THE winding up of the budget debate by Finance Minister Hafeez Shaikh saw him raging against the privileged class, hoping to recast himself in a populist mode. He came out strongly critical of the lavish lifestyle of the rulers declaring that ministers using six cars should be ashamed of themselves. That is correct, but why six cars? What about the other lavish perks all Ministers and advisers abuse incessantly? And what about Dr Shaikh who ensconced himself in the most expensive five-star hotel in Islamabad with family for an indefinite period? Nor is it just a matter of forcing the guilty to feel ashamed, which clearly none of them do. They need to be dealt with in a systematic fashion which sees an end to these perks and privileges and here the Finance Minister is certainly not without power. As for Dr Shaikhs claim that the economy cannot be destroyed for the sake of a few people, that is also correct but his budget does nothing to rectify this situation. In fact, Dr Shaikh is in the forefront of destroying the economy himself, not to mention the poor of the land, by reiterating his commitment to IMF demands, including the hiking of the power tariff from April 1, 2010. Now, in all honesty, is this not destroying the fabric of our society for the sake of the IMF? We are well aware of the close links between Dr Shaikh and his economic managers and the IMF and World Bank, but must the whole country pay the price for these connections which brought Dr Shaikh back to the Finance Ministry? To try to show that it is the rich who are trying to sabotage VAT when he knows perfectly well that the burden of indirect taxation like VAT always falls more heavily on the poor than the rich, is to try and use a populist argument for an extremely discriminatory and anti-people tax. The fact of the matter is that while Dr Hafeez Shaikhs calling a spade a spade in terms of the few privileged rulers and their lavish spending at state expense needs to be commended - especially given how he specifically chose to target government Ministers - if he sincerely concedes that this is what he truly believes, then as Finance Minister he can help bring about changes in the system by ending the economic perks and privileges for the elite. As for him simply shelving this problem of excessive perks and privileges by asking the Ministers to be ashamed of themselves, that serves little purpose beyond an honest recognition of the problem his own cabinet colleagues pose. If as much time was devoted by Dr Shaikh for improving the lot of the people and saving the exchequer massive amounts of wasted resources on the ruling class, as he is spending in fulfilling IMF diktat, our country will certainly be better off for the long run.