Loud Thinking

Archive for July, 2019

Dear Mr. Imran Khan Sahab.

AoA.

Sir,

Kindly issue necessary orders for a specific, urgent and Special Audit of the PCB by the office of the Auditor General of Pakistan to save this organisation from an imminent anticipated loss of about Rs.34 Crore or approximately $ 2.141 million, as per details provided below.

May be as Patron-in-Chief of the PCB this fact was in your knowledge that a whopping amount of about $2.141 million (almost equal to PKR 30 Crores) was paid or about to be paid by the PCB (in your tenure) on account of total legal expenses of PCB plus payments of expenses of the ICC and the BCCI after PCB lost the case lodged with the Dispute Resolution Committee of the ICC, against the BCCI.

Surprisingly and astonishingly Mr. Najam Sethi is earlier on record of saying that [as reported by the daily The Express Tribune dated 30 June 2014] there would be NO COMPENSATION IF INDIA DOES NOT PLAY DUE TO NON-CLEARANCE FROM NEW DELHI QUOTED AS BELOW:

“But Sethi said there would be no compensation if India does not play due to non-clearance from New Delhi.”
“There was no compensation before, there is none now. This is not the norm in mutual series when government does not give permission.”
Link:- https://tribune.com.pk/story/729174/big-four-pakistan-to-earn-450-million-in-cricket-cycle/

AS SUCH THE MILLION DOLLAR QUESTION IS WHY MR. NAJAM SETHI GOT AN APPROVAL FROM THE BoG OF THE PCB FOR AN EXPENDITURE OF ONE MILLION POUNDS IN CONNECTION WITH THE EXPENSES OF FILING THE COMPENSATION CLAIM WITH THE DISPUTE RESOLUTION COMMITTEE OF THE ICC THAT TOO FOR A MEAGRE AMOUNT OF ONLY $70 MILLION INSTEAD OF the $300 MILLION WHICH (according to Mr. Najam Sethi) WAS TO BE EARNED BY PCB FROM THE MATCHES OF MOU AGREED SERIES WITH THE INDIAN TEAM.

WILL ANYONE FROM THE GOVERNMENT ASK THE FORMER CHAIRMAN PCB TO PAY BACK TO THE PCB THE ENTIRE UNCALLED-FOR AND AVOIDABLE EXPENDITURE/DELIBERATE LOSS OF ABOUT 2.141 MILLION U.S. DOLLARS WHICH [as per the above mentioned link of news item published by the daily “The Express Tribune”] WAS as far back as on 30 June 2014 very much in the knowledge of Mr. Najam Sethi and he was convinced that NO AMOUNT WAS CLAIMABLE FROM THE BCCI IN CASE OF NON HONOURING OF BCCI’s COMMITMENT MADE IN THE MOU.

An urgent action from your side will certainly protect the PCB from a huge loss of about PKR 30 Crore or $ 2.141 million.

Best Regards,

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad

Sent from my iPhone 7

Respected Mr. Imran Khan Sahab

AoA.

Sir,

The entire nation bows it’s head before Allah (SWT) for your historic and extremely successful meetings with American leadership; and Pakistani diaspora in the USA, which has united the nation, in a manner witnessed earlier only once, when under your leadership, our team won the 1992 Cricket World Cup.

We all know that the sole aim and vision and mission of your life and the reason you joined politics, is to economically emancipate the teeming millions of Pakistan, who have been deprived of the bare minimum facilities and requirements of life.

These poorest of the poor 130-140 million Pakistanis, who are not able to earn even $1.90 per day (minimum world level poverty benchmark), firmly believe in your words that soon you will uplift them from poverty, at a speed faster than the Chinese attained success, in the same case.

In this regard, your efforts in launching EHSAS program and other such steps are good, but it will hardly make any visible impact in genuine relief for the poor population, because this continued poverty is the insurance for the affluence of the elite class (controlling every power and authority) in Pakistan, who thrive on corruption, special agreements (like IPP contracts and idle capacity payments in the USD on LNG terminals without any logic) amnesty schemes, devaluation of currency, theft of utilities and manipulations in terms of foreign/domestic loans, bank loan waivers etc. Just for your information you may check why $8.6 million was withheld by the IMF when it disbursed $1.0 billion tranche of loan to Pakistan, few weeks back.

However, today it was really a heartening news that your government is expected to appoint a specialised inquiry commission to examine the prudence of capacity payments, currency indexation and higher than permissible returns to all the IPPs.
Link:- https://www.dawn.com/news/1496516/inquiry-commission-proposed-to-examine-profits-of-ipps

In this connection, Dr. Ikramul Haq (advocate Supreme Court and International tax expert) has very aptly explained the crux of the mother of all reasons, for the continued poverty in Pakistan, in his article published by the daily “Business Recorder” dated 26 July 2019 titled “Making tax system functional”.

The relevant para of the above article is reproduced below:

Quote:
“The State needs to wage an all-out war against burgeoning black economy, money power and corrupt politico-administrative structures. This war must start from the mighty classes. The people of Pakistan have a right to know how these mighty sections of society amassed immense wealth without paying their due taxes.” Unquote.
Link:- https://fp.brecorder.com/2019/07/20190726500277/

Sir, in view of the foregoing, it is earnestly requested that as per the need of the hour, to strike at the system which feeds the elite class on the sweat and blood of the poor of our country; an Inquiry Commission under the chairmanship of Dr. Ikramul Haq may be formed to submit its findings and solutions on the fact that “How these mighty sections of society amassed immense wealth without paying their due taxes”.

Sir, unless you and your government has the tenacity and the will to wage an all-out war against the burgeoning black economy, money power and corrupt politico-administrative structures, no amount of interest free loans or EHSAS programs are going to liberate the down trodden Pakistanis, and mind you Sir, you are considered as the last hope, who can economically and in true sense, emancipate our teeming millions, whose numbers, unfortunately, have increased not decreased, in your past 11 months of government.

Best Regards,

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad

It really pains to write that Sarfaraz Ahmad’s leadership during 2019 tour of England (14 ODI matches & one T20 match) was neither, inspirational nor, motivational. He utterly failed to lead by example and with his own performance. In fact, leaving aside being a captain, his recent stats reflects that he can not be included in the national team, even on his batting abilities.

In the historical list of Pakistani cricket captains, he will be in a strong competition for the lowest position. Even his batting in the champions trophy final & other matches was at the mercy of opponent team’s fielders, dropping dolly catches offered by Sarfaraz.

Sarfaraz Ahmad looks perfect manifestation of the idiom “every person rises to his level of incompetence”, but then so do many others, in our national cricket set up.

Neither, the abandoned match vs the Sri Lankan team, nor, any other factor, except the timid, fearful, lost minded and negative approach leadership style of Sarfaraz Ahmad, was the singular reason; today our team is out of the CWC19 semifinals.

The other major factor of the failure in the CWC19 was the uncalled for presence and wrong influence of the Chief Selector, who was allowed by the Chairman & the MD PCB to sit over the head of the captain. Nowhere in the world, chief Selector is imposed over the team management like PCB did with Inzamam ul Haq.

This proves that the Chairman and the MD PCB were not professionally fit for their responsibilities, as head of the national cricket board, where they themselves looked to be totally overwhelmed by the chief selector.

The moment Inzamam was detached from the players, Pakistani team won all their remaining matches against the teams of South Africa, New Zealand, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

As such, the Chairman & the MD PCB must take the ultimate responsibility for the failures of our team, which also badly shattered the World Cup dream of the nation; thus both these honourable gentlemen should immediately submit their resignations, failing which, the remaining members of the Board of Governors of the PCB, may move a motion of no confidence, against both the Chairman and the MD of the PCB.

However, if no one moves from the BoG of the PCB then the Patron in Chief of the PCB Mr. Imran Khan is earnestly requested to order a high level Judicial Inquiry to be conducted by a Honourable Judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, to minutely investigate the causes of the national disgrace, caused by our cricket team, by way of the lower than pathetic performances [specially against matches with the West Indian {105 all out in 21.4 overs which was overhauled in 13.4 overs}, Australian and Indian teams] in the CWC19 to fix the responsibility over the concerned individuals, for further necessary and punitive actions, by the Prime Minister of Pakistan.

This proposed high powered judicial commission may also inquire about the overseas and Pakistani assets and wealth in banks of A to Z employees (including contractual/honorary employees) and cricket players affiliated with (directly or indirectly) or contracted by the PCB and serving during the period of 1st January 2008 to 5th July 2019. It is also requested that if formed by the PM, this proposed high powered judicial commission may minutely look into the total expenses of ALL PCB officials who toured between Pakistan and England during the period, our team visited there, from April 2019 till the end of the World Cup in July 2019; and compare it with the expenses of the total number of players who went to England.

Moreover, the proposed judicial commission may also demand answers from the concerned persons of the following questions:

1. Who was responsible to drop Sarfraz Ahmad (when he desperately wanted to play and consequently his leadership role was undermined and confidence shattered just before the World Cup) from the team which lost 0-5 in series against the Australian team played in the UAE during March 2019.

2. Why Inzamam covered up and side tracked the team’s pathetic performance of losing by 0-5 in the series vs Australia by putting up absurd, irrelevant and non professional reason that our team’s performance was not that bad as reflected by the 0-5 result, because Pak team scored (in the five matches) a total of 1328 runs in comparison with the Australian cumulative score of 1436 runs which was just 108 runs short in the series. This argument was put up to deliberately mislead the nation from the fact that as happened in the first match our team batted first and scored 280/5 which was over hauled by the Australians by scoring 281/2. Obviously it was not a competition of scoring total runs in 50 overs and other team was not required to bat after achieving the target of 281 provided by the Pakistanis.

The above example proves the ill intentions of the Chief Selector and the team management to hood wink the nation from their own incompetencies and failures.

3. When the Prime Minister Mr. Imran Khan issued direct and open advice to Sarfaraz Ahmad, well in time, before the match against India, to bat first after winning the toss (except if the PITCH was wet) who forced Sarfaraz Ahmad to ignore the prudent and 24-Karat advice of the PM? Latest data of the 41 CWC19 first round matches out of 45 matches (4 washed out) proves the advice of Mr. Imran Khan was very prudent and on Dot, wherein, 27 out of 14 teams batting first did win their matches, which comes to 65.85% success rate.

4. When PCB is incurring huge expenses (in foreign currency) on the appointment of professional coaches for the every aspect of the game i.e., batting, bowling and fielding, plus a head coach for devising planning and strategy of our team (who also possessed the unprecedented powers of being the chairman of the tour selection committee by side lining the team manager) why and who allowed from the PCB, for the Chief Selector to be with the team on every foreign visit to let down and interfere with the authority of the coaches; and the captain (proposed judicial commission may also verify how many crores of amount was paid to the chief selector during his entire tenure, on account of his salary, perks, TA/DA and all other related expenses).

5. The proposed judicial commission may also investigate the ill motives of not selecting Muhammad Rizwan, who scored two centuries in two matches against the Australians in March 2019 and passed the fitness test with the highest marks; and the questionable intentions in sending back Abid Ali from England, who was also selected as a second wicket keeper?

6. The proposed judicial commission may also verify the medical records/documents of Shadab Khan and Muhammed Amir, who were declared by the PCB suffering from Hepatitis and Chicken Pox respectively.

7. All the documents and records may also be verified for the reasons of allowing Shoaib Malik to take a break of 10 days from the tour of England, to visit back Pakistan. Moreover, why and on which basis, he was selected to play ODI World Cup after a gap of 12 years, when his batting average in England in 23 innings of all previous tours was just 13.6 runs and who is responsible for his failure in the World Cup2019, with batting average of 2.66 runs?

8.Who decided to drop Haris Suhail from few early matches of the World Cup?

9. On which basis and performance Asif Ali (not considered vs SA series in January 2019 and Australian series in March 19) was selected and Ehsan Ali, Musa Khan, M Nawaz and Omar Khan were not considered at all?

10. When Wahab Riaz was not considered for even a single ODI match [for about two years] after June 2017 final match of the Champions Trophy, under which mysterious circumstances he was suddenly selected, specially when the Head Coach had earlier Twitted stating clearly that Wahab was not included in his planning for future matches?

The best and easiest way for the Pakistani team to win the next ODI World Cup 2023, T20 World Cup 2020 and Test matches championship, which will include all Test matches to be played between July 2019 till 2023, is to immediately initiate an inquest and ruthless accountability by a high powered judicial commission [which can take help from any institution or department or individual] and simultaneous special audit by the auditors of the AGP of the PCB, for all its administrative and financial decisions taken during the period 1st January 2008 to July 5 2019.

However, if no ruthless across the board accountability is initiated for the PCB, business as usual, will continue.

18 May 2019
How to stop an impending financial meltdown due to swift devaluation of PKR?

Updated on 2nd July 2019

Dear Mr. Imran Khan Sahab.

AoA.

Sir,

The current shattered state of economy of Pakistan, wherein, daily steep and unprecedented devaluation of PKR versus the USD, whose interbank rate was higher than the forex market rate a few days back and the Bloomberg has rated PKR as the worst performing currency of Asia, regularly crashing of stock exchange market, unimaginable jump in prices of daily items of use like lemon being sold at Rs.400 per KG, increase in rates of utilities on an unending and continuous basis, exponentially increasing costs of health and education, reflects only one thing that there was now virtually no effective government in Pakistan, to protect the rights of the hapless Pakistani masses from the tricks and vagaries of traders, businessmen, industrialists and bureaucracy of the country.

Sir, the entire population of Pakistan is in severe shock, depression and despondency, due to this sudden economic crisis, severely affecting every Pakistani who is desperately looking towards you as a competent and honest leader and above all a saviour of the rights of the masses of the Pakistanis, to act, and act fast, to the stem the rot, before this crisis turns into an economic meltdown.

According to Britannica.com “Public authorities face a variety of crises, such as natural disasters and environmental threats, financial meltdowns and terrorist attacks, epidemics and explosions, and information and communication technology (ICT) failures. Crises are not routine events (such as fires or traffic accidents). Crises are inconceivable events that often take politicians, citizens, and reporters by complete surprise. Crises occur when a community of people—an organization, a town, or a nation—perceives an urgent threat to core values or life-sustaining functions that must be urgently dealt with under conditions of deep uncertainty.”

Britannica.com further states that “These dramatic events create tough challenges for public authorities and their organizations. Critical decisions must be made and implemented under considerable time pressure and in the absence of essential information about causes and consequences. Even if the conditions for effective action are severely impeded, citizens expect governmental leaders and public authorities to safeguard them from the threat at hand.”

As such, extraordinary situations demands extraordinary steps.

Under the current scenario the people are fed up and no more ready to listen that Pakistan is suffering severe economic problems due to the loot and plunder of the past decade’s rulers, simply, because now Mr. Imran Khan is the ruler; and if any economic crime was committed in the past, why the responsible politicians, businessmen and bureaucrats are not arrested, their properties not confiscated and the national criminals put behind the bars, as yet, on any of such economic crime charges, by the PTI government?

People also ask why all past government players are roaming free (if they committed economic crimes) and entire burden of the economic crisis has been passed over to the masses, very conveniently by the PTI government, in the shapes of exorbitantly increased taxes EXTRA exorbitantly BACK BREAKING increase in the charges of gas, electricity and CNG rates.

Why NO ONE in your government of highly educated team of Advisors and Ministers has objected on the OGRA Gas Sale Price Notification dated 29 June 2019 on the following TWO points:

Why Engro and Fatima rate is about 33% of the rate of other fertiliser companies? For their new fertilizer plant investments; when these companies are already getting other benefits, rates reduction in gas feedstock seems to be an anomaly of uneven playing fields in comparison with other producers of fertilizers in Pakistan, as GIDC was also exempt for their fertilizer plants.

Secondly, sale quantity slabs are given in hm3, while cost per unit is in MMBtu? Is it deliberate effort to ensure public does not comprehend the quantum of increase? Sir, if you deeply study the increase in gas rates, astonishing facts will come to your knowledge that how much additional back breaking burden has been put over the middle and lower middle class population of Pakistan under the popular PTI government for making it the MOST UNPOPULAR CIVILIAN GOVERNMENT IN THE HISTORY OF PAKISTAN.

Does the PTI government wants to punish the poor masses for voting it to rule over the country, without taking to task even a single person of the past regimes for its economic crimes?

Moreover, PTI’s government can not absolve itself of all its responsibilities to improve the economic conditions of the masses, by going the easy and most cruel way of simply increasing rent, rates and taxes and devaluing the currency and then asking the people to give sacrifices, while people’s representatives are enjoying all the fruits of being in power.

People also ask why the PTI government has failed to reduce the massive/huge expenditures on the bureaucratic establishment and why advisors of the cabinet failed on their jobs and even then they have not been removed?

Why absolute austerity is not mandated in the government affairs by law, in these times of severe economic crunch?

Why people are not being told about the past government’s spendings of the huge foreign loans?

Why the energy audit of the IPP’s decided by the cabinet in its first meeting under Mr. Imran Khan as PM, has not yet been conducted?

In view of the foregoing crisis, created under PTI’s tenure of government, you may take all matters in your own hands, declare an economic or national emergency and form an Emergency Advisory Council of Pakistan (EACP) to:

~Devise, execute and monitor all related policies for economic turn around of Pakistan in the shortest possible time

~Immediate steps for stopping of funds leakages. In this regard, the World Bank has already estimated about $18 BILLION annual loss to the Pakistan’s economy due to the inefficient power sector. The World Bank has WARNED (repeat WARNED) the government against increasing power rates (I will add Gas rates also) as a tool to address fiscal challenges in the sector

~ Immediate steps for reviving industry, agriculture, trade and business with particular reference to services and IT sectors

~ Immediate steps for drastically reducing imports and doubling the exports

~Generation of additional revenues

This EACP should act like a war cabinet of the PM of Pakistan, as the current economic crisis is no less grave in its devastation, than a full fledged war. The following world renowned eminent experts, impeccably honest, highly capable and reputed personalities of Pakistan may be considered for the membership of the EACP, with the status of the federal minister:

1. Dr. Ashrfaq Ahmad Khan.
2. Dr. Ikram ul Haq, who is an international tax expert also.
3. Mr. Shahid Sattar, who is also an international expert on energy related matters.

4. Dr. Salman Shah.
5. Dr. Muhammad Zubair.
6. Dr. Kaiser Bengali.
7. Mr. Shahid Kardar.
8. Mr. Nadeem ul Haq.
9. Mr. Hafeez Pasha
10. Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman
11. Mr. Asif Sharif

~ Last but not the least, currently rapid and steep devaluation of PKR is eating away every economic gain of under the PTI government’s efforts to revive the economy. Plus devaluation is sharply increasing our foreign debt burden in billions of dollars on almost daily basis. In this regard, if somehow, foreign currency inflow is channelised into Pakistani banks the situation can abruptly improve.

In this connection, like the government is already giving an annual profit of 6.75% (payable bi-annually) on Pakistan Banao Certificates, with full guarantee of government of Pakistan, we can easily, quickly and comfortably get around $10 billion, if, you approve the launch of another scheme of allowing annual profit of 6.75% (payable bi-annually with fully backed GoP guarantee) on fresh foreign currency bank deposits in Pakistan. The beauty of this scheme is that (since this much profit is currently nowhere available in the world) even foreign banks will offer (as happened in India) foreign currency loans (at around 3-4%) to its clients to deposit funds in this scheme. Moreover, God forbid, if, for any reason, desired foreign currency inflows are not attracted in this scheme, government will lose nothing.

The above foreign currency bank deposits scheme should be available for all resident and non resident Pakistanis, under special permission of the GoP (like an amnesty scheme) and depositors NOT asked any questions about their sources of foreign currency funds.

Best Regards,

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad