Dhaka, Sept. 20 -- Inequality has always been a feature of Bangladesh society, right from pre-independence days. In 1968, Dr Mahbub ul Haq, the then Chief Economist of the Planning Commission of Pakistan, identified 22 Pakistani families who controlled 66 percent of the industrial assets and 87 percent of the banking. Dr Haq, who is famed for having pioneered the concept of human development, argued that these 22 families, who were all West Pakistani, had become both the Planning Commission and the Finance Ministry for the private sector.

These '22 families' became a byword for the disparity that adversely affected the vast majority of the population in both wings of Pakistan, although undoubtedly things were worse in the east. In East P...