Loud Thinking

Archive for December, 2016

We the peace loving Pakistanis wish the entire humanity a very peaceful, prosperous and joyous Happy New Year 2017.
We wish the UNO and the world leadership will ensure that no torture is inflicted upon humanity in any part of the world by either the war mongering people/groups; and by no government perpetuate terror, as a state policy; and no humans are subjected to genocide/state terrorism in any part of the world by any means of burning homes, use pallet guns or long uninterrupted curfew.
We also request the Indian government to not to stage any false flag drama on New Year, like it did previously by the burning of a boat in the sea by the Indian Coast Guards (as admitted by the DG ICG who was dismissed later on), just to put blame on Pakistan or like the massacre of Sikhs in Kashmir on the eve of arrival of US President Bill Clinton.
Let us make a new peaceful start and let bygones be bygones.

I think there is no issue at all of democracy or dictatorship, yes no issue, if there is a GENUINE rule of law, which instils fear of law in the hearts and minds of everyone, from top to the bottom.
In this regard, we don’t need to give examples of very old cases.
Just remember that when Quaid-e-Azam was sick and resting in Ziarat, he was very impressed with the caring and nursing of a nurse. So, he asked can he do anything for her. The nurse requested for her transfer to her native place in Punjab, upon which father and founder of the nation told her that this decision, was not in his powers.
Rule of law should be implemented to the core of every matter, irrespective of the status of the person, as enshrined in Islam, as well.
So, I will advise all the intellectuals not to waste their time on the pros and cons of the democracy or the dictatorship, but think on the subject how to devise laws for even more stringent punishments for the poor, on the minutest of the crimes; and how to even MORE protect the rich with amnesties and plea bargains, for the future growth and development of Pakistan, which now means land for rich and the powerful.
Long live the rich and powerful in Pakistan.
Don’t forget that in this democracy, about 30 kids have died in Thar-Parker during the current month of December 2016; and not a soul has moved in the government circles, because the death of kids in these months, are a NORMAL.
We should stop thinking that democracy or dictatorship is only good, till such time it pays for the rich and powerful to get their treatment abroad.
Enough is enough for teeming millions of Pakistan.
No political party including the PTI succeeded in changing the destiny of the poorest of the poor in their respective provinces.
Yes, the federal government has succeeded in substantially reducing the number of poor persons in Pakistan by changing the formula of calculating the poverty status from $2 per day income (which showed that the number of poor in Pakistan were about 12 crore) to $1 per day income. And thus, very callously announcing their success that now in Pakistan, there were only about 5 crore poor living in this land of rich and powerful.
Great achievement, any way.
Our poor don’t know democracy is better than dictatorship or not, but for sure, they know that DEMOCRACY IS THE BEST REVENGE.

Respected Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif Sahab.

Prime Minister of Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

Patron-in-Chief of the Pakistan Cricket Board.

Dear Sir,

This email is in continuation of my earlier email dated 26, December 2016, after certain new and important additions.

You are requested to kindly issue necessary orders to the Ministry of Inter Provincial Cooperation, Government of Pakistan, Islamabad to look into the following very important questions concerning the PCB and to submit you a report within three days, for your perusal, before the next PCB BOG meeting planned to be held on 30 December, 2016 in Karachi.
As per the PSL’s website statement ( http://psl-t20.com/faqs-pakistan-super-league-pvt-ltd/ )
PCB’s external audit for the year 2015-16 is already complete in which year PSL was a major event and the audited financial statements are expected to be presented to the Audit Committee and to the BOG of PCB in December 2016.

In this regard, certain extremely important following issues are brought to your notice for critical examination and analysis by the experts of the government.

Certain details about PSL were made public by a PCB’s statement as below:

LAHORE – May 20, 2016: While publishing PCB/PSL Council’s clarification today (May 20, 2016), Dawn’s Lahore Sports Reporter has again misrepresented the facts viz ‘No joyriders entertained at PSL, clarifies PCB.’

“The correct position was explained by PSL chairman Najam Sethi two weeks ago but seems to have escaped notice.

“The estimated cost of the PSL was not jacked up from USD 60 million to over USD 90 million – reducing PSL’s profits to just USD 2.6million– as alleged by your reporter. In actual fact, the budgeted Operating costs were $4.17m while the actual Operating expenditure was $4.22m, showing a very small addition of only $50,000. The total budgeted expenditure was $7.71 while the actual was $8.93m largely on account of higher venue hiring fees of Dubai and Sharjah stadiums and sanction fee of Emirates Cricket Board.”

“On the other hand, the budgeted profit was $310,000 but the actual profit turned out to be $2.6m— eight times higher than projected.

“As far as the number of journalists sent over to the UAE to report on PSL, this too is far lower than the randomly reported 70 by you. The fact is that only 46 journalists from across print, electronic and digital media were sponsored. The rationale and objective was purely professional, as in PSL Council’s assessment obtaining optimal projection for the event was likely to accrue higher yields from marketing/merchandising in the subsequent seasons, thus not only offsetting the cost on this account but gaining handsome dividend. The strategy of positive image-building of the event has been deemed as successful by independent feedback.”
As per the PSL’s website (link:-http://psl-t20.com/faqs-pakistan-super-league-pvt-ltd/ ) certain financial disclosures are made as below:

“PCB invested very little as seed money (amount needs to be disclosed) in the project while the Franchisees invested $9.3m in the form of franchise fee to PCB. Upon conclusion of all PSL accounts, PCB earned $2.6m profit before tax, while the Franchisees, as expected, showed losses on their initial investment. Being cognizant of this fact, PCB reimbursed them to the tune of $2.2m out of its own profits in order to reduce their losses as pledged during marketing presentations before the process of sale of franchise rights. But the franchisees benefited from a significant rise in the value of their assets, called capital gain, by over 100% and they were able to cash in on this dimension by getting major brand name sponsors and media houses on board.”

The first question which arises from the above official PCB figures is that:

1. Why there is no mention of income from sponsorship earnings and from broadcasting deal?

2. Chairman PSL categorically declared during a TV interview of 10 December, 2016 on Express News channel that PCB will get $0.6 million out of $2.6 million earnings. Now this statement of chairman PSL is different from the 20th May, 2016 press release which stated that PCB will get $0.4 million out of the total earnings of $2.6 from the PSL-1. Why this contradiction in two statements? Moreover, it is also reported that since PCB committed to offset a minimum of 75% loss of the Franchises during the PSL-1, a whopping amount of $6.5 million was paid to the Franchises. This expenditure of $6.5 million is in fact, 72.78% of the total $8.93 million expenditure of the PSL-1. Again in the same TV program referred above, the chairman PSL told that in the next PSL-2 since no amount will be paid to the Franchises to compensate their losses, PCB will get a profit amount of $3 million. This information raises the question that instead of the entire minimum savings of $6.5 million which was paid to the Franchises in PSL-1, still PCB will get a lesser amount of profit worth $3.5 million, if we assume that other expenses will be more or less the same, as were in PSL-1. In other words, we can say that from the PSL-2, PCB will be getting $3 million profit and a plan has already been made to jack up the expenditures approximately by $3.5 million.

3. (a). As officially informed by the PCB vide press release dated 20 May, 2016 total expenditure of PSL-1 was $8.93 million and income from Franchises was $9.3 million. These figures depict a surplus or profit of $0.37 million to PCB. Now the question which needs clarification is which of the three profit figures of PCB ($0.6m, or $0.4m or $0.37m) are correct, how the total profit has been worked out and how much the income from other sources like broadcasting rights, sponsorships, gate money etc., was added in the total income?

3. (b). The below mentioned figure of $2.2 million stated on the website needs clarification because the amount paid to the Franchises for compensation of their losses is many times higher than this figure of $2.2million?
“PCB earned $2.6m profit before tax, while the Franchisees, as expected, showed losses on their initial investment. Being cognisant of this fact, PCB reimbursed them to the tune of $2.2m out of its own profits in order to reduce their losses as pledged during marketing presentations before the process of sale of franchise rights.

4. (a). Moreover, the above statement that “Being cognisant of this fact, PCB reimbursed them to the tune of $2.2m out of its own profits in order to reduce their losses as pledged during marketing presentations before the process of sale of franchise rights.”
raises serious doubts that there was no written agreement of the PCB with the Franchisees detailing requirements of their itemised verifiable (by the PCB’s internal and external auditors) budgeted expenditures, duly approved in advance, by the PCB’s Audit Committee and documentary justifications (acceptable to the Audit Committee of the PCB), for the excess expenditures, which entitled them for compensation from the PCB; thus rendering the payment of $2.2 million (actually many time over) by the PCB to the Franchisees, as ultra vires.

4. (b). Under the circumstances of the above statement of the PCB that “the franchisees benefited from a significant rise in the value of their assets, called capital gain, by over 100% and they were able to cash in on this dimension by getting major brand name sponsors and media houses on board.”
the question arises why and under which circumstances, who gave this commitment to the Franchisees to compensate their loses; and why and who allowed this ultra vires payment of $2.2 million (actually many times over) to the Franchisees?

5. It should also be deeply and throughly audited that why the total budgeted expenditure of $7.71 million exceeded by $1.22 million; and the actual expenditure was $8.93 million? In this regard, the itemised documents, bills and invoices of the entire expenditure of $8.93 millions must be got checked and re-verified by the office of the Auditor General of Pakistan, as the PCB is a statutory body of the government of Pakistan.

6. Keeping in view that PCB is neither a private club nor a private entity, but a statutory body of the government of Pakistan; and as per the requirements of the cannons of the accountability, transparency and the best corporate practises the names and amounts spent on the 46 media persons (as already admitted by the PCB vide its statement dated 20 May, 2016 quoted above) must be declared and published for the information of the general public.

7. (a). The fact that first PSL’s draft was held in Pakistan and the second PSL’s draft was held in Dubai needs investigation that who gave this approval for holding the players draft in Dubai and how much extra expenditure was incurred in holding draft outside Pakistan and was this expenditure approved in the budget?

7. (b). The fact that an exorbitant amount of about Rs.4 crore was spent on a dinner held in the year 2015, at Expo Centre Lahore in connection with launch of PSL, needs special itemised audit, to rule out any misgivings of the public that there are lavish and extravagant spendings in the PCB.

7. (c). Kind attention is also invited towards the following Wikipedia statement mentioning about a company named Tech Front, a United Arab Emirati group. The Government Auditors and the PCB Audit Committee may be advised to confirm from original documents, the real ownership of Tech Front, to rule out any chance of direct or indirect conflict of interest.

Quote.

“Sunset + Vine were awarded rights as official broadcasters for the first four seasons of the league. Ten Sports, PTV Sports and Geo Super were awarded broadcast rights in Pakistan for the first three seasons. The value of the broadcasting deal was $15 million, with the PCB selling the global television rights to Tech Front, a United Arab Emirati group, for the same duration.[29] In the first season matches were streamed live on YouTube in Pakistan, on the PSL official site and via the PSL app.[30] Viewers worldwide, excluding Pakistan and the Middle East, could live stream matches on cricketgateway.[31][32]”

Unquote.

8. Since, the PCB is a statutory body of the government of Pakistan, which has specific rules for certain payments on additional or dual jobs, who and why allowed exorbitantly high salaries to those PCB employees, doing the work of PSL, as well? This double salary payments should be recovered, either from the employees who got these illegal payments or jointly from the authorities who sanctioned these illegal payments.

9. (a) On which legal and moral grounds some employees of the PCB have been allowed to continue jobs without providing their educational qualification testimonials/degrees, on the basis of which they originally got their jobs in the PCB, which is not a private club or company, but a statutory body of the government of Pakistan?

9. (b). Why such employees who defrauded the PCB in getting employment on wrong and false grounds, have not been dismissed from service with the orders to refund the entire expenditure incurred on them by the PCB?

9. (c). At a time when it has been reported that FIA and NAB are investigating in PCB, besides other matters, unauthorised appointments, as well; and as per the orders of the IHC, many people were removed from their PCB jobs, now it has again been reported that approval from PCB BOG may be sought for appointment of Media/Marketing manager (on six figure salary), when already these departments are staffed with more than sufficient number of employees.

9. (d). In view of the FIA/NAB enquiries into the previous irregularities of the PCB, now a time has come to cancel all such extravagant previous approvals, wherein, employees have been allowed to purchase vehicles, having engine capacity, much more than allowed, as per service rules of the PCB.

10. In the name of best corporate practises, transparency and accountability the PCB should follow the rule without any discrimination that if any employee was under inquiry/investigation of the FIA or the NAB, on some criminal/financial charges, he should be kept under suspension, till he/she is cleared by the investigating agency.

11. Similarly, to avoid any complaints of conflict of interests, nepotism and favouritism or in the cases of reports of pushing or using direct or indirect influence for selection of relatives or friends in the national teams, such persons must be dismissed from the PCB in line with the best corporate practises, for which an ombudsman should be immediately appointed for the PCB, as already appointed in the BCCI, after the orders of the Indian Supreme Court, to purge it from corruption, match fixings and other irregularities, which defames the organization.

Best Regards,

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad

 

Respected Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif Sahab, Prime Minister of Pakistan and Patron-in-Chief of the PCB.

اسلام و علیکم

Sir,

Certain new developments demands that the matter of formation of Pakistan Super League Pvt Ltd. (PSLPL), as a separate company from the PCB, be immediately brought to your kind notice.

Recently, PCB has officially stated the following three reasons for the formation of PSLPL on its website, as per link given below:(Link..http://www.pcb.com.pk/faqs-pakistan-super-league-pvt-ltd.html )

Reason # 1.
There are some serious financial and managerial issues at stake that require subsequent handling by a separate company as many such issues become complex with the addition of more teams in the near future.

First, most PCB earnings come from foreign sources, while most PCB expenses are incurred domestically. Therefore financial handling is very easy like any other Pakistani exporter. But it is the opposite with PSL in which case, most of PSL income comes from domestic sources while almost entire expenses are incurred outside Pakistan. This requires complex foreign exchange reserves and permissions from State Bank of Pakistan for forex payments to foreign venues, event managers, foreign players, boarding and lodging for teams and officials, etc. The facilities currently allowed to PCB for such foreign payments are simply inadequate to cater for the timely and significant transfers of monies required by PSL which are bound to increase with the addition of new teams, players and longer duration of the tournament in 2018 and subsequent years. A separate company with separate financial permissions from the Ministry of Finance and State Bank of Pakistan will be better geared to cope with this problem.

Rebuttal of Reason # 1.

a).

The PCB already operates about four accounts in Dubai as it is earning foreign exchange as income, from ICC and other matches abroad. Therefore, it has deposits there,

PCB is also paying for expenditures in the UAE, in connection with hosting of our matches.

As the PSL is being held abroad there is ABSOLUTELY no issue for the PCB to make payments from its bank accounts.

As such, no government red tape or other rules are any hindrance, in payments of foreign exchange or PKR, abroad or in Pakistan, respectively.

The PCB doesn’t need special permission from government to make payments as PCB already have several foreign exchange accounts in Pakistan, as well.

In view of the foregoing, there is no justification to make PSL a separate company from PCB, on such concocted or imaginary excuses.

b).

State Bank of Pakistan is a govt organisation and provides forex for all genuine requirements. Saying that procedures are difficult to comply is like criticising govt of Pakistan and its rules.

If PCB and PSL earnings and spendings pattern are inverse to each other, that should act as a blessings: as combining both, solves the problem.

Why a separate company is needed to obtain a special financial permission?

Finance ministry is always authorised to issue SRO allowing PCB to make payments in dollars to all foreign based players and organisations. All Pakistan based organisations, players and officials should be paid in local currency. This may be one of the reason why the proposal for new organisation is being fast forwarded, so that to get payments in foreign currency, resultantly getting savings on income tax.

If PSL is made a division of PSB, then a simple SRO from finance ministry will solve all their problems.

Remember, in corporate sector it is common practice to produce for local market and for exports. They keep separate details of accounts to avail export concessions, still annual accounts are prepared as one company.

Since, PCB always claims to bring corporate culture in it , why not start with this corporate practice.

Reason # 2.

Secondly, the understanding with Franchisees envisages the inclusion of independent professional managerial and financial expertise for purposes of transparency and neutrality in which meaningful and continuous consultancy with franchisees, who have invested millions of dollars into PSL, is made institutional. There is a need for a dedicated team to supervise this dynamic process and purpose.

Reason # 3.

Thirdly, the PCB is subject to political hiccups since it is a statutory body with the Prime Minister of the political party in power as the Patron. The PSL, on the contrary, cannot afford to be subjected to political instability because the investment in it is primarily from the private sector. The PSL financial model is a 10 year model, with negative results for the franchisees in the first few years and huge profits in subsequent years. It needs continuity of policies and management to be successful as additional teams are fielded and more investments are made by new franchisees.

Rebuttal of Reasons 2.

This point is a charge sheet of PCB. It says that a separate organisation is required for the reasons of transparency, neutrality, professionalism and ability to provide consultancy to franchise owners. This is straight forward acceptance that these traits are absent from PCB!!!!!

If we accept this point of view, then the decision of PCB to establish a separate private company for PSL was also non- transparent, biased and non- professional. Therefore, must be nullified by PM’s intervention immediately.

Rebuttal of Reason # 3.

This flimsy argument is not only self-contradictory, but hilarious and ridiculous, as well.

To whom this official statement on the PCB’s website is trying to deceive?

Everywhere, it is being propagated by the top notches of the PCB, in the media and also on the PCB’s website that this PSLPL will be 100% owned by the PCB.

At the same time PCB officially states on its website that “the PCB is subject to political hiccups since it is a statutory body with the Prime Minister of the political party in power as the Patron.”

Now, if the PSLPL will be 100% owned by the PCB, what difference it will make on the control of the government, when the PM of political party in power, will be naturally, the Paton-in-chief.

Furthermore, the above official statement of the PCB, that too on its website, is firstly, not only a clear NO CONFIDENCE on the PM of political party in power, who obviously can not be illegal ruler or dictator of the country; and comes into power with constitutional and legal authority: and secondly, an insult of the authority of the PM of political party in power. Moreover it is also a blatant condemnation/indictment of the political system, enshrined in the country’s constitution; and it is for the Attorney General of Pakistan and legal brains of the country, to determine, whether the top management of the PCB (a statutory body) is guilty of violation of any constitutional clause or/ and rules and regulations of the ESTACODE.

In view of the foregoing, there is now not even an iota of a doubt that the current top management of the PCB is rushing to create PSLPL, out of the PCB, for some hidden and undisclosed reasons, by putting up arguments on official website which absolute does not hold water.

Moreover, general public is being deliberately mislead with statements on media (TV interview dated 10, December 2016 at Express News TV link:- https://t.co/qYBHDk3IwD?ssr=true ) where Mr. Najam Sethi, who holds unprecedented five key positions in the PCB set up (1. Member BOG. 2. Chairman Executive Committee. 3. Chairman PSL 4. Chairman HR Committee. 5. Member Audit Committee) said that out of the PKR 26 crore profit from the 1st PSL, PCB was given profit of PKR 6 crore, instead of PKR 3 crore, due amount.

However, the official statement on the PCB’s website states absolutely a different figure quoted below:

Quote.
“Upon conclusion of all PSL accounts, PCB earned $2.6m profit before tax, while the Franchisees, as expected, showed losses on their initial investment. Being cognizant of this fact, PCB reimbursed them to the tune of $2.2m out of its own profits in order to reduce their losses as pledged during marketing presentations before the process of sale of franchise rights.”
Unquote.

Here, it will not be out of place to mention that PCB in its May 20, 2016 press release (also posted on the PCB’s website) admitted that the total budgeted expenditure of the 1st PSL was $7.71m while the ACTUAL expenditure was $8.93m, which was an excess of $1.22m, which is a very huge difference, requiring audit from the office of the Auditor General Pakistan, rather than leaving the matter to some other auditors.

Another deliberate wrong statement (just to impress the ordinary public) mentioned at PCB’s website is quoted as below:

Quote:
“Over and above this, the PCB’s BoG has set up an Audit Committee headed by Mansoor Masood Khan, President of UBL, to oversee all budgetary issues.”
Unquote.

However, the President of the UBL is Mr. Wajahat Husain since 1 June, 2014 and NOT Mr. Mansoor Masood Khan.

The above contradictions in PCB statements on media are not mistakes, but to deceive, hoodwink and mislead deliberately to hide failures, incompetencies and exorbitant expenditures like spending about PKR 4 crore on a single dinner in Lahore.

It will not be out of place to mention that recently Serena Hotel Quetta, charged PKR 19.25 lacs for food items; and PKR 15 lacs as catering charges for a 400 persons VVIP function, during a visit of the PM to Pishin.

Sir, now just observe the vast difference of charges of a PCB function in the same city i.e. Lahore and out of Quetta function in Pishin.

The question which arises in this regard is that what was the Audit Committee of PCB (headed by the so called president of the UBL) was doing along with the most reputed private auditors. Here it will again be not out of place to mention that according to reports, PCB had earlier employed a GM (F&A), Manager (F) and Manager (A) who previously worked with the firm, which audits PCB accounts.

In this regard, no august member of Board of Governors, no audit committee or no independent auditors, ever questioned the PCB that why the media rights for period 2015-2020 were sold for less amount than the auction amount income of media rights of previous five years.

Now, it is high time that the Patron-in-Chief of the PCB, the Ministry of Inter Provincial Coordination and the Governing Members of the PCB ask the top notch management team, which is at the helm of affairs of PCB’s entire operations to explain, where was the money ($150m will come in 8 years from 2014 which comes to $18.75m per year) which was promised by Mr. Najam Sethi, that it will be coming from the ICC, after (according to Mr. Najam Sethi) Pakistan was made the Big4 of the ICC, as per his following statement published by the daily Express Tribune dated 30 June, 2014, extract quoted below and also link provided below:

Quote.
“That, Sethi claimed, will get Pakistan the most funds after the Big Three.

“We will get revenues on fourth number, and I can say with confidence that in the next eight year cycle we will get $150 million dollars from the ICC,” he said, bringing the total takings to $450 million.

This compares to Pakistan receiving $10 million from the ICC per year in the last seven-year (total $70m) cycle, Sethi added.”
Unquote.

Link:- http://tribune.com.pk/story/729174/big-four-pakistan-to-earn-450-million-in-cricket-cycle/

Sir, the above lengthy details of the utter and absolute management failures of the PCB’s heavy weights, proves that if all of them are allowed to continue with the PCB, they will surely ruin this national organisation, sooner than later, with ideas like formation of PSLPL etc.

As such, it is high time that the PCB is put on the right path, with an immediate surgical operation of replacing the entire set up with people, who love the glorious game of cricket genuinely, are efficient, dedicated and thorough professional and ready to work in harmony; and utilise the experience and wisdom of the senior cricketers, to make the PCB and the domestic cricket structure of Pakistan, best in the world.

Best Regards,

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad

Respected Prime Minister of Pakistan,

Respected all leaders of the political parties in Pakistan,

Respected all Pakistanis,

AoA.

Sir,

The following email message from the VP USA, reveals how much importance the US government is attaching to combat the heroin and prescription opioid epidemic ripping apart families and communities in America.

Email of VP USA Joe Biden, reproduced below, as an eye opener:

From: “Vice President Joe Biden”
Date: 13 December 2016 at 9:37:24 PM GMT+5
To: <nayyar51@hotmail.com>
Subject: God willing, this bill will save lives:
The White House, Washington
Last Monday night, forty-four years after the people of Delaware first sent me to the United States Senate, I presided over a Senate vote for one of the last times.

As Vice President of the United States and president of the Senate, I served as the presiding officer as the Senate moved forward on the 21st Century Cures Act, a bill that will harness America’s best minds in science, medicine, and technology to tackle the biggest health challenges of our time.

This bill will help us combat the heroin and prescription opioid epidemic ripping apart families and communities. It invests in programs to improve mental health treatment and suicide prevention. It will provide resources for President Obama’s BRAIN and Precision Medicine initiatives, so that our world-class researchers can figure out how to better prevent, treat, and eventually cure Alzheimer’s, epilepsy, and traumatic brain injuries.

And this is the part that’s personal for me and for millions of Americans: The 21st Century Cures Act invests $1.8 billion to help us end cancer as we know it. For over a year, I’ve been leading our National Cancer Moonshot to fundamentally change the culture of our fight against cancer and inject a sense of urgency into it. This bill goes a long way to help us — investing in promising new therapies, enhancing prevention and detection efforts in every community regardless of zip code, and bringing us closer to the day when there are vaccines for all kinds of cancer, just as we have them for measles or mumps.

God willing, this bill will save lives.

While I was presiding in the Senate, my colleagues from both sides of the aisle renamed the section of this bill on cancer research for my son, Beau, who lost his battle with brain cancer, but like countless Americans who lost their own battles, inspires us to do everything we can for the loved ones we can save. My thanks goes out to the bipartisan leadership — Democrats and Republicans in the House and the Senate — who ensured that this important bill became law. Without this true bipartisan support, this piece of legislation, which will help millions of Americans, would not have been possible.

Today, President Obama will sign the 21st Century Cures Act into law. One last time in our Administration, I will stand right by him at a signing ceremony — proud of our country, and proud of the work we’ve done to give people hope.

I hope you’ll join me.

Thanks,

Joe
We wish our federal and provincial governments in Pakistan were also aware about the drug related damage, being caused by this menace which is more damaging than terrorism, to our future generations.

In this regard, the recent deaths of a student of LUMS in Lahore and a lady in the Chamba House Lahore, reportedly due to the drugs overuse, is just the tip of the iceberg.

If anyone wants to know the stark reality of the gravity of drug menace in Pakistan, the following two paragraphs of an article’s link given below, will suffice as an eye opener:

Quote:
“Pakistan, a country already tormented by regional insurgencies, is fighting a losing battle against a different kind of foe: drug addiction. In the country’s northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), an estimated 11 percent of residents use illicit substances – primarily heroin. Peshwar, the provincial capital of KPK, is a city rife with homeless addicts and dirty needles.”

“Pakistan’s illegal drug trade is believed to generate $2 billion a year [making] Pakistan the most heroin-addicted country, per capita, in the world.” Unquote.

Link:- http://thediplomat.com/2014/03/pakistan-the-most-heroin-addicted-country-in-the-world/

In this connection, it is earnestly and urgently requested that the Prime Minister of Pakistan and all opposition parties, particularly having representation in the parliament (because they are ruling in all the four provinces of the country), to accord top priority to protect our future generations, from the most deadly menace of increasing drugs use trend, in our kids and youth on streets and educational institutions, by joining hands in planning and execution of legislation and action plans, on war like emergency basis.

In this regard, we should not only concentrate to fight the drug menace from just one angle, but our plan should be multi pronged, encompassing every conceivable activity in society, to provide healthy atmosphere to our youth.

First of all we must include the dangers of drugs use in the curriculum of the junior classes to educate and brain wash our youth in their early ages.

Sports is another activity in which, fortunately, our youth loves to indulge in.

Revival of sports in country will also provide jobs to many jobless youth in our country.

In this regard, a presentation on how to revive sports in Pakistan was given to the PMO on 6 September, 2016 wherein, it was also suggested to build few modern sports cities (as a part of CPEC program) to channelise the energy of our youth from drugs, crime and terrorism towards healthy sports activities, along with automatic provision of jobs, from the newly created sports industry.

Somehow, it seems that like all previous governments, this PMLN government does not even consider sports, as one of its last priorities.

If anyone wants to know the importance of sports in transforming a society, kindly peruse the following statement of late Nelson Mandela, slightly modified to be applicable on current Pakistani state of affairs of the society.

Quote:
“Sports has the power to change Pakistan…it has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite Pakistani people in a way that little else does. It speaks to the Pakistani youth in a language they understand. Sports can create hope for the entire Pakistani nation, where once there was only despair, lawlessness, hunger, unemployment, poverty, drugs, suicide bombings and alarming increase of suicides due to the economic hardships. It is more powerful than government in breaking down the menace of drugs and terrorism which has blown the country to the smithereens.”
Unquote.

Best Regards,

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad

An advice/plan previously given on 26 June 2016 to PMLN’s government titled “How to improve economy with sports?” which fell on deaf ears of those who were never bothered about the welfare of the teeming millions of Pakistan.

 

How to improve national economy and reduce expenses on health budget with investment in sports..!

Respected Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif Sahab,

اسلام و علیکم

Sir,

The subject mentioned article is submitted for your personal kind perusal and is based on an old maxim quoted as below:

“The battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton”.
(i) The British were given to believe the real reason which tipped the balance in their favour in wars was the superior character of its young men built in boarding schools while playing games like cricket.

(ii) Eton was one of the famous English boarding schools that trained English boys for careers in the military, civil service and the church. (DAANISH Schools of the Punjab Government are a great example of a visionary project to turn around the fortunes of the future generations of Pakistan).

(iii) Famous public schools saw team sports like cricket not just as outdoor play, but as an organised way of teaching English boys, the discipline, the importance of hierarchy, the skills, the codes of honour and the leadership qualities that helped them build and run the British Empire.

(iv) Through the game of cricket-the ideal that cricket was played not for victory or profit but for its own sake, in the spirit of fair play, the British imperialists sought to justify their conquests and glorify the self image of English elite as “unselfish acts”.

(v) Though it suited the English ruling class to believe that it was the superior character of its young men built on playing fields that tipped the balance, the Napoleanic wars were won due to the economic resources of England. It was progress in trade and industry which made England, the world’s greatest power.

As such, a humble effort is made with the subject mentioned article reproduced below, to raise this nation’s full economic potential in trade and industry, through a physically super-fit Pakistani population, which must collectively believe in the saying “healthy body healthy mind’.

Last but not the least, we have to consider the 200 million population of Pakistan, as a huge manpower asset of this planet, which needs to channelise its positive energy into specific future goals, set by the nation’s visionary leadership. The national leadership must also determine, how to achieve these goals.

ARTICLE.

It is no secret that how politics coupled with corruption, has spoiled the sports in the country, which has earned the DUBIOUS distinction of the worlds BIGGEST nation, NOT to have earned a single medal in the Olympics, since the year 1994. While, much smaller and poorer countries like Ethiopia, Afghanistan and Kenya, have proved that winning medals at international level is just a matter of commitment, dedication and simple hard work, sans politics.

In the past, luckily our cricket, hockey, squash and some other sporting teams and players have been bringing laurels for Pakistan; with very little money, extremely small size governing boards and minimal politics.

Gradually, the foundations of key sports in Pakistan were eaten up by the greed of money, rampant corruption, nepotism, politics and incompetencies of the successive governments, sports managers and the players combined.

If, we have to put the sports in Pakistan back on the right track, two basic things are necessary.

Firstly, a vision and secondly, visionary and totally focused sports leadership, to put Pakistan back on top, at the worlds’ sports map.

As far as, the vision is concerned, nothing ever said about sports can match the following quote of Mr. Nelson Mandela, “Sport has the power to change the world…it has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sport can create hope where once there was only despair. It is more powerful than government in breaking down racial barriers.”

Now, taking a cue from the above mentioned statement of Mr. Nelson Mandela, it is suggested that Pakistani government should slightly re-phrase it and declare the following as its VISION statement:

“Sports has the power to change Pakistan…it has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite Pakistani people in a way that little else does. It speaks to the Pakistani youth in a language they understand. Sports can create hope for the entire Pakistani nation, where once there was only despair, lawlessness, hunger, unemployment, poverty, drugs, suicide bombings and alarming increase of suicides due to the economic hardships. It is more powerful than government in breaking down the menace of terrorism which has blown the country to the smithereens.”

Moreover, sports raised in the country on modern and scientific lines can be one of the biggest economic sector; providing employment, reducing poverty and drastically improving public health and fitness levels.

Under an sports advisor to the Prime Minister, we need to have a Pakistan Sports Commission (PSC) responsible for central planning under the banner میرا پاکستان sports system.

Under the this system, Pakistan will root out talented young children and put them in special academies from as young as four years old. If they are able to progress, athletes who make the cut should be put into a relentless training programme, filled with targets they must regularly hit, and paid by the government a monthly wage of Rs.60,000/-

Each year, the best athletes should then be sent to national training centres to be established at all the provincial capitals, where they will compete to enter Pakistan’s national team.

If they will succeed, they will move with their families into these training centres and live there all year round. These centres will train the sportspersons having the following mission statement:

“There will be no breakthrough without the hardest hardship. You cannot be a champion without going through the ultimate pressure”.

For as long as they will be successful, the national team members will benefit from perks including air tickets for their parents to watch them compete and, in some cases, sponsorship deals.

Sportspersons who will win medals in international competitions, or with national titles, can attend university after their career ends, with the tuition fee paid for, by the government.

The Pakistan Sports Commission (PSC) should have three units under the Advisor on Sports to the PM, namely the administrative departments, sport competition management centres, and other support and services institutions.

The PSC will be closely tied with All Sports Federations of Pakistan and the Pakistan Olympic Committee (POA). Besides forming strategies for sport development, overseeing their implementation, and developing mid- and long-range sport development plans, the PSC will be responsible for 9 number of functions as detailed below:

1. Creating a national sport framework

2. Promoting physical activity and exercise participation in schools and local and regional communities

3. Organising national sporting events

4. Organising international sport events in Pakistan.

5. Enforcing antidrug and anticompetitive measures.

6. Supporting research into the development of sports.

7. Implementing regulations governing the sport industry, sport market, and sport-related business activities.

8. Implementing national physical training standards and supervising public health in coordination with the Ministry of Health.

9. Overseeing sport activities with foreign associations and teams, and sport-related cooperation and communication with foreign countries.

To fulfill the nation’s Olympic strategies and ambition, the PSC and sport authorities at the provincial level will play a key role in promoting sport development in Pakistan.

One of the strategies should be the sponsorship of the Pakistan National Games (PNG), modelled after the modern Olympic Games; the PNG will be the largest and most important sport extravaganza in Pakistan. Each province-level administrative unit should send a team to compete in the PNG. The preparation for and competition at the PNG will allow the government to cultivate elite Pakistani athletes for major world competitions.

The essence of Pakistani Olympic strategies and ambition will be a unique system of selecting and training elite athletes.

Pakistan will become one of the few countries in the world that dedicate and use spare-time sport schools extensively to train and prepare future elite athletes. A spare-time sport school will be a boarding school specialized in sport and established to train Olympic hopefuls. Students will be selected for their athletic talent. They will take academic classes in the morning and engage in rigorous sport training sessions in the afternoon. These sport schools will serve as a reserve pool for elite sport teams at the provincial and national levels.

The Sports Law of Pakistan should became effective within six months of the formation of the PSC, becoming the first fundamental legal document for sport.

The Sports Law will establish the main tasks and key principles in managing the sport industry, confirming the importance of mass sport, and identifying the duties and responsibilities of sport-related organizations.

Essentially, the law will set the framework for the development of modern sport in Pakistan. The enactment of the law will signify that the sport industry in Pakistan has entered a new era under the protection of the country’s legal system.

Based on the Sports Law, local governments at provincial and city levels will have the right and authority to make their own rules for managing sport within their jurisdictions.

The Plan for Olympic Glories should also be released by the PSC within six months of its formation. The plan should outline three goals:

(a) restructuring the system in elite sport training and management.

(b) enhancing the elite athlete delivery pipeline and system (including sport schools).

(c) endeavours to maintain the nation’s leading position in world sport competitions.

The PSC should also promulgate the guidelines for a national fitness program. The guidelines should be drafted with the aim of improving the health and the overall physical condition of the general population.

The guidelines will encourage everyone, especially children and adolescence, to engage in at least one sporting activity every day, learn at least two ways of keeping fit, and have a health examination every year.

The aim will be that by 2020 about 40 percent of Pakistan’s population would be regularly participating in physical activity and that clear improvement would take place in the physical fitness level of Pakistani citizens.

In this modern era sports needs professionalisation which will lead to commercialisation; this means that sports associations become profit-making entities and that there will be a club system and professional sports leagues will also be formed. Sports clubs operations will cover ticket sales, advertising, club transfers, commercial matches, and television broadcasting.

This will open for world wide sports playing and related job opportunities for Pakistani sportspersons.

Best Regards,

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad