Loud Thinking

Archive for the ‘Corruption’ Category

 

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…!

Panacea for the ills of Pakistan..!

After 67 years, Pakistan is a more fragmented society than our forefathers could have ever imagined. The schism (division or disunion), is so intense that if immediate corrective steps are not taken, God forbid, this country may see even more turbulent times.

The writing on the wall is clear for all to read. The decadence of Pakistani society in every sphere of life, be it political, economic, educational, industrial, agricultural, religious, law and order or any other segment worth naming, is abysmal, to say the least.

Hardly, any day passes without reports of suicides committed by the poor due to the economic hardships. Children did not not die in dozens, but in scores, due to the measles outbreak and; strangely enough, no soul moved and not even a single person was held accountable.

Recently, hundreds of hundreds kids, women and men died in Thar area, just due to diseases and malnutrition, but our ministers and public representatives made sure to enjoy their feasts, right in the middle of the starving population of Thar. These beasts are more callous than the Changez Khan.

Maybe, we have one last chance to stem the rot, to unite the people and to give them a prescription, to rise again and re-build the nation from the ashes; because, for the overwhelming majority, a time is coming that the masses may will be forced to think: no life no nation.

The current frame work, under which the country is being run will not take Pakistan any forward, even if it is allowed to continue as such, for another 100 years. All small and big nations in our region and the world have overtaken us, in the basic fields of health, education, justice, law and order and food security.

It is high time that all stakeholders must wake up, as the nation is moving towards destruction and business as usual, can do no good for Pakistan; our survival is directly linked with the existence of our nationhood. Nationhood means, “the state or quality of having a status as a separate and independent nation”.

Pakistan needs a turnaround for which the basic need is our adaptation and readiness for the change, not in cosmetic but real sense. We need a complete change from one era to another, like the one, witnessed by China, under Mao Zedong.

Hence, for all Pakistanis, failure is not an option but success is also not automatically guaranteed. In this regard, I would like to suggest that we formulate a new social contract, for the common people of Pakistan, who always pays 100 percent bills and taxes and never defaults on their bank loans. Let us make a new Pakistan, which is redesigned to practically cater to the needs of the exploited masses.

Moreover, the current election system is so flawed that any Tom Dick and Harry can easily manipulate it to defeat the basic purpose of the democracy. So, if the basic electoral process is retarded, how can it give birth to genuine representatives?

Changes must be made in the constitution, to make it a presidential form of democratic set up. The election system should also be changed, so that the whole country directly votes for the president. However, before voting, the candidates of all political parties for presidential post, must notify a list of their MPAs, MNAs and Senators, who will be automatically considered elected, according to the percentage of votes cast, in favour of all the candidates, for the top post of the country.

The decision for Pakistan’s charter of development for building dams and mega projects for the next 50 years should also be finalised, on which, later on, no politics should be allowed. In other words, the representatives of the nation should decide now, where they would like to see Pakistan, in each and every field of life after 50 years. This plan should be further divided into ten five years plans.

In order to decentralise and empower the maximum number of people, to enjoy the fruits of self-rule, we should convert every division of Pakistan into a province. This will also work as a panacea (an answer or solution for all problems or difficulties), for the eradication of linguistic and any other type of frictions and doubts about the hegemony of one class of the people over the other.

In fact, it will work wonders in the speedy development and unity of Pakistan; and kill instantly, any secessionist or separatist activities, currently prevailing in some parts of the country.

Modi government committed to lower taxes, finance minister Arun Jaitley says

Surojit Gupta & Sidhartha,TNN | Jul 15, 2014, 01.40 AM IST

BUT PMLN’s GOVERNMENT IS NOT ONLY COMMITTED TO INCREASE TAXES AND RATES OF UTILITY BILLS WHICH IT HAS ALREADY VERY HAPPILY DOUBLED IN JUST FEW MONTHS OF ITS RULE AND NOW HAS COMMITTED WITH THE IMF TO FURTHER DOUBLE THE RATES..!

However, BMW’s and dogs worth crores of Rupees will BE purchased from the tax payers money as usual, for their own comfort and security of the rulers..!

LET THE GENERAL PUBLIC GO TO HELL..!

On the one side the government is advising public, to give more and more financial sacrifices; and on the other hand, it is obliging favourites, as if milk and honey has started flowing in Pakistan, under PMLN : Loot more Pakistan..!

Baber Ayaz appointed media consultant at CAA (Jang Report).

As they say eat more sugarcane. I will say LOOT more Pakistan.

This man will get Rs.5 lac+perks and govt wants us to pay more, every now and then, on utilities and every second item.

Mr. Ishaq Dar told us Rs. 22 crore BMW was for those Arab friends who gave us Rs.150billion. Please also tell us what this man gave to the nation for which he deserves Rs.60 lac/annum + perks???

My comments on the below mentioned news:

If I were the PM, would first replace the finance minister before giving the go ahead for any mini budget.

Unfortunately, this FM has neither the vision nor the will to act upon any out of box thinking.

He can only think the easy way of taking loans (on harsh conditions) and increasing the burden on general public (which pays the power and gas bills honestly) by increasing the utility charges one way or the other.

Our present government has also miserably failed in curbing the massive corruption in the country, which has the magnitude almost equal to the budgeted expenses of the year 14-15 i.e., Rs.4 trillion; which also means that the size of our black economy is equal to the white economy. And perhaps this size of corruption (Rs.12 billion/day according to the former Chairman NAB) may not be prevailing in any other country, where white and black economies are almost equal; and still the government is still looking the other way….but then the question arises why the government is silent over this massive corruption, tax evasion and utilities theft; which is eating away the very foundations of the country’s economy?

As such, the PMLN’s government which came into power on the promises of rooting out the corruption and bringing back the looted money, is giving an incentive to the dishonest and punishment to the honest citizens by increasing taxes and rates and not cracking down on the dishonest people.

News item of Express Tribune:

$6.7b IMF bailout: If needed, Pakistan may introduce mini-budget

By Shahbaz RanaPublished: July 8, 2014

Loan conditions: Rs1.4tr is IMF’s budget deficit target for Pakistan for 2014-15. PHOTO: FILE

ISLAMABAD:
In a bid to keep the $6.7 billion bailout programme afloat, Pakistan has assured the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that it will introduce a mini-budget and slow down development spending to create a cushion of Rs145 billion in case problems arise in delivering the budget deficit target.
“To help ensure programme targets can be met, the [Pakistani] authorities have identified several contingency measures that can be implemented if the expected fiscal adjustment begins to fall short of the objective,” an IMF report revealed on Monday.

The objective IMF mentions is keeping the budget deficit – the gap between income and expenses – equal to 4.8% of the country’s GDP or Rs1.398 trillion. This is lower by 0.1% of the GDP – or Rs32 billion – than the target approved by Parliament.
According to the written assurance, the government, on the revenue side, plans to eliminate statutory regulatory orders (SROs) in fiscal year 2015-16 if tax revenues fall below the level envisaged in the programme. For 2015-16, the government has already given an SRO-elimination plan that promises slating the orders equivalent to 0.3% of the GDP or Rs81 billion at the current size of the economy.
These Rs81 billion measures will be over and above the Rs231 billion net new taxes that the government imposed from July 1. For the new fiscal, the government has set a Rs2.81 trillion tax target that many, including the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), privately admits is unachievable.

“The chances of a mini-budget are high as FBR cannot collect more than Rs2.6 to Rs2.65 trillion in this fiscal year … this is what I told the finance minister before the finalisation of the budget,” said Dr Ashfaque Hasan Khan, a renowned economist and member of the Economic Advisory Council.
“On the expenditure side, we will again reduce expenditure allocations in the first nine months of the year compared to the budget to create a reserve against any shortfall,” Finance Minister Ishaq Dar assured the IMF. This policy is consistent with a contingency plan that the government adopted in the previous financial year, which led to a severe under-spending on the development side.
Pakistan has assured that these measures could yield savings amounting to 0.5% of the GDP or Rs145 billion. “In any case, we stand ready to take compensatory measures as needed, including adjustment on the revenue side, to reach our fiscal target,” the finance minister told the IMF.
According to independent economists, such policies are anti-growth and will adversely affect the current fiscal year’s economic growth rate target of 5.1%. Apparently, the IMF doesn’t trust the government will achieve this target. “For FY2014-15, the economy is forecast to expand by around 4%,” the international lender noted in its report.
New surcharge
Pakistan has also assured the IMF that it will slap a new surcharge on electricity consumers to recover the circular debt if the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) rejected its plan to recover circular debt from consumers by increasing tariffs. The report puts the total circular debt at Rs500 billion.
New conditions
The IMF has imposed four new conditions on Pakistan after the government showed reluctance in reforming some of the critical areas. These conditions, known as structural benchmarks, are steps to give real operational independence to the State Bank (SBP).
The second new condition is filling vacancies in the NEPRA board by end of current month. The third condition is offering minority shares in UBL and PPL to domestic and international investors, which has been met.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 8th, 2014.

How to control prices in the holy month of Ramzan?

All the provincial and district governments must ensure that the government approved rate lists of each and every item, must be BOLDLY and PROMINENTLY displayed at each and every shop, Khokha and Rehri; and must also be advertised daily in the media.

Although, this will NOT completely eliminate the overcharging and extra profiteering by the sellers; yet, it will be a big deterrent and relief in over charging and to a large extent, will also be very effective against the hoarders, as well. Basically, the hoarders are responsible for the Ramzan price hikes.

Moreover, telephone numbers of the concerned officials of the district administration, should also be printed on the price lists, in bold font, for the public to register their complaints for swift action, against the sellers who are found to be overcharging, during the Holy month of Ramzan.

Secondly, a public volunteers team should also be formed, to assist the local administration, in enforcing sale of items on government’s fixed rates.

Thirdly, to instil fear of law into the hearts of the overcharging persons, such unscrupulous persons, must immediately be jailed (without bail) for 30 days, after same day court trials.

All MNA’s, MPA’s, retired government servants of grade 20 and above and ALL serving government servants of grade 17 and above, should be vested with the powers of the 1st Class magistrate to speed up the trial process, in this regard.

With She-Toilets, Chennai shows way in sanitation

An eye opening (for all the political parties in Pakistan)Times of india Report dated 16 June, 2014.

WHY FRUITS OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT SYETEM ONLY IN INDIA.

WHY PEOPLE OF PAKISTAN WILL NEVER SEE A TRUE LOCAL GOVERNMENT PEOPLES SELF RULE?

MAY BE THIS IS THE REASON WHEN POLITICAL SYSTEM IS PACKED UP IN PAKISTAN PEOPLE DISTRIBUTE SWEETS BECAUSE PAKISTANI PUBLIC KNOWS THAT THESE POLITICAL LEADERS ARE NOT SINCERE WITH THE PUBLIC.

IS DEPRIVING PUBLIC FOR DECADES FROM THE LOCAL BODIES ELECTIONS NOT A VIOLATION OF THE CONSTITUTION OF PAKISTAN?

CHENNAI: The Chennai Corporation is aiming for a clean sweep to tackle problems of female hygiene and access to sanitation — special ‘She Toilets’ have been planned for women in 348 locations across the city and will be opened by the end of the year. They will also be the first e-toilets (electronic, fully automated toilets) in the city. The toilets will have sanitary napkin vending machines and incinerators.

“This is also the first time Chennai Corporation has done a detailed survey and mapping of where public toilets are required and where the public oppose it,” said a senior corporation official. “Earlier the corporation would only ask the zonal engineer where to put up a toilet.” These 348 locations include bus stands, markets and open spaces.

The toilets will come as a relief to women who work outdoors all day such as vendors, construction workers and police officers. “We have to stand on the road for at least five hours while on bandobast duty,” said Leela Sri, a woman constable. “There are very few public toilets that we can use and most of them are filthy.” Leela, who has been on the job for 11 years, said she and her female colleagues are prone to urinary tract infections and fibroids. “If more of these toilets for women come up, the next generation of policewomen need not face such health problems,” she says. Kerala State Women’s Development Corporation recently introduced these toilets.

The most attractive feature of the e-toilet is that it flushes automatically even if a person fails to flush. “It is fully automated and after five uses, the unit automatically cleans up the entire toilet. The fans and lights turn on and off a person enters and leaves,” said Suneetan Nair, marketing officer, Eram Scientific, a Trivandrum-based firm that developed the product for Kerala, and one of the bidders for the project in Chennai.

To prevent vandalism and encroachment of public toilets, the She-Toilets will have GPRS devices. “All units have will have a GPRS device to alert the officials concerned in case of theft or vandalism,” Nair said. “It also has a voice complaint system where a person can simply press a button and record a complaint about the toilet,” he said.

Chennai currently has a little over 900 public toilets, inadequate for its 65 lakh population. “We tried public- private partnerships to help maintain toilets but it failed. Now we will form a public toilet monitoring wing in the corporation for existing toilets,” the official said. With the help of a non-governmental organisation, the corporation will conduct a 20-day survey to study the problems of existing toilets. “We know that the city is short of 2,000 toilets,” the official said. “We will ensure this is corrected by March 2015.”

After 66 years, Pakistan is a more fragmented society than our forefathers could have ever imagined. The schism (division or disunion), is so intense that if immediate corrective steps are not taken, God forbid, this country may see even more turbulent times.

The writing on the wall is clear for all to read. The decadence of Pakistani society in every sphere of life, be it political, economic, educational, industrial, agricultural, religious, law and order or any other segment worth naming, is abysmal, to say the least.

Hardly, any day passes without reports of suicides committed by the poor due to the economic hardships. Children did not not die in dozens, but in scores, due to the measles outbreak and; strangely enough, no soul moved and not even a single person was held accountable.

Recently, hundreds of hundreds kids, women and men died in Thar area, just due to diseases and malnutrition, but our ministers and public representatives made sure to enjoy their feasts, right in the middle of the starving population of Thar. These beasts are more callous than the Changez Khan.

Maybe, we have one last chance to stem the rot, to unite the people and to give them a prescription, to rise again and re-build the nation from the ashes; because, for the overwhelming majority, a time is coming that the masses may will be forced to think: no life no nation.

The current frame work, under which the country is being run will not take Pakistan any forward, even if it is allowed to continue as such, for another 100 years. All small and big nations in our region and the world have overtaken us, in the basic fields of health, education, justice, law and order and food security.

All stakeholders must wake up, as the nation is moving towards destruction and business as usual, can do no good for Pakistan; our survival is directly linked with the existence of our nationhood. Nationhood means, “the state or quality of having a status as a separate and independent nation”.

Pakistan needs a turnaround for which the basic need is our adaptation and readiness for the change, not in cosmetic but real sense. We need a complete change from one era to another, like the one, witnessed by China, under Mao Zedong.

Hence, for all Pakistanis, failure is not an option but success is also not automatically guaranteed. In this regard, I would like to suggest that we formulate a new social contract, for the common people of Pakistan, who always pay 100 percent bills and taxes and never defaults on their bank loans. Let us make a new Pakistan, which is redesigned to practically cater to the needs of the exploited masses.

Moreover, the current election system is so flawed that any Tom Dick and Harry can easily manipulate it to defeat the basic purpose of the democracy. So, if the basic electoral process is retarded, how can it give birth to genuine representatives?

Changes must be made in the constitution, to make it a presidential form of democratic set up. The election system should also be changed, so that the whole country directly votes for the president. However, before voting, the candidates of all political parties for presidential post, must notify a list of their MPAs, MNAs and Senators, who will be automatically considered elected, according to the percentage of votes cast, in favour of the main candidate for the top post of the country.

The decision for Pakistan’s charter of development for building dams and mega projects for the next 50 years should also be finalised, on which, later on, no politics should be allowed. In other words, the representatives of the nation should decide now, where they would like to see Pakistan, in each and every field of life after 50 years. This plan should be further divided into ten five years plans.

In order to decentralise and empower the maximum number of people, to enjoy the fruits of self-rule, we should convert every division of Pakistan into a province. This will also work as a panacea (an answer or solution for all problems or difficulties), for the eradication of linguistic and any other type of frictions and doubts about the hegemony of one class of the people over the other.

In fact, it will work wonders in the speedy development and unity of Pakistan; and kill instantly, any secessionist or separatist activities, currently prevailing in some parts of the country.

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The people of Pakistan need to know from the concerned in the GOP, the answers to the following questions:

1. Why there was no bidder for the expired license of Instaphone? Who is responsible for this grave failure?
Here it must be remembered that despite the false myth, of the stiff competition, the Pakistani telecom market is working like dollar manufacturing machine, for the telecom companies, which are regularly earning and remitting billions of USD, back to their parent overseas companies. However, these companies do not want to invest a single penny in Pakistan from their overseas wealth, that too earned from Pakistan.

2. Why the procedure of auction was designed in a manner which facilitated the alleged pooling? Has any action been taken against the consultants, who were hired for very hefty amounts?

3. What reciprocal benefits were BARGAINED with the telecom companies, in accepting their HUGE DEMAND, for allowing the payments in Pak Rupee (after it was decided and notified in the Information Memorandum (IM) that the entire auction payments will be required in the USD) which effectively confirmed that no foreign investment will be coming to Pakistan, in this auction?
In fact this acceptance of demand changed the whole scenario of the auction.

4. Why no serious efforts were made to invite new foreign telecom companies? Does it mean that the few telecom operators in Pakistan, would not allow any new entrant in their field to guard their monopoly?

5. Why no new foreign telecom company came to Pakistan, when major current telecom companies in Pakistan are doing such a ROARING business (against the wrong myth of stiff competition) that they are REGULARLY sending around $2 billion per annum profit out of Pakistan, which is more than the combined yearly profits of the two world leading US soft drinks companies in Pakistan?

6. And despite such a huge earnings of the telecom companies in Pakistan, why the FBR is not pressing, for its many years old claim of more than PKR 50 billion, usurped by these companies, on account of payables to the government, collected from the public, on GOP’s behalf?
This amount must be recovered now with the accrued interests, for which if required, the matter may be got decided from the courts; and till such time the decision is pending from the courts, this amount should be taken from the telecom companies and kept with the courts.

7. When the whole world is crying foul in the 3G/4G bids submitted by the four Telecom companies, why the government gave statements that the auction will fetch a satisfactory amount of $1.3 billion, when even these payments will be received in the Pak Rupee? Here, why the public is not being told the fact that even this amount will not be received in full, but only PKR 65 billion will be received as lump sum; and the remaining 50% amount will be received in easy instalments, spread over 5 years?
This virtually means that GOP has given a major concession of “pay as you earn” to the telecom companies, which again proves that there will be no inflow of foreign investments, in this auction.

8. If earlier the GOP accepted the demands of the telecom companies, to withdraw from the notified IM the payment condition in USD to PKR, why no bargaining was made to get the entire auction amount in the first instance without any instalments; and why the telecom companies were not forced in the same bargaining of depositing their outstanding amount of PKR 50 billion, which actually don’t belong to these companies, as it was the amount of taxes collected from the public on the government’s behalf?

9. Why the government relaxed the rules to allow the participation in the telecom spectrum auction, of a defaulting telecom company?

10. Why the $800 million due from a defaulting telecom company since 2006 is not being forcefully recovered for the equal of the more than 95-97% properties, already transferred in that defaulting telecom company’s name.

11. Why the defaulting telecom company is holding $800 million of the GOP, just for the non transfer of less than 3-5% properties? Why the government has allowed it self to be black mailed in this case, when on an another account a Turkish power company’s ship was seized by the GOP for its default? Why UAE’s telecom company is being given a preferential treatment, over the Turkish power company?

12. Why the government has not decided to cancel the privatisation of the PTCL to Etisalat Telecom on its about a decade of default of $800 million, which in real terms now means almost equal to near about $5 billion?

13. When specially 3G spectrum is a life and death matter for the telecom companies in Pakistan, why Warid Telecom has decided to stay away from the bidding?
This question has many aspects and need deep investigations to find the true answers.

14. Why not immediately scrap the 3G, 4G telecom spectrum auction till some more companies also join the telecom business in Pakistan?

15. GOP announced in very categorical terms that 3G Telecom Spectrums will be auctioned to the 3 Telecom Companies out of the 4 bidders. Why then in the end this farce of auction was turned into an virtual allotment; and instead of giving licences for 3G/4G Spectrum to the first 3 highest bidders it was virtually ALLOTED to all  the 4 bidders that too practically at base price?

16. This also means GOP allowed pooling of the bidders as no bid was effectively, substantially and reasonably above the base or reserve price.

17. If in the end instead of auction, the licenses were to be ALLOTED or just upgraded, then why GOP spent millions of Rupees/Dollars to hire the services of the consultant.

18. The two telecom companies namely Mobillink and Telenor are owned by VIMPLECOM. Now these companies are blocking one license for a new company/foreign investment. Why this aspect of monopoly has been ignored by the GOP.

19. If Mian Mansha can be called by the NAB on MCB’s  privatisation irregularities why can’t the responsible GOP persons of the GOP be called by the NAB on converting an auction into an allotment/up-gradation?