Loud Thinking

Archive for May, 2014

“On a deeper level you are already complete. When you realize that, there is a playful, joyous energy behind what you do.”

— Eckhart Tolle

Excellency Mr. Ban Ki-moon,

Greetings.

Pakistan is extremely grateful for your visit, particularly for being the chief guest at our Independence Day celebrations, on 14th August 2013.

As it may be already very well in your knowledge that UN has described the 8,00,000 Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world, being tortured, displaced, faced travel and trade limitations, murders, now Rohingya Muslims face child-limitation policies as well.

Similarly, over 10 million Kashmiri Muslim population living since 1947 under Indian occupation forces, are the most persecuted MAJORITY in the world. The list of humanly unimaginable atrocities perpetrated for the last almost seven decades, is so long that its compilation will be more voluminous, than the final print edition of 2010 of 32-volume set of Encyclopaedia Britannica.

However, just to refresh the serious human rights violations committed by the Indian military, para military and other forces on the Kashmiri Muslim unarmed children, ladies and men, a very concise but an eye opening report compiled from the wikipedia is submitted as below:

“This article is about Human rights abuses in Indian-administered portion of Kashmir.

Human rights abuses

Human rights abuses in Jammu and Kashmir, a disputed territory administered by India, are an ongoing issue. The abuses range from mass killings, forced disappearances, torture, rape and sexual abuse to political repression and suppression offreedom of speech. The Indian central reserve police force, border security personnel and various militant groups have been accused and held accountable for committing severe human rights abuses against Kashmiri civilians. A WikiLeaks issue accused India of systemic human rights abuses, it stated that US diplomats possessed evidence of the apparent wide spread use of torture by Indian police and security forces.

A US state government finding reports that the Indian army in Jammu and Kashmir, has carried out extrajudicial killings of innocent civilians.

In 2010, statistics presented to the Indian government’s Cabinet Committee on Security showed that for the first time since the 1980s, the number of civilian deaths attributed to the Indian forces was higher than those attributed to terrorist actions.

Thousands of Kashmiris have reported to be killed by Indian security forces in custody, extradjudicial executions and enforced disappearances and these human right violations are said to be carried out by Indian security forces under total impunity. Civilians including women and children have been killed in “reprisal” attacks by Indian security forces and as a “collective punishment” villages and neighbourhoods have been burn down and women raped.

International NGO’s as well as the US State Department have documented human rights abuses including disappearances, torture and arbitrary executions carried out during India’s counter terrorism operations. United Nations has expressed serious concerns over large number of killings by Indian security forces.

Human Rights groups have also accused the Indian security forces of using child soldiers, although the Indian government denies this allegation. Torture, widely used by Indian security, the severity described as beyond comprehension by amnesty international has been responsible for the huge number of deaths in custody.

The Telegraph, citing a WikiLeaks report quotes the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) that Indian security forces were physically abusing detainees by beatings, electrocutions and sexual interference. These detainees weren’t Islamic insurgents or Pakistani-backed insurgents but civilians, in contrast to India’s continual allegations of Pakistani involvement. The detainees were “connected to or believed to have information about the insurgents”. According to ICRC, 681 of the 1296 detainees whom it interviewed claimed torture.

US officials have been quoted reporting “terrorism investigations and court cases tend to rely upon confessions, many of which are obtained under duress if not beatings, threats, or in some cases torture.

Amnesty International accused security forces of exploiting the Armed Forces Special Powers Act that enables them to “hold prisoners without trial”. The group argues that the law, which allows security to detain individuals for as many as two years “without presenting charges, violating prisoners’ human rights”.

Indian Army

The soldiers of the 4th Rajputana Rifles of the Indian Army on 23 February 1991 launched a search operation in a village Kunan Poshpora, in the Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir and allegedly gang raped 53 women of all ages. Human Rights organizations including Human Rights Watch have reported that the number of raped women could be as high as 100. The Indian Army is also accused of many massacres such as Bomai Killing, 2009, Gawakadal massacre,2006 Kulgam massacre, Zakoora And Tengpora Massacre, 1990, Sopore massacre. They also didn‘t spared the health care system of the valley. The major hospitals witnessed the crackdowns and army men even entered the operation theatres in search of terrorist patients.

Border Security Force

On 22 October 1993, the 13th Battalion of the Border Security Forces was accused of arbitrarily firing on a crowd and killing 37 civilians in Bijbehara. The number of reported dead and wounded vary by source. Amnesty International reported that at least 51 people died and 200 were wounded on that day.

The Indian government conducted two official enquiries and the National Human Rights Commission of India (NHRC) conducted a third. In March 1994 the government indicted the Border Security Force (BSF) for firing into the crowd “without provocation” and charged 13 BSF officers with murder. In another incident which took place at Handwara on 25 January 1990, 9 protesters where killed by the same unit.

Central Reserve Police Force

During the Amarnath land transfer controversy more than 40 unarmed protesters were killed by the personnels of Central Reserve Police Force. At least 300 were detained under Public Safety Act, including teenagers. The same practice was again repeated by the personnels of the Central Reserve Police Force, during the 2010 Kashmir Unrest, which resulted in 112 deaths, including many teenager protesters at various incidents.

Special Operations Group

The Special Operations Group was raised in 1994 for counter terrorism. A volunteer force, mainly came for promotions and cash rewards, comprising police officers and policemen from the Jammu and Kashmir Police. The group is accused of torture and custodial killings. A Senior Superintendent of this group and his deputy are among the 11 personnels, who were convicted for a fake encounter, which killed a local carpenter, and was labelled as a millitant to get the promotions and rewards.

Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958

Main article: Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958

In July 1990 Indian Armed Forces were given special powers under the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 (AFSPA) that gives protection to Indian Armed Forces personnel from being prosecuted. The law provides them a shield, when committing human rights violations and has been criticised by Human Rights Watch as being wrongly used by the forces. This law is widely condemned by human rights groups. United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay has urged India to repeal AFSPA and to investigate the disappearances in Kashmir.

“All three special laws in force in the state assist the government in shielding the perpetrators of human rights violations from prosecution, and encourage them to act with impunity. Provisions of the Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act clearly contravene international human rights standards laid down in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as members of the UN Human Rights Committee have pointed out. One Committee member felt that provisions of the act – including imunity from prosecution – were highly dangerous and encouraged violations of the right to life“.

—A clipping from a report published by the Amnesty International, 1995.

According to the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), in an area that is proclaimed as “disturbed”, an officer of the armed forces has powers to:

Fire upon or use other kinds of force even if it causes death, against the person who is acting against law or order in the disturbed area for the maintenance of public order, after giving such due warning.

Destroy any arms dump, prepared or fortified position or shelter or training camp from which armed attacks are made by the armed volunteers or armed gangs or absconders wanted for any offence.

To arrest without a warrant anyone who has committed cognizable offences or is reasonably suspected of having done so and may use force if needed for the arrest.

To enter and search any premise in order to make such arrests, or to recover any person wrongfully restrained or any arms, ammunition or explosive substances and seize it.
Stop and search any vehicle or vessel reasonably suspected to be carrying such person or weapons.

Any person arrested and taken into custody under this Act shall be made over to the officer in charge of the nearest police station with the least possible delay, together with a report of the circumstances occasioning the arrest.

Army officers have legal immunity for their actions. There can be no prosecution, suit or any other legal proceeding against anyone acting under that law. Nor is the government’s judgment on why an area is found to be disturbed subject to judicial review.
Protection of persons acting in good faith under this Act from prosecution, suit or other legal proceedings, except with the sanction of the Central Government, in exercise of the powers conferred by this Act.

Fake encounters

According to the Srinagar-based Association of Parents of Displaced Persons (APDP), a minimum of 8,000 people have disappeared since the insurgency began. In February 2003, the government of India-administered Kashmir, led by Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, told the state legislative assembly that 3,744 people were missing.

Hundreds of civilian’s including women and children have been reported to be extrajudicially executed by Indian security forces and killings concealed as fake encounters. Despite government denial, Indian security officials have reportedly confessed to human right watch of widespread occurrence of fake encounters and its encouragement for awards and promotions. According to a BBC interview with an anonymous security person, ‘fake encounter’ killings are those in which security personnel kill someone in cold blood while claiming that the casualty occurred in a gun battle. It also asserts that the security personnel are Kashmiris and “even surrendered militants”.

In 2010 three men were reported missing proceeding these missing reports 3 men claimed to be militants were killed in a staged gun battle the army also claimed they had found Pakistani currency among the dead. The major was subsequently suspended and a senior soldier transferred from his post. In 2011, a Special Police Officer and an Indian Army Jawan were charged by the Kashmir police for murder of a civilian whom the duo had killed in an encounter claiming that he was a top Lashkar-e-Taiba militant.

Disappearances

Indian security forces have been implicated in many reports for enforced disappearances of thousands of Kashmiris where the security forces deny having their information and/or custody. This is often in association with torture or extrajudicial killing. The number of men disappeared have been so many to have a new term “half-widows” for their wives who end up impoverished. Human right activists estimate the number of disappeared over eight thousand, last seen in government detention.These are believed to be dumped in thousands of mass graves across Kashmir.

Mass graves

Mass graves have been identified all over Kashmir by human right activists believed to contain bodies of thousands of Kashmiris of enforced disappearances. A state human rights commission inquiry confirmed there are thousands of bullet-ridden bodies buried in unmarked graves in Jammu and Kashmir. Of the 2730 bodies uncovered in 4 of the 14 districts, 574 bodies were identified as missing locals in contrast to the Indian governments insistence that all the graves belong to foreign militants. According to a new deposition submitted by Parvez Imroz and his field workers asserted that the total number of unmarked graves were about 6,000. The British parliament commented on the recent discovery and expressed its sadness and regret of over 6,000 unmarked graves. Christof Heyns, a special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, has warned India that “all of these draconian laws had no place in a functioning democracy and should be scrapped.”

Extrajudicial killings by security personnel

In a 1994 report, Human Rights Watch described summary executions of detainees as a “hallmark” of counter-insurgency operations by Indian security forces in Kashmir. The report further stated that such extrajudicial killings were often administered within hours of arrest, and were carried out not as aberrations but as a “matter of policy”. In a 1995 report, Amnesty International stated that hundred of civilians had been victims of such killings, which were often claimed by officers as occurring during “encounters” or “cross-fire”. A 2010 US state department report cited extrajudicial killings by security forces in areas of conflict such as Kashmir as a major human rights problem in India.

Suicide

According to a report, 17,000 people mostly women have committed suicide during the last 20 years in the Valley. According to a study by the Medecins Sans Frontieres,
“Women in Kashmir have suffered enormously since the separatist struggle became violent in 1989–90. Like the women in other conflict zones, they have been raped, tortured, maimed and killed. A few of them were even jailed for years together. Kashmiri women are among the worst sufferers of sexual violence in the world. ‘Sexual violence has been routinely perpetrated on Kashmiri women, with 11.6% of respondents saying they were victims of sexual abuse’,”

At the beginning of the insurgency there were 1200 patients in the valley‘s sole mental hospital. The hospital is now overcrowded with more than 100,000 patients.”

Mr. Secretary General, in view of the above extracts compiled by the International organisations, governments and the UNO, there is no doubt that the entire freedom loving world is witnessing a perpetual worst ever human rights violations (never witnessed by the humanity on this planet on a majority population of an specific area) by the Indian forces facilitated by the Indian government with the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), about which the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay has urged India to repeal AFSPA and to investigate the disappearances in Kashmir.
In view of the foregoing your Excellency is urgently requested to advise Indian government to immediately implement United Nations Security Council Resolution 47, adopted on April 21, 1948 and instructed the UN Commission to go to the subcontinent and help the governments of India and Pakistan restore peace and order to the region and prepare for a plebiscite to decide the fate of Kashmir.

As a first step India must withdraw over 7,00,000 forces personnel from occupied Kashmir. Remember, nowhere in the world repeat nowhere in the world so much troops are posted for just about 12.5 million population.

However, if the Indian government declines your request, the UN must come to the rescue of the most persecuted majority population of an specific area on this planet Earth; and initiate war crimes proceedings, on the pattern of Nuremberg war crimes tribunal, against all the Indian civil, military and other forces personnel, about whom all the crimes of GENOCIDE on Kashmiri people are very well documented in the archives of International Human Rights Organisations, world governments and the United Nations.

YOUR EXCELLENCY, LET NOT THE POSTERITY DOCUMENT THAT YOU SIDED WITH THE HOLOCAUST OFFENDERS OF INDIA AND FAILED TO USE YOUR INFLUENCE TO STOP GENOCIDE OF INNOCENT KIDS, WOMEN AND MEN DEMANDING THEIR LEGAL AND MORAL RIGHT OF SELF DETERMINATION.

REMEMBER KASHMIRI PEOPLE ARE NOT ASKING FOR THE MOON.

Best regards,

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad

Never underestimate the power of words!!!

Once a Professor was giving a lecture to the university students about power of positive attitude and thinking and the power of words.

One of the students raised his hand and said, “I don’t think words can change anything. They are mere words. Like if I keep saying “Good fortune, Good fortune” that isn’t going to make me feel good. Nor does saying “bad fortune, bad fortune” going to make me feel sad and depressed. They are just words and have no power whatsoever.

The Professor replied, “You Idiot, just shut up. You are such an ignorant fool that you don’t understand a thing of what is being said”

The student was shocked, his face became red with anger and he started, “How dare you call me fool You are such a……” The Professor interrupted and said, “Please calm down, I didn’t mean to hurt you please forgive me for using such words” Then the Student calmed down.

The Professor resumed, “In fact that was the answer to your question. The words I just said had a tremendous effect on you although I had no such intention to upset you. The words still played their role. While the latter words I said calmed you down. This clearly shows the POWER OF WORDS”

The Student agreed to the Professor.

Ambition is an earnest desire for achievement or distinction.

“If one advances confidently in the direction of one’s dreams, and endeavors to life the life which one has imagined, one will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862);
naturalist, author, philosopher

A must read…

An article still absolutely relevant…link:- https://www.snayyar.com/mr-pm-there-are-three-options-to-avoid-imf-loan.html#sthash.DYXmcbWr.dpbs

To Improve at Work, Examine All Aspects of Your Life

It’s not an outrageous idea: devoting less time to work can ease stress and boost productivity. It can also allow you to be more engaged with your family, community, and the things you do just for you. These four-way wins – improvements at work, at home, in your community, and in your private life – take experimentation and help. Start by diagnosing your four-way view: What’s important to you? Where do you focus most of your attention? Talk to the most important people in the different aspects of your life, and find out what you really need from each other. Use these answers to better align what really matters to you and what you do, and design an experiment to improve your performance in each of the four domains; for example, start an exercise program, carve out daily time for family, join a big community project, etc. And don’t be afraid to ask someone to help you stay on track.

Adapted by HBR from “ Reduce Stress by Pursuing Four-Way Wins” by Stew Friedman.

The real story of Pak economy…!

Another eye opening letter published by the daily “Dawn” on 2 May, 2014.

Bond market delusions
Sakib Sherani
Updated about 2 hours ago

Comment Email Print

PAKISTAN has been on a ‘successful’ borrowing binge of recent. It has raised money from the IMF, multilateral creditors, the Islamic Development Bank, a consortium of international commercial banks, and now from global bond markets.

Over and above this borrowing, amounting to some $10.5 billion in 10 months, it has also raised funds through auction of 3G and 4G spectrum licences, and received a mysterious Saudi ‘gift’. While the non-debt creating flows can be regarded as a positive development, the finance minister has somewhat bizarrely ‘congratulated’ the nation on the external debt he has managed to raise in such a short space of time.

This mindset of celebrating each new round of international borrowing is not new, of course. It goes back to Pakistan’s early days, and was last on full display at the height of Gen Musharraf’s failed economic policies. That it is alive and kicking almost 10 years later — and that too under those who roundly criticised the Musharraf-Shaukat Aziz economic ‘model’ — shows how deep-rooted and durable our misconceptions and delusions are.

The country’s recent foray into the international sovereign bond market is instructive. Pakistan raised $2bn via two Eurobonds of five and 10 years’ maturity. The bond issue was oversubscribed 14 times, leading the finance minister to issue a series of self-congratulatory statements. While doing so, unfortunately, he had no qualms about using a narrative he had rightly described, while in opposition a few short years ago, as false as well as misleading.

The setting was Pakistan’s foray into the international bond markets in 2004, its first after a hiatus of many years. I was part of a team from three global financial institutions associated with the country’s return to the international capital markets. A five-year, benchmark-sized Regulation S/144a issue was oversubscribed by several times. Flush with success, the economic team of Gen Musharraf constructed the following narrative:

• Pakistan had ‘graduated’ from the IMF due to prudent economic policies followed under then-finance minister (and PM-in-waiting) Shaukat Aziz;

• The overwhelming success of the bond issue was a vote of confidence by international investors in Pakistan’s economy;

• Bond investors would be followed in droves by all kinds of other investment into Pakistan, including FDI, because the country was now on the international ‘radar screen’;

• The bond markets would monitor and ‘regulate’ Pakistan’s economic policies — implying that its policies therefore could not be off-track or simply wrong, as they proved to be;

Fast forward 10 years to 2014. The shoe is on the other foot. Senator Ishaq Dar, now the finance minister, has begun speaking from the exact same script — no doubt carefully preserved in the archives for such a day by the mandarins at the Ministry of Finance — that he had ridiculed in 2004!

On both occasions, back in the 2004-2007 period and in the past few months, the international capital markets have been flush with liquidity, and bond as well as equity investors have been pushing the risk envelope to so-called ‘frontier markets’ for higher returns. The Institute of International Finance estimates a flow of $39bn to emerging markets in March of this year alone.

Hence, around the same time as Pakistan was issuing its bonds at a yield of 7.25pc for five years, Zambia launched its second-ever global sovereign bond of $1bn. In fact, according to the Wall Street Journal, Papua New Guinea, Bangladesh, and Bhutan were lined up for their own bond issues right after Pakistan. (Back in 2004, almost right after our bond floatation, first-time issuer Mongolia got an enthusiastic reception from bond investors similar to Pakistan.)

Even Greece, which is still not out of the woods after one of the biggest sovereign credit events in history, raised over $4.1bn at 4.95pc for five years. For international bond investors, more important factors than an emerging market’s supposed economic performance or prospects are: the need to deploy excess liquidity, and the yield offered by a sovereign, especially the pick-up over other assets. A better reflection of how much ‘extra’ yield Pakistan had to offer to attract bids for its bonds is a comparison with other recent issuers; Sri Lanka’s seven-year bond, due 2021, floated two days before Pakistan, offered a yield of 5.7pc, or 155 basis points lower.

Another lesson for policymakers is that ‘praise’ from the IMF for a borrower raising money from the international capital markets should more often than not be interpreted as ‘relief’ — the preferred creditor is more assured that the risk has been transferred to bond holders!

Tailpiece: The inane and self-serving press releases issued after each meeting of the Economic Advisory Council make the body appear like a rubber-stamping forum — forever ‘endorsing the government’s economic policies’ or ‘appreciating the finance minister’ or ‘fully supporting’ something or the other. While the level of discourse and the overall process has been generally wanting so far, the truth is that the EAC has raised important issues with the government’s economic team. Two contentious issues that have been brought up recently for discussion include the ECC’s approval of two Rental Power Projects (RPPs), and the consigning by the government to the trash can of Nadra’s list of 3.2 million affluent Pakistanis not on the tax register. More on these issues subsequently.

The writer is a former economic adviser to government, and currently heads a macroeconomic consultancy based in Islamabad.

“It is a thousand times better to have common sense without education than to have education without common sense.”

— Robert Green Ingersoll

“Once the realization is accepted that even between the closest human beings infinite distances continue, a wonderful living side by side can grow, if they succeed in loving the distance between them which makes it possible for each to see the other whole against the sky. ”

Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926);
excerpt from Letters to a Young Poet