are busy milking businessmen and foreign companies.
‘If they can do it, so can we’ is a widely expressed view in Karachi, the country’s largest city. Muggings, burglaries, murders, many of them part of protection rackets linked to politicians, have made it the Naples of the East. A complete failure by the venal Pakistan elite to educate and provide a social safety net for its citizens makes it easier for religious extremists who remain a tiny minority but gain ground because of the war in neighboring Afghanistan."