Loud Thinking

Archive for 2013

Unfortunately, Pakistan cricket teams’ performance since the last SA tour, has gone down so low that we got defeated by the Zimbabwe’s team, not only in an ODI match, but in one Test match, as well.

Mr. Najam Sethi, the Eid-ul-Zuha is coming, any chance of granting bonus to our players for the Eid sacrifice, after all the team has come victorious in series from the Zimbabwe tour? :

An Open Letter to the President of Pakistan (written after SA tour on 27 March, 2013).

Mr. Asif Ali Zardari

Dear Sir,

As, it may well be in your knowledge, that the game of cricket, is the biggest passion of the masses of Pakistan.

Any victory of our cricket team boosts the morale of the people. At the same time defeats of our team, demoralises the entire nation.

However, since our people are very knowledgable about the game of cricket, they back our team even when it’s defeated, if the players have gone down fighting. But, in any case, tame surrender is never digested and the anger is often vented with slogans, processions and violence against the players and the PCB. People also curse the government, because, every body knows that PCB chairman is appointed only, as a favour by the President.

Mr. President, you appointed Mr. Ijaz Butt, as the chairman PCB; and the whole world knows, how much damage was caused, due to his sheer incompetence, to the name and image of the country and the game of cricket, due to his sheer incompetence.

Again, you appointed Ch. Zaka Ashraf (who is your known buddy), but the way our team has suffered and its performance has gone down from bad to worse (mainly due to highest degree of management failures at the PCB level), is not hidden from anybody.

The latest debacle in South African tour, is an eye opener.
In Test matches, we were white washed 3-0; and we also created our lowest innings score record, by being all out at 49 runs.

We won the only T20 match played in the 2 matches series, just because South Africa didn’t field their B team, but they selected their C level team, as an experiment to give a chance to their youngsters.

In the ODI series, Pakistan lost 3-2 in a very comprehensive manner.

In Pakistan, there is no dearth of talent of the young and upcoming players, but the PCB went to such an extent that it recalled Younis Khan, from the retirement and inducted him into the ODI team.

The whole tenure of Ch. Zaka Ashraf bespeaks of inertia and of not adopting the policy of investing in future. Mostly, the man management policies of the PCB has been retrogressive, which has resulted in an immense damage, to the future of cricket in Pakistan.

Mr. Iqbal Qasim, who was made chief selector, made such huge blunders like dropping Abdur Rehman, Junaid Khan and Ahmad Shahzad from the T20 World Cup team. This man Iqbal Qasim, was such a HUGE failure in his last tenure as chief selector, that he had to resign from the post, after the team lost 14 consecutive matches in a trot.

This fact can be gauged from the ground reality, that the 11 players which played Sunday’s ODI, included 6 oldies namely, Misbah, Younis Khan, Shoaib Malik, Kamran Akmal, Imran Farhat & Shahid Afridi, who are known spent cartridges and past their prime. While very talented youngster, Ahmad Shahzad was sent back to Pakistan, after the only T20 match he played in South Africa. Moreover, two more youngsters Omar Akmal and Abdur Rehman, where not given a chance to play even a single ODI, during the 5 matches series.
Besides, the cases mentioned above, there is a long list of other failures of the present chairman PCB. It looks the English language idiom “Everyone rises to their level of incompetence” exactly fits on your close buddy, whom you made the chairman PCB.

Now, the stage has come that even Ijaz Butt, is looking genius, in comparison with Ch. Zaka Ashraf.
The failures of PCB are bringing a very bad name to you and your party.

As such, it is suggested that some very competent and high calibre person of international repute and stature like Mr. Raza Rabbani, Mr. Aitzaz Ahsan, Ms Asma Jahangir, Mr. Razzaq Dawood, Mr. Mian Mansha, Syed Baber Ali, Mr. Zafar Hilali, Mr. Shamshad Ahmad or Vice Admiral (R) Mahmood Ahmad Khan may be appointed the chairman PCB, with specific task of re-vamping the structure of the domestic cricket of Pakistan, to bring it at a level, where foreign players will be attracted, to play our domestic cricket; and secondly, Pakistani cricket teams of all the three versions of the game, must attain world # 1 ranking, in a given time period.

Best regards,

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad

Rahul Gandhi’s severe chiding of Man Mohan Singh, reveals the true worth of the Indian PM, who looks more of a nincompoop stooge than a man in charge of the government.

As I have said earlier, meeting the Indian PM, will be a sheer waste of time of Mian Nawaz Sharif, who should deal directly with the Indian army chief, who is the man calling shots in India.

Civilians are used as pawns in India, by its all strong establishment, who recently came out in the open, informing the media that Indian ministers are on the payroll of the army; and that even MOD, was bugged by the Indian army.

Moreover, there is no doubt that the epicentre of all the terrorist activities, killings and destruction in Pakistan, is the Indian army’s HQ in Delhi.

Pak-Afghan border: FC IG blames embassies for trouble
By Our CorrespondentPublished: September 25, 2013

Frontier Corps IG Maj Gen Ghuyur Mehmood has said that foreign consulates near the Pak-Afghan border were creating problems for the country. He said this while addressing a peace jirga in Parachinar on Tuesday. The FC IG said that steps were being taken to establish peace in Fata including the Kurram Agency. “If we stand together for peace, we can easily defeat them and foil their plans,” he said while assuring the people that all their problems will be addressed and every effort will be made to rehabilitate those who had been displaced. Meanwhile, the political agent of the Kurram Agency, Riaz Mehmood, said that if tribal elders continued their support for restoring peace in the area, they will soon find a solution to the existing problems.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 25th, 2013.

If America has a right to bomb using drones, people in Waziristan area, thousands of miles away from Washington, then Pakistan has also the right to bombard those consulates. which are hands in glove with the insurgents, who kill on daily basis our soldiers, civilians, women and children.

Mr. Nawaz Sharif, hope you remember once our Air Force had the motto “QATAL MOOZI QABAL EEZA”

Now, I must repeat, enough is enough, our brothers, sisters and kids are are being murdered in dozens and dozens, on a daily basis.

We can not stop these attacks on churches, buses and military convoys, by just sitting idle.

If its a war, then let it be a war.

The IG FC has very clearly said these consulates are mongering mischief against Pakistan.

This war can not be won without going on an offensive.

We can no more sit like a duck and wait for the next attack from a suicide bomber or an IED supplied from across the border.

Either, the border should be completely sealed and mined, or you may issue necessary orders to our forces, to attack and annihilate the consulates established along our western borders in Afghanistan.

Or as a last resort, short of attack on consulates, all ground and air traffic to and fro from Afghanistan must be blocked, till such time Afghanistan guarantees that its territory will not be allowed to be used by any country, against Pakistan.

Mr. Nawaz Sharif, hope you know very well that Pakistan is in a state of war for the last more than a decade, its people are badly bruised and exhausted and that offence is the best defence.

Now for us its a do or die situation, thus, you must act because action is better than inaction.

“Accepting responsibility for your life means understanding that YOU are responsible for creating the life you want to live. If you don’t do it, who else will? This is a tremendously empowering realization, or at least it was for me. When I realized I was responsible for myself, I stopped making excuses and I stopped waiting for others to help me. Instead, I started changing my life. I’ll say it again: YOU can decide what you want your life to be about.”

— Ryan Murdock

Mr. Nawaz Sharif India is going to reduce the POL prices? What about you Sir? Hope you will not allow the democracy to take any more revenge from the Pakistani’s, because for the poor people now, enough is enough..!

Moily hints at reduction in petrol price soon (A TOI report).

Asked if a cut in petrol price was possible on September 30, Moily said “hope so.”
PTI | Sep 27, 2013, 03.16PM IST
NEW DELHI: Oil minister M Veerappa Moily on Friday hinted at a reduction in price of petrol in next few days, the first cut in rates in over five months.

The reduction in rates is likely to be announced by the month end as per the practice of fortnightly revision in prices, and has been made possible due to appreciation of rupee against the US dollar.

“This is all dynamic pricing system and not static pricing… any advantage of price (reduction in international rates) and rupee (appreciation against US dollar) will be passed on to consumers… consumer will get full advantage,” he said.

Asked if a cut in petrol price was possible on September 30, he said “hope so.”

“Petrol price is a deregulated commodity, price of which is decided by our oil marketing companies based on input cost and other parameters,” he said.

If state-owned oil firms cut rates at month end, it will be the first reduction in prices since May. Petrol price was last cut on May 1 by Rs 3 per litre, the steepest reduction in rates in over five years.

However, since then petrol prices have been raised or gone up by seven times, totalling Rs 10.80 per litre, excluding VAT, as rupee depreciated sharply against the rupee. The price in Delhi has surged by Rs 13.06 per litre after including state tax, since June 1.

Last increase in petrol price was effected from September 14 when prices went up by Rs 1.63 per litre. Petrol costs Rs 76.06 per litre in Delhi.

Believe is to follow a credo; have a faith; be a believer.

“Keep your dreams alive. Understand to achieve anything requires faith and belief in yourself, vision, hard work, determination, and dedication. Remember all things are possible for those who believe.”

Gail Devers (born 1966);
Three-time Olympic 100 Meter Champion

Is IMF ringing the death knell for the economy?

An alarming news article published by the daily “Pakistan Today”.

Pak caught into currency devaluation trap: PEW

ISLAMABAD – The Pakistan Economy Watch (PEW) on Thursday said that the local currency was being destroyed deliberately on the command of IMF. The negotiating team of the international lender trapped Pakistani officials during face-to-face negotiations which pushed country into a severe currency crisis. The IMF team that carefully laid this trap knew that Pakistanis were highly unlikely to walk out of the talks even if the vital national interests were to be compromised, said Dr Murtaza Mughal, President of the PEW. Rupee has shed over nine per cent value against major currencies, especially USD since PML-N formed government which speaks of the competence of their economic managers, he said. Dr Murtaza Mughal said the situation had dented the confidence of masses and business community while it was hurting the popularity of the party which claimed to be promoting pro-business policies. He said the situation had not only exposed the claims of SBP governor and the finance minister but it had been pushing up cost of living and cost of production which was leaving masses in a lurch and ensuring retreat of locally manufactured products from the international markets. The situation will hurt forex reserves, augment loans, trigger unemployment and deteriorate law and order situation which will push millions of unemployed to indulge in terrorism, crimes or suicides. The failure of economic managers and the SBP will also hit remittances and give a new life to the illegal business of hawala and hundi, he observed. Dr Murtaza Mughal said that Pakistan imported fossil fuel and edible oil worth 18 billion dollars which will be enough to make life of dejected masses more miserable. In a situation when economy was leading on path of destruction, the SBP governor and the finance ministers were enjoying foreign trips while finance ministry officials had embarked upon an unending round of useless meetings, he noted. He said the IMF released only 540 million dollars as first tranche pushing our managers to take 625 million dollar loan from commercial banks which worsened the situation. On the other hand, the IMF is so happy with their success that they are not leaving any opportunity to praise the ‘reforms’ of incumbent government, he added.

Help Your Company Cut Back on Email

You can’t control how many emails you receive, but you can control how many you send. In a recent study, one firm’s workers followed suit when their executives reduced overall email output. You can spark a similar reduction and improve efficiency across your organization by doing the following:
Choose the right medium. Consider whether your communication merits a phone call or in-person meeting, where vocal tone and body language provide real-time feedback on how clearly a message is being understood.
Be deliberate. Don’t forward messages unless strictly necessary, and limit the number of recipients on each outgoing note.
Make it real. Set a target for reducing the number of messages you send. Include it in your performance goals to keep yourself honest.

Adapted by HBR from “To Reduce E-mail, Start at the Top,” by Chris Brown, Andrew Killick, and Karen Renaud.