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Archive for the ‘Action Plan to Revive Pak Economy’ Category

Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif,

Honourable Prime Minister of Pakistan,

Dear Sir,

Please remember that MAN IS MORTAL HIS GOOD DEEDS ARE IMMORTAL.

Kindly peruse below a news item published today by the Times of India, which reflects that the Indian PM is talking nothing at the G20 summit in Australia, except about the BLACK MONEY repatriation to India.

Mr. Prime Minister, we are very surprised that although, BLACK MONEY was the main agenda of the PMLN’s Elections 2013 campaign, yet, you have personally never ever talked on this issue, since you became the PM in June 2013.

Your Excellency, the nation demands that your government must seriously fulfil its promises on bringing back nations looted money from abroad; and also fulfil another extremely important promise of breaking the bowl of foreign loans.

Moreover, please also ask your finance minister that he should remember that he was the minister of the Pakistani government and not appointed by either the IMF or the Swiss government. He should not ruthlessly tell the nation that looted money repatriation from abroad was well neigh impossible; and at the same time our government officials are continuing excursion trips of Switzerland, as if they were employed by the nation to have joy rides.

Everyone going abroad on state expenses, must inform on return to the nation that what tangible benefits materialised for Pakistan, due to his foreign trip.

Mr. Prime Minister, please also stop your ministers and officials from taking the nation on a ride.

Mian Sahab, the nation wants results on your promises of bringing back the black money from abroad and breaking the bowl of the curse of the foreign loans. We Pakistanis do not want to be burdened with useless statements and more and more IMF loans.

Kindly give the following ONLY Two tasks to Mr. Ishaq Dar for completion, during your current tenure:

– To get rid of Pakistan from the entire foreign debt, either by getting it written off or by any other way.

– Bring back the ENTIRE looted money of Pakistan of ANYONE and EVERYONE, parked anywhere in the world.

And if the finance minister says that he can not accomplish these two assignments or to him these two tasks looks impossible … then please appointment someone else, as the finance minister with these monumental assignments, which if achieved, will make the tenure of your current rule IMMORTAL.

Mian Sahab, remember MAN IS MORTAL HIS GOOD DEEDS ARE IMMORTAL.

Times of India news report published today, is as below:

G20 summit: Narendra Modi calls for ‘close coordination’ on black money

BRISBANE: As India makes attempts to recover black money from abroad, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday asked every country, especially tax havens, to provide information for tax purposes in accordance with treaty obligations.

Raising the pitch on the black money issue, Modi in his intervention at the summit of the Group of 20 industrialized and major emerging economies called for close global coordination to address the challenge posed by it.

Modi voiced India’s support for a new global standard on automatic exchange of tax information, saying it would be instrumental in getting information relating to unaccounted money hoarded abroad and enable its eventual repatriation. He also extended India’s backing for all initiatives to facilitate exchange of information and mutual assistance in tax policy and administration.

The prime minister made the remarks at the plenary session on the subject of “Delivering Global Economic resilience” on the second and final day of the summit held at the Brisbane Exhibition and Convention centre.

He also expressed the hope that Base Erosion and Profit Sharing (BEPS) system would fully address concerns of developing and developed economies.

BEPS is a technical term referring to the effect of tax avoidance strategies used by multinational companies on countries’ tax basis. BEPS is known more commonly as “Transfer pricing”

This term is used in a project headed by the OECD that is said to be an attempt by the world’s major economies to try to rewrite the rules on corporate taxation to address the widespread perception that the corporations don’t pay their fair share of taxes.

The prime minister also said that increased mobility of capital and technology have created new opportunities for avoiding tax and profit shifting.

Modi underpinned the need for the world community to take coordinated decisions although each country has its domestic priority.

“Need for policy coordination among major economies remains strong,” he said.

“Close coordination is important not just for addressing the challenge of black money but also security issues like terrorism, drug trafficking and arms smuggling,” he said.

Touching upon the resilience of the financial system in the world, Modi said it will also depend on cyber security.

An article of 2 October 2012 is still waiting for answers from the past and present governments and parliamentarians of Pakistan.

Our rulers owe us answers to the following 6 questions:

Hope our rulers and parliamentarians are aware of a research which reveals that suicide rates have gone up in the countries taking loans from the IMF etc.

Our worthy MNA’s and Senators Must obtain the answers to the following questions from the former Minister of Finance Mr. Abdul Hafeez Sheikh (who was also the key man in the privatisation of the PTCL) and also from the incumbent finance minister Mr. Ishaq Dar.

1. Pakistan is repaying $7.6 billion to the IMF. Did we receive exactly this much amount or the total sum was less than this figure?

2. How much amount of interest Pakistan will be paying over the principle sum of this loan of $7.6 billion from the IMF? Or the IMF will be charging interest on the whole sanctioned amount of $11.3 billion?

3. Did Pakistan pay and what was the total bill for the traveling, boarding and lodging of IMF delegations’s recent visit to UAE, for discussions with our economic team?

4. Besides the interest, how much service, handlers commission and or other charges were deducted by the IMF, on its loan of $7.6 billion to Pakistan? V V important question.

5. How much service charges or penalty was charged by the IMF to Pakistan, for not utilizing or obtaining the remaining $3.7 billion amount, from the originally sanctioned loan amount of $11.3 billion; because Pakistan got only $7.6 billion from IMF?

6. When will Pakistan get its overdue payment of $800 million from the Etisalat Telecom, which is controlling the whole PTCL management and other affairs, with a minority share holding? Why not reconsider the cancellation of the privatisation deal of the PTCL, in view of the serious default since the year 2006, by the UAE based telecom company ETISALAT? There is another option to resolve this problem by writing off this amount of $800 million (which in over 8 years must have grown over $3 billion) and treating it as gift, from the people of Pakistan to owners of the ETISALAT.

What else is corruption Mian Nawaz Sharif Sahab?

He (Mr. Zubair) said that the delay caused by a stay order granted by the Peshawar High Court on the petition of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf led provincial government and the sudden fall in oil prices in the international market reduced the government’s earnings.

Mr. Prime Minister, if the above statement of Mr. Zubair (MOS and Chairman Privatisation Commission of Pakistan) is true then it looks all the more unwise decision that the government has given a 6% discount on the previous day trading of the OGDCL shares at the Karachi Stock Exchange.

The discount would alone cause about Rs5 billion losses on last day’s trading.

Pakistanis beware of being gassed (those using gas of Rs.500/ month up till now may well be paying up to Rs.5000/month) in this Economy of loans & corruption .http://t.co/MFKF1ASCRU

Massive increase in gas tariff likely

Khaleeq Kiani

Published about 6 hours ago

.—AFP/File

ISLAMABAD: Amid a controversy over excessive power billing, the government is set to face another wave of public outcry as gas tariff for all categories of consumers, including domestic, is likely to be increased by three to five times in a month or so.
The phenomenal increase is anticipated in the wake of failure of the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) and the federal government to notify consumer prices over the last four months.

“Our estimate is that a domestic consumer who receives a monthly bill of Rs500 will get a bill of about Rs5,000,” an Ogra official told Dawn.

Know more: PM orders fresh probe into overbilling

It could create a political crisis for the government as the people would forget power over-billing, he said.

A part of the surge would be caused by higher consumption in winter, but the major increase would come because of recovery of Ogra-determined revenue from consumers in eight months instead of 12 months.

The problem emanates from the inability of the government to advise the regulator how a Rs35 billion tariff increase be passed on to different categories of consumers within the stipulated time.

As a consequence, Ogra did not notify the consumer tariff by the deadline of July 1.
The Ogra law requires the government to advise the regulator about the adjustment in consumer tariff on the basis of prescribed price set by Ogra for two gas utilities. In case, the government fails to advise Ogra about the subsidy it wants to provide from the budget or through cross-subsidisation among different consumer categories in 15 days, the regulator is legally bound to issue a consumer tariff notification based on prices determined by it.

“Ogra has failed to meet its legal obligation for four months,” the official said. The private shareholders have started sending legal notices to the regulator and the government to take the matter to the court.

Informed sources said Ogra Chairman Saeed Ahmed Khan had repeatedly asked the government to advise it about the subsidy portion. Last week, he is reported to have written a strongly worded letter to the secretaries of the cabinet division and the petroleum ministry about the government’s inability to come up with an advice and the legal challenge arising out of the notices.

They said Mr Khan had warned that the regulator had determined around 14 per cent increase in average tariff on the basis of full year billing, but the average increase had now gone beyond 20pc because Rs50bn would now have to be recovered in eight months.
The sources said legal experts had advised Ogra to issue a notification in the first week of this month to avoid being dragged in the courts.

On top of that, Ogra will be required to notify consumer tariff at the rate of Rs470 per unit for each category of consumers irrespective of existing lowest tariff slab of Rs106 per unit for domestic consumers.

NEGATIVE EQUITY: According to an analyst, unless the increase is recovered from consumers, the capital market equities of the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) and the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) can turn into negative. The SNGPL’s equity has been estimated to be Rs15bn in the negative.

The sources said the managing directors of the two gas utilities had been interacting with the minister for petroleum and natural resources, but to no avail.

Recently, they had an ‘SOS’ meeting with Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and told him that the balance sheets of the companies would be in the red and prices of their shares would plunge if the government did not immediately intervene.

Ogra had worked out 14pc increase in average gas rates in July on the basis of 4.5pc unaccounted for gas (UFG) losses to meet revenue requirements for 2013-14 through a public hearing.

This is in addition to Rs50bn the government had earlier asked Ogra to recover from consumers to meet losses of the two utilities for 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13 on account of gas theft, non-recovery of dues because of law and order situation, increase in retail network and sabotage.

The ministry of petroleum and natural resources had recommended that the amount should be recovered through gas tariff by allowing higher UFG losses (up to 7pc) to bail out the gas companies.

In its estimates sent to the government, the Ogra had approved an increase of Rs58.29 per MMBTU (million British thermal unit) for the SNGPL and Rs22.90 per MMBTU for the SSGC with a maximum prescribed price of Rs469 per MMBTU.

Under the law, the government can advise Ogra to fix different rates for different consumer categories like domestic, commercial, industrial, power sector and cement but remaining within the average rate approved by the regulator.

Because of political considerations, the government has been passing on higher tariff increase to industrial and commercial consumers and lower tariff increase to domestic consumers through cross subsidisation.

Published in Dawn, November 4th , 2014.

An Open Letter Dated 04 October, 2011 to the then PM Pakistan YRG but still very relevant to MNS..!

PHIR NA KAHNA HAMEIN KHABAR NA HUI

An Open Letter Dated 04 October, 2011 to the then PM Pakistan but still very relevant to MNS.

H’able Makhdoom Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani Sb.

A.O.A.

You may be aware that the electricity load shedding has brought the country to the brink of abyss. The writing on the wall is there for every body to read and take immediate, repeat immediate, drastic and emergent steps, before the situation explodes to a point of no return. In fact, the country has now reached a defining moment.

In this regard, now as all powerful Prime Minister, it is high time that you may take personal charge of the looming crisis.

For your consideration, I take this opportunity to submit the following proposals to stem the rot of the current electricity crisis of Pakistan.

1. Impose total country-wide ban on use of air-conditioners in all official, public and private offices and residences ( which includes the offices and residences of the President, P.M, Governors, C.M’s and state guest houses with no exceptions, even for the foreign guests). We should not forget that in 60’s Indian government imposed a nation-wide ban on serving of dinner, to meet the severe food shortage.

2. Order, closure (strictly) of all shops and offices after 6 P.M. Remember, every Watt saved is Watt generated.

3. Order prohibition of every type of decorative lighting in the country.

4. All TV channel transmissions and cable services must be ordered to be closed at 9 P.M. through out the country.

5. The services of Police, Rangers, F.C and Armed Forces may be acquired to detect and permanently disconnect, the electricity connection of all those premises, who are getting electricity through illegal means. These premises, under no circumstances, be allowed electricity connection in future. Remember, there is more than 30% (latest NEPRA losses figures are at 40%) electricity theft in the country and civilian agencies can never overcome this problem.

6. Order, immediate one hour advancement of clocks and five days working in a week.

7. Order, immediate maximum facilitation to all and sundry, installing and using Solar energy at their premises, like as in India, bank loans are given for Solar energy at 4% interest rates. Our customs department charge tax on one pretex or other, on Solar energy equipments, although the government has declared it as tax free. This matter should be resolved once for ever.

Wishing you all the success, in your endeavours to serve the country, in a manner to be remembered in the annuls of the history.

Na Samgho Gay To Mit Jao Gay Aay PPP Walo,

Tumharey Datan Tak Na Ho Gy Dastano mein.

7 Questions for Mr. Ishaq Dar Finance Minister Pakistan

Posted at www.snayyar.com by Syed Nayyar Uddin on August 26, 2013 in Action Plan to Revive Pak Economy, My Views, Pakistan | Edit

Daily The News reports today that “Conditions of IMF met for $7.3 billion bailout package”.
Link:- http://images.thenews.com.pk/26-08-2013/ethenews/t-25004.htm

Mr. Ishaq Dar kindly clarify the following 7 questions relating to the facts regarding the Pakistan’s economy..!

1. Firstly, you stated on the floor of the house that we are taking fresh loan from the IMF to repay the old IMF loan.

2. You also stated on the same floor of the house that the loan amount from the IMF will be $5.5billion at an interest rate of 3%, which was exorbitantly high interest rate considering that IMF had already decided in December, 2012 to give loan on ZERO interest rate to poor countries.

Kindly inform which country can be poorer than Pakistan, who was unable to even repay its loans?

Your kind attention is invited towards the following news item titled “IMF extends zero interest rates on poorer country loans” published by the daily “Pakistan Today” on 23 December, 2012 detailed news available at the link :- http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2012/12/23/news/profit/imf-extends-zero-interest-rates-on-poorer-country-loans-2/

3. Secondly, you pledged on the floor of the house that loan terms will not be against the interests of Pakistan.

4. Then you increased the electricity tariff for the Pakistani industrial users by a whopping 70% to fulfil the IMF conditions for the loan.

5. Don’t you think that this power tariff increase will destroy our economy and create unemployment, as the increased cost of production of each and every item, under the use of the poorest of the poor, will make the goods highly expensive and the poor will become even more poorer?

In fact, your this step will ever be remembered in the history of Pakistan, as the one and only top most action which murdered the economy of the country and pushed additional millions of people below the poverty line.

I am also afraid that your this single step may not forever seal, the fate of PMLN’s chances in coming to the power again, as and when the negative impact is gradually filtered down the line.

If I were the PM Pakistan, would never have approved this fatal decision of increasing power rates of the already limping industry of Pakistan.

5. Why you earlier mislead the nation that $5.5billion is being taken for the repayment of the old loan and now the cat is out of the bag and the loan amount is actually $7.3billion?

6. The above fact at #5 also proves that you also wrongly said that this loan was being taken to repay the old loan.

7. Hope you remember the maiden speech of the PM in the Parliament house wherein, the PM promised with the nation on the floor of the house, that nothing will be hidden from the nation.

Then why you hid the fact that this loan is being taken NOT just for the repayment of the loan; and why you hid the fact that this loan amount was actually $7.3billion and not $5.5billion?

An early reply shall be highly appreciated.

Best regards,

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad

My comments on the below mentioned article:

Quote.”Finally the time has come that the poor of this world can be better served by abandoning and shutting down the institutions like the World Bank and the IMF etc., which are not only useless but actually responsible for increased number of suicides in the debtor countries by creating more hunger(which in turn breeds terrorism), joblessness, environmental miseries and increasing the number of poor people on this planet.

And for the proof of what I am saying the book titled ‘Confessions of an economic hit man” by John Perkins, is the biggest testimony of the devastation caused by the World Bank and the IMF etc., in the third world countries.” Unquote.

The World Bank: Rebellion in ranks

October 15, 2014, 11:33 AM IST Seema Sirohi in Letter from Washington | India, World | ET

As rebellions go, the one currently simmering at the World Bank is essentially between the haves and have-mores. The plush building on H Street is Discontent Central and President Jim Yong Kim – the Marie Antoinette on the scene – is trying to contain angry employees.
The revolt burst into public view just as finance ministers and central bankers from around the world were descending on Washington last weekend for the annual World Bank-IMF meetings and getting ready to reduce everything from poverty, hunger, deficits, global warming to Ebola.
Kim managed to preside over the gathering but not before conceding to appear for a mini trial. Try as I might, I can’t find my bleeding heart to bleed for the cause of those who make upwards of $100,000 annually, travel first class and in the unkindest cut of all – pay no taxes. But let’s try to be “objective,” maintain the journalistic canard and examine the ferment. How the bank is governed is important for India as it is for others. Besides, India is the bank’s largest borrower of concessional funds.
The bank’s rank and file reached a tipping point when they learnt that Kim had given a bonus of $189,000 to his chief financial officer, Bertrand Badre, as price for unduly taxing Badre’s brain which was already working hard at a paltry salary of $379,000 a year.
Badre’s job was to come up with $400 million in cost-cutting measures through downsizing, salary slimming and restructuring. How delicious the irony that Badre, a French gentleman with the correct pedigree of Sorbonne and Ecole Nationale d’Administration whose job it was to eliminate other jobs, should be outed by another French man, Fabrice Houdart, a mere “senior country officer” for the Middle East. It was the 40-something Houdart who poured over data, found egregious misuse of privilege and Badre’s bonus.
Houdart, now a Che of sorts among followers, asked piercing questions on internal blogs. The people rose up. Already afraid they might be among the 10,000 employees to get Badre’s axe, the “masses” in “G” class, who form the bulk of the work force at salaries between $93,000 to $170,000, exchanged furtive e-mails, phone calls and forced the masters up in the “I” and “J” classes, who make anywhere between $280,000 to $300,000 to pay heed. Are you still with me? Kim was forced last week to call a town hall meeting given the unprecedented anger. A total of 8,000 bank employees either attended or live-streamed the event. The mood was surly, the questions blunt. By some accounts Kim was even booed when he tried to duck the hard balls.
The people wanted to know why there was no transparency in his down-sizing plans and why the hacker of jobs got a “scarce skills premium” (corporate jargon for bonus) while the worker bees were asked to tighten their belts. Why had the budget for 2015 still not been revealed?
In the two years as president, Kim has spent a whopping $12.5 million on outside consultants such as McKinsey, Deloitte and Booz Allen to tell him what to do and how to do it. The “it” being bank’s reorganisation, which, incidentally is the rollicking call every president, going back at least four, has made. The “people” at the bank question Kim’s choices – of Badre and the A to Z of consulting companies to restructure a development bank. “What do they know about development and the complexities of what we do?” an irate Banker asked. Insiders say that besides appointing the wrong outsiders, Kim also put the wrong insiders to manage the “change.” Monsieur Houdart, the sleuth, found examples of questionable behaviour at the top – private jets, misuse of travel benefits such as “rest stops” and frequent visits to home countries.
Others point out that some of the new “senior directors” Kim appointed after a “global search” were either lightweights or had allegations of corruption in their home countries. A Google search reveals interesting results on at least three.
In short, Mr President is clearly out of his depth. It’s a mess and not very different from the countries the bank so courageously tries to clean up. Intrigue, corruption, topdown management and low morale among workers who now have to pay for their own breakfast when traveling. Imagine.

 

Now our economic malaise has reached such a stage that business as usual, is going to jeopardise our statehood, not in years, but in months.

This situation can be gauged from the following facts, derived from the State Bank of Pakistan report of September, 2014:

a). Interest payments on domestic debt grew by 80.5 per cent to Rs188 billion in July 2014 from Rs104bn in the same month last year.

b). The debt servicing on permanent debt jumped by 306.7pc in July 2014.

c). The government had to pay Rs147bn in July this year as debt servicing on permanent debts compared to just 36bn a year earlier, a rise of 306.7pc. The permanent debt rose to Rs3.999 trillion in June 2014 while it was Rs2.174tr in June 2013.

d). The debt servicing as percentage of GDP in FY14 was 4.1pc, which was 40.7pc of tax revenue.

e). Debt servicing was 27.5pc of current expenditure in FY14 compared to 24.7pc in FY13.

When we take fresh loans (on very harsh conditions and extremely high interest rates) to payback the old loans, it is a straight forward admittance of the fact that we have gone bankrupt.

However, instead of stemming the rot, by re-building the economy of the country with prudent internal financial management, detailed as below, the government is pursuing a disastrous policy of running the economy, on loans and increasing the rates of taxes and utility bills:

– Adoption of strict financial discipline, under the guide lines of stringent austerity measures.

– Implimentation of strict administrative and legal steps for reduction in world’s highest rate of corruption (which was estimated few years ago by the chairman NAB to be more than Rs.12 billion per day or Rs.4380 trillion or $43.8 billion per year, compared with FY15’s entire budget of Pakistan, which was equal to Rs.4 trillion or $40 billion).

– Enforcement of very strong administrative and legal measures, for drastic reduction in huge theft of taxes and utilities.

In this connection, it may not be a wrong indicator that this nuclear power nation called Pakistan, was being mortgaged with the foreign powers, by design.

In this regard, the following excerpts from the book titled “Confessions of an economic hit man” by John Perkins, are very relevant to the prevailing situation in Pakistan:

i). Economic hit men {EHMs) are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. They funnel money from the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and other foreign “aid” organizations into the coffers of huge corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy families who control the planet’s natural resources. Their tools include fraudulent financial reports, RIGGED ELECTIONS, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder. They play a game as old as empire, but one that has taken on new and terrifying dimensions during this time of globalization.”

ii). “Claudine pulled no punches when describing what I would be called upon to do. My job, she said, was “to encourage world leaders to become part of a vast network that promotes U.S. commercial interests. In the end, those leaders become ensnared in a web of debt that ensures their loyalty. We can draw on them whenever we desire — to satisfy our political, economic, or military needs. In turn, they bolster their political positions by bringing industrial parks, power plants, and airports to their people. The owners of U.S. engineering/construction companies become fabulously wealthy.”

Hence, there is no need to emphasise upon the fact that the degree of the sovereignty of a country, is directly proportional to the state of the economy of that nation.

Actually, in constant growth and development, lies our salvation. Secondly, we Pakistanis must know, that without any doubt, the easiest and surest way of moving ahead, is to stand on our own feet.

Foreign aid, can keep us afloat, but won’t allow us to swim.

Now, the time has come to separate the issues of growth, development, health, education, eradication of poverty & security of Pakistan, from the politics; forever.

It has been a shrewd political tactics in the past, by the all and sundry, particularly by those at the helm of the affairs of the country, to divert the attention of the masses, from the real issues being faced by the teeming millions of Pakistan, by mud slinging on opponent politicians, civil and military servants, judges etc. etc.

However, now we must put a full stop to this non-sense, which has wasted the entire life of Pakistan, spread well over nearing seven decades.

Since, its a matter of impending economic collapse of the country, for which almost all of us are responsible, in one way or the other; and almost no one is exempt from the charge of damaging the cause of the country; we must decide to look forward and forgive and forget each other’s sins of the past, and take each and every segment and political force of the society in confidence, for a very transparent scheme of our future development.

In this connection, Mr. Steve Maraboli has very appropriately said that “Make a pact with yourself today to not be defined by your past. Sometimes the greatest thing to come out of all your hard work isn’t what you get for it, but what you become for it. Shake things up today! Be You… Be Free… Share.”
Nothing can match the benefits of the collective wisdom.

Let us build a new economically strong and politically stable Pakistan, by our collective, prudent and wise decisions: knowing very well that no political party, group or institution is so strong, to run this country single handedly, for a sustainable period, without the help and cooperation of each other. We must also realise that our personal safety and better future, lies in accommodating and cooperating with each other, with the sole aim of building a STRONG Pakistan, under the slogan “Re-born Pakistan”.

In this regard, it is suggested that, we should AIM to bring Pakistan by the year 2035, to the level where Singapore was in the year 2015. All politics & other considerations should be made subservient to this TARGET for the year 2030; even if we have to abolish weekly holidays for the next 16 years & reduce our daily sleeping time to 6 hours.

Moreover, just like the Germans did for their re-building after the Second World War, EVERY Pakistani (residing within and outside Pakistan) must pay for the next five years,10% of its salary, business and other earnings, into the newly established “Pakistan rebuilding fund”.

All stake holders, particularly, from the deprived sections of the society in Pakistan, must immediately come forward, for deciding about the direction of the future of the nation.

Biggest factor in any victory is self-confidence. Anti-thesis of terrorism is education, coupled with economic emancipation.

As such, the nation must embark upon the following agenda, to resurrect our economy without any further loss of time.

1. Pakistan should make a solid case for convincing and requesting to all its foreign donors for a 5 years moratorium, on all debt repayments by Pakistan, which is a frontline state of the world’s war on terror (WOT). Here, don’t forget that the world powers have totally written off loans of many countries, for much lesser cooperation than Pakistan, which didn’t even demand a single penny from the NATO, for use of its airspace, since WOT started in Afghanistan.

2. 20% per annum reduction in all non-developmental government expenditures, plus total freeze in all perks paid from the national exchequer, involving foreign currency.

3. Maximum tax rate on each and every type of income in Pakistan should be fixed at 10%. This will not only bring huge revenues to the government, but will also discourage the tax evasion tendencies.

4. Increase in productivity & exports with liberal tax relief to industry, commerce & trade.

5. Set a target for 20% per annum increase in foreign remittances, by offering innovative incentives to expatriate Pakistanis.

6. Either ABOLISH, PRIVATISE or OUTSOURCE FBR (which will alone increase income by Rs.500 billion) or PRIVATISE or OUTSOURCE FBR & IMPOSE FLAT 10% tax (already being applied on dividend payments etc) on ALL & EVERY TYPE OF INCOME (as already mentioned at 3. above), without any exemption (except for the security forces personnel, whose salaries may be doubled with expected receipt of un-precedented increase in revenue, due to this formula). This will not only reduce income tax burden on salaried class (with max. tax rate of 10%, here don’t forget consultants are ONLY paying 6.5% tax) but will also result in so much increase in revenues, to the extent that government will not require any fresh tax imposition, in the budget. Plus, the government will be able to give tax free salaries to all the armed forces, rangers, police and other security agencies personnel, who are shedding their blood, in fighting the menace of terrorism, for our and our children’s safe TOMORROW.

7. Pakistan’s Foreign policy is excellent in theory, perhaps the best in the world. However, this policy should be implemented in its true letter and spirit with core emphasis on PEACE particularly with its neighbours; and FP thrust and theme should be that any and every action, must result in the economic benefit of the country.

8. Initiate steps (by imposing economic emergency) to bring each and every economic activity under document.

I am more than confident that by the dint of sheer hard work, sincerity & honesty, which is imbibed in the bones of the Pakistani work force, we can surely bring Pakistan, into the comity of 20 developed nations of the world, in the next 15-20 years.

9. The leaders of Pakistan holding the destiny of this great nation, with highest manpower potential and material resources in the world, must remember the following two adages.

– NOT FAILURE BUT SETTING LOW AIM IS A CRIME.
– IN ORDER TO ACHIEVE THE IMPOSSIBLE IT IS PRECISELY THE UNTHINKABLE WHICH MUST BE THOUGHT.

10. To motivate and instil confidence in the entire ordinary citizens of the country (which consists of an overwhelming chunk of the 200 million population of Pakistan), all necessary steps should be initiated to immediately eliminate, entire set of rules and regulations, favouring the VIP culture in the country.

11. Immediate and top most priority must be accorded (equal to the priority given to Zarb-e-Azb) to bring back Pakistani wealth (estimated to be above $500 billion) stashed in the banks of many foreign countries. In this regard, an amnesty and incentive scheme may be offered to all those Pakistanis, who want to bring their money from abroad voluntarily.

PAKISTAN PAINDABAD

Just read the following excerpts and see how Pakistan was and is being looted and plundered by the World Bank, IMF and other lending agencies of the West through the stooges, Mir Jaffers and Mir Sadiq’s of Pakistan…!

EYE OPENING extracts from the book titled “Confessions of an economic hit man” by John Perkins.

The SPECIAL point to be noted is that there is a special mention of the word “Rigged Elections”, which seen in its true prospective, fully applies to Pakistan in every respect.

Economic hit men {EHMs) are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. They funnel money from the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and other foreign “aid” organizations into the coffers of huge corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy families who control the planet’s natural resources. Their tools include fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder. They play a game as old as empire, but one that has taken on new and terrifying dimensions during this time of globalization. I should know; I was an EHM.”

Claudine pulled no punches when describing what I would be called upon to do. My job, she said, was “to encourage world leaders to become part of a vast network that promotes U.S. commercial in- terests. In the end, those leaders become ensnared in a web of debt that ensures their loyalty. We can draw on them whenever we desire — to satisfy our
political, economic, or military needs. In turn, they bolster their political positions by bringing industrial parks, power plants, and airports to their people. The owners of U.S. engineer- ing/construction companies become fabulously wealthy.”

That is what we EHMs do best: we build a global empire. We are an elite group of men and women who utilize international financial organizations to foment conditions that make other nations sub- servient to the corporatocracy running our biggest corporations, our government, and our banks. Like our counterparts in the Mafia, EHMs provide favors. These take the form of loans to develop in- frastructure — electric generating plants, highways, ports, airports, or industrial parks. A condition of such loans is that engineering and construction companies from our own country must build all these projects. In essence, most of the money never leaves the United States; it is simply transferred from banking offices in Washington to engineering offices in New York, Houston, or San Francisco.
Despite the fact that the money is returned almost immediately to corporations that are members of the corporatocracy (the creditor), the recipient country is required to pay it all back, principal plus interest. If an EHM is completely successful, the loans are so large that the debtor is forced to default on its payments after a few years. When this happens, then like the Mafia we demand our pound of flesh. This often includes one or more of the following: control over United Nations votes, the installation of military bases, or access to precious resources such as oil or the Panama Canal. Of course, the debtor still owes us the money —and another country is added to our global empire.

Outside the window of my Outback, great clouds of mist rolled in from the forests and up the Pastaza’s canyons. Sweat soaked my shirt, and my stomach began to churn, but not just from the intense tropical heat and the serpentine twists in the road. Knowing the part I had played in destroying this beautiful country was once again taking its toll. Because of my fellow EHMs and me, Ecuador is in far worse shape today than she was before we introduced her to the miracles of modern economics, banking, and engineering. Since 1970, during this period known euphemistically as the Oil Boom, the official poverty level grew from 50 to 70 percent, under- or unemployment increased from 15 to 70 percent, and public debt increased from $240 million to $16 billion. Meanwhile, the share of national resources allocated to the poorest segments of the population declined from 20 to 6 percent.5

Unfortunately, Ecuador is not the exception. Nearly every country we EHMs have brought under the global empire’s umbrella has suf- fered a similar fate.6 Third world debt has grown to more than S2.5 trillion, and the cost of servicing it — over $375 billion per year as of 2004 — is more than all third world spending on health and educa- tion, and twenty times what developing countries receive annually in foreign aid. Over half the people in the world survive on less than two dollars per day, which is roughly the same amount they received in the early 1970s. Meanwhile, the top 1 percent of third world households accounts for 70 to 90 percent of all private financial wealth and real estate ownership in their country; the actual per- centage depends on the specific country.7

That hideous, incongruous wall is a dam that blocks the rushing Pastaza River, diverts its waters through huge tunnels bored into the mountain, and converts the energy to electricity. This is the 156- megawatt Agoyan hydroelectric project. It fuels the industries that make a handful of Ecuadorian families wealthy, and it has been the source of untold suffering for the farmers and indigenous people who live along the river. This hydroelectric plant is just one of many projects developed through my efforts and those of other EHMs. Such projects are the reason Ecuador is now a member of the global empire, and the reason why the Shuars and Kichwas and their neighbors threaten war against our oil companies.
Because of EHM projects, Ecuador is awash in foreign debt and must devote an inordinate share of its national budget to paying this off, instead of using its capital to help the millions of its citizens officially classified as dangerously impoverished. The only way Ecua- dor can buy down its foreign obligations is by selling its rain forests to the oil companies. Indeed, one of the reasons the EHMs set their sights on Ecuador in the first place was because the sea of oil beneath its Amazon region is believed to rival the oil fields of the Middle East.8 The global empire demands its pound of flesh in the form of oil concessions.

These demands became especially urgent after September 11, 2001, when Washington feared that Middle Eastern supplies might cease. On top of that, Venezuela, our third-largest oil supplier, had recently elected a populist president, Hugo Chavez, who took a strong stand against what he referred to as U.S. imperialism; he threatened to cut off oil sales to the United States. The EHMs had failed in Iraq and Venezuela, but we had succeeded in Ecuador; now we would milk it for all it is worth.

Ecuador is typical of countries around the world that EHMs have brought into the economic-political fold. For every $100 of crude taken out of the Ecuadorian rain forests, the oil companies receive $75. Of the remaining S25, three-quarters must go to paying off the foreign debt. Most of the remainder covers military and other gov- ernment expenses — which leaves about $2.50 for health, education, and programs aimed at helping the poor.9 Thus, out of every $100 worth of oil torn from the Amazon, less than $3 goes to the people who need the money most, those whose lives have been so adversely impacted by the dams, the drilling, and the pipelines, and who are dying from lack of edible food and potable water.
All of those people — millions in Ecuador, billions around the planet —are potential terrorists. Not because they believe in com- munism or anarchism or are intrinsically evil, but simply because they are desperate. Looking at this dam, I wondered — as I have so often in so many places around the world—when these people would take action, like the Americans against England in the 1770s or Latin Americans against Spain in the early 1800s.

The subtlety of this modern empire building puts the Roman centurions, the Spanish conquistadors, and the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century European colonial powers to shame. We EHMs are crafty; we learned from history. Today we do not carry swords. We do not wear armor or clothes that set us apart. In countries like Ecuador, Nigeria, and Indonesia, we dress like local schoolteachers and shop owners. In Washington and Paris, we look like government bureaucrats and bankers. We appear humble, normal. We visit project sites and stroll through impoverished villages. We profess altruism, talk with local papers about the wonderful humanitarian things we are doing. We cover the conference tables of government committees with our spreadsheets and financial projections, and we lecture at the Harvard Business School about the miracles of macroeconomics.

We are on the record, in the open. Or so we portray ourselves and so are we accepted. It is how the system works. We seldom resort to anything illegal because the system itself is built on subterfuge, and the system is by definition legitimate.
However — and this is a very large caveat — if we fail, an even more sinister breed steps in, ones we EHMs refer to as the jackals, men who trace their heritage directly to those earlier empires. The jackals are always there, lurking in the shadows. When they emerge, heads of state are overthrown or die in violent “accidents.”10 And if by chance the jackals fail, as they failed in Afghanistan and Iraq, then the old models resurface. When the jackals fail, young Americans are sent in to kill and to die.

Claudine told me that there were two primary objectives of my work. First, I was to justify huge international loans that would funnel money back to MAIN and other U.S. companies (such as Bechtel, Halliburton, Stone & Webster, and Brown & Root) through massive engineering and construction projects. Second, I would work to bankrupt the countries that received those loans (after they had paid MAIN and the other U.S. contractors, of course) so that they would be forever beholden to their creditors, and so they would present easy targets when we needed favors, including military bases, UN votes, or access to oil and other natural resources.
My job, she said, was to forecast the effects of investing billions of dollars in a country. Specifically, I would produce studies that pro- jected economic growth twenty to twenty-five years into the future and that evaluated the impacts of a variety of projects. For example, if a decision was made to lend a country $1 billion to persuade its leaders not to align with the Soviet Union, I would compare the ben- efits of investing that money in power plants with the benefits of in- vesting in a new national railroad network or a telecommunications system. Or I might be told that the country was being offered the op- portunity to receive a modern electric utility system, and it would be up to me to demonstrate that such a system would result in sufficient economic growth to justify the loan. The critical factor, in every case, was gross national product. The project that resulted in the highest average annual growth of GNP won. If only one project was under consideration, I would need to demonstrate that developing it would bring superior benefits to the GNP.
The unspoken aspect of every one of these projects was that they were intended to create large profits for the contractors, and to make a handful of wealthy and influential families in the receiving coun- tries very happy, while assuring the long-term financial dependence and therefore the political loyalty of governments around the world. The larger the loan, the better. The fact that the debt burden placed on a country would deprive its poorest citizens of health, education, and other social services for decades to come was not taken into consideration.
Claudine and I openly discussed the deceptive nature of GNP. For instance, the growth of GNP may result even when it profits only one person, such as an individual who owns a utility company, and even if the majority of the population is burdened with debt. The rich get richer and the poor grow poorer. Yet, from a statistical standpoint, this is recorded as economic progress.
Like U.S. citizens in general, most MAIN employees believed we were doing countries favors when we built power plants, highways, and ports. Our schools and our press have taught us to perceive all of our actions as altruistic. Over the years, I’ve repeatedly heard com- ments like, “If they’re going to burn the U.S. flag and demonstrate against our embassy, why don’t we just get out of their damn country and let them wallow in their own poverty?”
People who say such things often hold diplomas certifying that they are well educated. However, these people have no clue that the main reason we establish embassies around the world is to serve our own interests, which during the last half of the twentieth century meant turning the American republic into a global empire. Despite credentials, such people are as uneducated as those eighteenth- century colonists who believed that the Indians fighting to defend their lands were servants of the devil.
Within several months, I would leave for the island of Java in the country of Indonesia, described at that time as the most heavily pop- ulated piece of real estate on the planet. Indonesia also happened to be an oil-rich Muslim nation and a hotbed of communist activity.
“It’s the next domino after Vietnam,” is the way Claudine put it. “We must win the Indonesians over. If they join the Communist bloc, well…” She drew a finger across her throat and then smiled sweetly. “Let’s just say you need to come up with a very optimistic forecast of the economy, how it will mushroom after all the new power plants and distribution lines are built. That will allow USAID and the international banks to justify the loans. You’ll be well rewarded,

“We’re paid — well paid — to cheat countries around the globe out of billions of dollars. A large part of your job is to encourage world leaders to become part of a vast network that promotes U.S. commercial interests. In the end, those leaders be- come ensnared in a web of debt that ensures their loyalty. We can draw on them whenever we desire — to satisfy our political, economic, or military needs. In turn, these leaders bolster their political posi- tions by bringing industrial parks, power plants, and airports to their people. Meanwhile, the owners of U.S. engineering and construction companies become very wealthy.”

relaxing in the window while snow swirled around outside, I learned the history of the profession I was about to enter. Claudine described how throughout most of history, empires were built largely through military force or the threat of it. But with the end of World War II, the emergence of the Soviet Union, and the specter of nuclear holo- caust, the military solution became just too risky.
The decisive moment occurred in 1951, when Iran rebelled against a British oil company that was exploiting Iranian natural resources and its people. The company was the forerunner of British Petroleum, today’s BP. In response, the highly popular, democratically elected Iranian prime minister (and TIME magazine’s Man of the Year in 1951), Mohammad Mossadegh, nationalized all Iranian petroleum assets. An outraged England sought the help of her World War II ally, the United States. However, both countries feared that military retaliation would provoke the Soviet Union into taking action on behalf of Iran.
Instead of sending in the Marines, therefore, Washington dis- patched CIA agent Kermit Roosevelt (Theodore’s grandson). He per- formed brilliantly, winning people over through payoffs and threats. He then enlisted them to organize a series of street riots and violent demonstrations, which created the impression that Mossadegh was both unpopular and inept. In the end, Mossadegh went down, and he spent the rest of his life under house arrest. The pro-American Mohammad Reza Shah became the unchallenged dictator. Kermit Roosevelt had set the stage for a new profession, the one whose ranks I was joining.1
Roosevelt’s gambit reshaped Middle Eastern history even as it rendered obsolete all the old strategies for empire building. It also coincided with the beginning of experiments in “limited nonnuclear military actions,” which ultimately resulted in US. humiliations in Korea and Vietnam. By 1968, the year I interviewed with the NSA, it had become clear that if the United States wanted to realize its dream of global empire (as envisioned by men like presidents Johnson and Nixon), it would have to employ strategies modeled on Roosevelt’s Iranian example. This was the only way to beat the Soviets without the threat of nuclear war.
There was one problem, however. Kermit Roosevelt was a CIA employee. Had he been caught, the consequences would have been dire. He had orchestrated the first U.S. operation to overthrow a foreign government, and it was likely that many more would follow, but it was important to find an approach that would not directly im- plicate Washington.
Fortunately for the strategists, the 1960s also witnessed another type of revolution: the empowerment of international corporations and of multinational organizations such as the World Bank and the IMF. The latter were financed primarily by the United States and our sister empire builders in Europe. A symbiotic relationship developed between governments, corporations, and multinational organizations.
By the time I enrolled in BU’s business school, a solution to the Roosevelt-as-CIA-agent problem had already been worked out. U.S. intelligence agencies — including the NSA — would identify prospective EHMs, who could then be hired by international corporations. These EHMs would never be paid by the government; instead, they would draw their salaries from the private sector. As a result, their dirty work, if exposed, would be chalked up to corporate greed rather than to government policy. In addition, the corporations that hired them, although paid by government agencies and their multinational banking counterparts (with taxpayer money), would be insulated from congressional oversight and public scrutiny, shielded by a growing body of legal initiatives, including trademark, interna- tional trade, and Freedom of Information laws.2

Is anyone in the U.S. innocent? Although those at the very pinnacle of the economic pyramid gain the most, millions of us depend — either directly or indirectly — on the exploitation of the LDCs for our livelihoods. The resources and cheap labor that feed nearly all our businesses come from places like Indonesia, and very little ever makes its way back. The loans of foreign aid ensure that today’s children and their grandchildren will be held hostage. They will have to allow our corporations to ravage their natural resources and will have to forego education, health, and other social services merely to pay us back. The fact that our own companies already received most of this money to build the power plants, airports, and industrial parks does not factor into this formula. Does the excuse that most Americans are unaware of this constitute innocence? Uninformed and intentionally misinformed, yes — but innocent?

Note:-The above excerpts are from P1-P96. Rest shall follow…!

Why the general public is fed up with the government so soon..?

Respected Ahsan Iqbal Sahab,

AoA.

Sir,

The ground realities of the last 14 months, absolutely negates your statement of joy, over the news about the improvement in the ranking of Pakistan, by the Moody’s.

As such, it is very difficult to believe your words, to wait for another 4 years, for the turnaround of the country, under the PMLN’s rule.

The proof of the pudding always lies in its eating.

The mother of all questions is that what is the difference and change of the power load shedding situation, comparatively prevailing between the PPP and the PMLN’s governments?

The answer is that we are getting the same amount of electricity as before, but at the 100% increased rates.

Moreover, the new addition of torture, which was not prevalent in the PPP rule, is that throughout the country, the power is supplied at, as low as 170 Volts, under PMLN’s 14 months era.

Further, the FM has already committed with the IMF, to again increase the power rates to almost another 100%.

Perhaps, the main reason for the extremely high utility rates is; that the government after lacking the will and utterly failing in recovery of outstanding bills, has decided to go the easy way, of putting further burden on those honest citizens, who pay each and every penny of all of their utility (inflated) bills.

Now, this wrong policy has created so much public anger and hatred against the government: that if there was an overnight change, rest assured, the whole nation will distribute the sweets….. again.

So, please don’t live in the cloud nine and come to the ground for God’s sake; and see the mood of the general public and its perception about your government, which is badly defamed for extravagant expenditures of Crores of Rupees on purchases of latest model BMW’s, highly costly foreign tours, purchase of expensive dogs, almost free five star meals being served to the parliamentarians in the NA cafeteria, dishing out very expensive and absolutely unnecessary jobs to the favourite people in the government organisations, etc. etc.

What is revealed from the above facts?

The answer is simple and straight forward…that there is a total disconnect from the problems of the voters and the general public, of the ruling elite of Pakistan.

This disconnect is proved by the daily mantra of the PMLN’s leadership, telling the public to be patient and give them the chance to rule for another four years; to set the things in order, which is akin to the famous quote of the French princess during the French Revolution, when she said if the people were hungry and they don’t have bread, why can’t they eat the cake? Hope you also remember that once Pervaiz Musharraf said the same thing that if the vegetables were costly, why can’t the public eat the chicken? Pervaiz Musharraf also said at the peak of the lawyers agitation that he was unable to see the huge crowds of the agitating lawyers, from the president’s house.

Now, the same type of talk is being done by the PMLN’s leaders, which is a classic proof of their disconnect from the general public.

The biggest problem with the disconnect is that it is never ever visible at the far end to the rulers; and they are always surprised that if people are not getting the bread, why can’t they eat the cake?

Sir, the people will be happily ready to give you not only the next 4 years, but the next 40 years, as well, but just inform the public what tangible sacrifices the leaders are giving for the public? People will never buy the argument of Metro Bus or other mega projects, if they are sleeping hungry, ill and without gas, water and electricity. Yes, public will allow you to lead them, if they see two stones are also tied up with the empty bellies of their rulers.

Always remember genuine leaders rule by example, not by hollow slogans.

All the vibes coming from the PMLN leaders confirm that it was no more a party of the poor. Rather, very sadly, it looks to be a party of the super rich royalty, totally devoid and detached, from the issues being faced by the general public.

Perhaps, due to this very reason, the sensible political parties keeps the party and the government positions separate.

It is hoped that you will not take the above bitter realities, explained by me as an offence, but as they say, it will be considered as an honest and free customer feed back, worth weighing in the gold.

As they say in marketing jargon, the customer is always right.

With best wishes,

Yours truly,

Nayyar

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad

Lahore.

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