Loud Thinking

Archive for the ‘Corruption’ Category

Why Hullabaloo only on CNG and Fertiliser gas usage?

Why no audit of IPP’s for maximum waste in Pakistan of gas and furnace oil compared to the rest of the world?

Why total income tax free profit allowed to the IPP’s? This means rewarding the IPPs for colossal wastage of oil and gas and consequently producing very expensive electricity.

Pakistan must ensure that the efficiency of the (independent power producers) IPP’s is improved immediately, if not to the world level, at least to the level of India.

Our gas-fired power plants consume up to 17,000 BTUs to produce one kWh, while India produces one kWh with 6,000 BTUs. We are wasting 11,000 BTUs just for nothing as compared to India.

Our furnace oil fired IPPs are consuming almost twice as much oil, to produce the same amount of electricity, than other comparable power plants in the world.

Now, calculate the monetary value of this waste of the oil and gas (as compared to India\world) and imagine the saving in cheap production of electricity to the government; and its consequential benefits to the people.

Increasing the IPPs efficiency will sharply bring down the cost of production of the electricity and greatly reduce the high power tariff burden on the general public. This can only be done by an energy audit of the IPPs, which the NEPRA has avoided, for the last eight years.

Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif Sahab, these are the management and governance issues; and if attended properly by your government, will result in huge relief to the masses. But some how, I apprehend that your bureaucracy\advisors are not giving you the true picture of the state of the affairs; and the power cartel is so strong that you look absolutely helpless. These people will never allow you to act on the out of box solutions. They just want you to keep on increasing oil, gas and electricity prices, according to their mad dictation.

Mr. PM of Pakistan, it is high time you reshuffle and also change your entire team, repeat entire team, else be ready for not many rosy days in future.

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad

Lahore.

Sent from my iPad3 4G LTE
PS:- The information regarding high usage of gas and furnace oil by our IPPs, its comparison of production efficiency with India and the world and matter of NEPRA energy audit was quoted from the article of Mr. Farrukh Saleem, titled “Power Cartel” published by the daily “The News” dated October 6, 2013.

This has reference to the news item of 01 December 2012, by Mehtab Haider titled “Total debt scales Rs.14.5 trillion mark” published by the daily “The News” link :-http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-3-145837-Total-debt-scales-Rs145-trillion-mark

The gist of the above reveals the extremely precarious economic situation of Pakistan, as below.

1. Pakistan’s public debt and liabilities crossed Rs.13.5 trillion by end-September 2012, as per SBP data released on 30 November, 2012. However, a closer look reading of the data showed that the size of total debt is Rs.14.5 trillion.

2. According to SBP data total debt and liabilities at end of September 2012, touched $66.24 billion.

3. BY THE END OF JUNE 2012, PAKISTAN’S DEBT-TO-GDP RATIO STOOD AT 61.5%.

4. According to the former economic adviser Dr. Ashfaque Hassan Khan. “Even now, interest repayments are consuming 56 percent of the FBR’s revenue. And these unsustainable levels of public debt will be a burden on future generations who will service this debt through exorbitant taxation.”

5. Analysts say that irresponsible fiscal management, sharp depreciation of the Rupee (from Rs.60 to a dollar to Rs.97 to a dollar – in the last four years) and low economic growth have caused the surge in public debt.

In view of the foregoing, it is clearly evident that we have reached a stage, where even alarm bells ringing time has passed. The economy of Pakistan is not sinking, it has already sunk. Foreign exchange reserves are fast depleting.

{This piece was written in December, 2012 and now today (in the year 2013) the government has been forced to obtain loan from IMF to repay its old loan. This proves that we have no money to pay our liabilities. This situation in plain words is called bankruptcy.}

However, what is very alarming and strange that the entire government and the parliament is silent over the issue, as if, they are in collusion with each other, on (God forbid) this virtual economic demise of the country. Otherwise, at least a single person from the entire parliament would have raised his/ her voice, over violation of the binding on the government, for not exceeding the debt-to-GDP ratio over 60%. (Please refer para 3 above).

We should remember that USSR was not dis-membered, due to the violation or collapse of its geographical boundaries. Rather, it was the collapse of its economy, which destroyed a superpower overnight. The USSR broke down without firing of a single bullet, just due to its economic melt down.

If, even at this later stage, patriotic Pakistanis won’t raise their voice, over this virtual economic collapse of the country, then be ready, history will never forgive us, for our collective Harakiri.

No amount of military or nuclear power, can save a nation from its demise, due to the economic collapse. Yes, collective will power of its people, can save a nation from any crisis, but that too if, the people are not too late, as time and tide waits for none.

Although, Pakistan is in a perpetual state of war for more than a decade, yet, the government never acted in a manner, that would reflect even slight realisation on its part, to make its expenses in a more prudent manner. No austerity measures were imposed, to either reduce the size of the bloated cabinet, stop payments of foreign exchange to top government functionaries, who are entitled for such perks, or even restrict purchase of new cars etc.

This is extreme callousness with the nation. On the other side, high and mighty are enjoying benefits, which even a rich country like Switzerland, can not afford to its VIP’s; for example allowing instalment payment of power bills of their factories stretched over a period of 2000 YEARS, YES 2000 YEARS. The Pakistani VIP class is enjoying such facilities and benefits, which even the Queen of England would envy.

Now, business as usual can not be continued.

The economic treason with the state of Pakistan, by all the concerned, looks like a fit case for the patriotic people in the government, opposition (in and out of parliament) and the entire civil society, to demand the immediate formation of a very lean national government, which should impose an economic emergency; and also take necessary action on the question that “why all the concerned remained silent when the debt-to-GDP ratio exceeded 60%, that too, few months back on 30 June, 2012.” Don’t forget, when the same problem was faced by the US government, even the salaries were not paid, till such time, President Barack Obama, got approval from the law makers, for enhancing the expenditures limit.

It will not be out of place to end this note, with quote of the Midwestern tycoon Warren Buffett, who once gave an easy solution to America ’s debt problem on CNBC:

“I could end the deficit in five minutes. You just pass a law that says that anytime there is a deficit of more than three percent of GDP all sitting members of congress are ineligible for reelection.

FRESH TAIL PEICE DATED 17 AUGUST 2013.

THE NATION DEMANDS THAT THE PREVIOUS RULERS BE IMMEDIATELY ARRESTED AND TRIED FOR PUSHING PAKISTAN TO THE STATE OF BANKRUPTCY.

THE NATION ALSO DEMANDS THAT ALL THE ASSETS INSIDE PAKISTAN AND ABROAD OF THE ENTIRE LOT OF THE PREVIOUS GOVERNMENT’S TOP FUNCTIONARIES BE CONFISCATED AND THESE PEOPLE SHOULD ONLY BE ALLOWED TO COME OUT OF THE JAIL IF THEY AGREE TO REPAY THE PREVIOUS IMF LOAN OF $11.3 BILLION.

THE QUESTION IS SIMPLE WHY THE PEOPLE OF PAKISTAN SHOULD REPAY THE ODIOUS IMF LOAN OBTAINED AND UTILISED BY THE PREVIOUS RULES FOR THEIR OWN BENEFITS?

THE NATION ALSO DEMANDS AN IMPARTIAL JUDICIAL INQUIRY INTO THE ECONOMIC MURDER OF THE NATION WHEREIN WHEN GENERAL MUSHARRAF’s GOVERNMENT HANDED POWER TO THE PPP GOVERNMENT OUR LOAN LIABILITY IN THE YEAR 2008 STOOD AT $40 BILLION (PPP GOVT GOT SANCTIONED A LOAN FROM IMF WORTH USD 11.3 BILLION AND RECEIVED $7.6 BILLION SO AT THE END OF PPP GOVT THIS FIGURE SHOULD NOT HAVE GONE UP MORE THAN USD 48 BILLION) AND ONE USD WAS EQUAL TO PKR 60. WHAT HAPPENED TO PAKISTAN’S ECONOMY WHEN THE PMLN GOVERNMENT TOOK OVER IN JUNE 2013 ONE USD WAS SELLING FOR 100 PKR AND NATIONAL LOANS SHOT UP TO USD 67 BILLIONS?

A BILLION DOLLAR QUESTION:

WHAT IS THE SECRET OF UNACCOUNTED FOR INCREASE OF ABOUT 20 BILLION USD IN LOAN LIABILITIES OF PAKISTAN DURING THE FIVE YEARS (2008-13) OF PPP RULE?

An Excellent Out of Box Solution for the Entire Economic Malaise of Pakistan.

Pakistan must give a try to this novel idea to easily eliminate poverty and unemployment.

The other untapped ‘free’ money

July 17, 2013 Najma Sadeque

An Article About a Novel Idea to Easily Eliminate Poverty & Unemployment Published in the daily “The Nation” dated 17 July, 2013.

The actual worth of goods and services in the world last year was over $71 trillion, a staggering jump from over $41 trillion in 2000. If that’s the case, how is it that the amount of money in the world – coins, paper and digital – is ten times that or more? With such excess, why are 2 billion still hungry, poor, jobless or underemployed?

What happens when some have too much and most have too little money? When a minority of people have several hundred or thousand-fold more than others, they buy up most of everything, create monopolies and cartels, arbitrarily raise prices and make undue, excessive profits while the majority do with less than their fair share, or go without entirely. They have money enough to lobby and influence politics, government and legislation, and unwarranted control over or privatisation of ‘commons’ lands and public goods, leading to loss of social and economic services for the masses. Why is such excess purchasing power allowed when it causes heightened and unacceptable inequalities and damaging inflation?

If we really believe in things like human and constitutional rights, democracy, Islamic finance, and equal rights and opportunities, and acknowledge that all natural resources are essential for survival, and all are therefore entitled to an adequate share each, there then has to be a mechanism to ensure fair distribution of minimum needs for all citizens.

That facilitator is money, which today no longer has to be backed by gold or silver or other commodity; it just needs to be guaranteed and reliable.

Various types of positive financial services have successfully served the “little people” in many other countries for at least a century. When dire economic straits occurred, such as in Argentina, Iran, even USA and UK, and most recently in Greece, apart from rioting and protests, did people just curl up and die because they had no cash? No, necessity being the mother of invention, some innovated or revived old, tested solutions known as complementary or community currencies.

It is best illustrated by one of the most famous success stories. In 1932, Wörgl, a small Austrian town, was in dire straits. There were 1,500 jobless and 200 impoverished, penniless families. But Michael Unterguggenberger, Wörgl’s brilliant Mayor, decided to test out the ideas of Silvio Gesell, a German economist and activist. He issued scrip (free of cost except for printing) with an exchange value of 40,000 schillings, and spent the money into circulation through public works that created huge employment. All the broken roads were repaved, the water system rebuilt, a ski jump, new houses, and more made; even a bridge, commemorated with a permanent plaque that proudly states: “This bridge was built with our own ‘free’ money.”

As it turned out, every scrip generated 12 to 14 times more employment than the official schillings in circulation. It was so successful that a neighbouring city and six villages copied it. The then Prime Minister of France specially visited to see the “Miracle of Wörgl” for himself. A year later, 200 other Austrian towns planned to replicate it.

At this point, the Central Bank grew alarmed and asserted its monopoly over the finance system, even though each scrip was restricted to community use. The people sued the central bank, but lost. It was an unfortunate dog-in-the-manger attitude, refusing to assist people who needed help, but also thwarting the people from helping themselves.

Since then, there have been many other such examples – but with happier endings, some with government tolerance if not backing. A virtually costless solution for people denied the right to paid work and money.

Today, there are over 2,500 complementary and community currencies around the world. There are small service charges, but no crippling interest. There have always been poor and low-income or the temporarily cash-strapped; alternatives were developed according to local needs.

The tokens are not national legal tender, and not allowed outside delineated areas of operation. Yet, they are being resorted to increasingly, to overcome the marginalisation of the masses by banks or inept governments.

In recent decades, answering a need, they have grown in popularity and use. Just a few weeks ago, the 2nd International Conference on Complementary and Community Currency Systems took place in the Netherlands, addressed by academics, economists, public bankers and activists. Other such meetings are forthcoming this year in UK and USA. Since 2002 – long before the global financial crash – some local currency schemes in Europe under certain conditions are exchangeable with national currency.

Some schemes are for the express purpose of local food production and re-localisation of purchasing. If and when they are no longer needed, they can be easily phased out. It is the sort of thing our women and our peasants need until they are “mainstreamed” into the wider economy.

In a country such as ours where there is inadequate infrastructure for most services, this would ideally be carried out by trusted civil service organisations as they have been elsewhere. Micro-credit philanthropies need to study complementary/community currency possibilities because the money they use still carries an in-built interest burden, while microcredit banks charge heavy interest like any other bank; they serve individuals rather than communities, and only to a limited extent.

Commercial banks are limited by their own for-profit-only existence, lending only to those who pay back with interest; and certain self-serving transactional practices that have corrupted part of the wider banking world, in the end failing most people, especially of the developing world.

The scheme requires no major infrastructure, and it certainly does not require foreign loans, that would be undesirable and defeat the purpose. There is one proviso though. It has to be operated with transparency and honesty. Success stories came from maintaining open, audited books and public participation. If corruption or political advantage intrude, it will collapse before take-off.

The question is: why didn’t Pakistan adopt such solutions earlier? Mainly because our politicians and decision-makers couldn’t care less; nor do they want to empower people, who may become the competition or reduce their domination – as in the case of land reform. The “highly-qualified” are so inward-looking, even brainwashed by World Bank/IMF norms, they don’t even look at today’s easily accessible global information, to learn from outside.

It first needs the realisation that money is merely a measure – a medium of exchange and accounting device – and that it does ‘not’ have to be borrowed or be earned first before it can be spent. Nor is it a special knowledge that only bankers and controlling governments can understand.

The writer is a former journalist and currently director of The Green Economic Initiative at Shirkat Gah, a rights and advocacy group.

By Nadeem M Qureshi

In 2008 when the PPP government of President Asif Zardari took office Pakistan’s total foreign debt was about $40 billion. Today, at the end of the PPP government’s term, it is $60 billion. Twenty billion dollars of new debt has been added. As the Government of Nawaz Sharif begins negotiations with the IMF to seek more loans, the people of Pakistan need to ask two basic questions. The first is: What happened to this money?

By almost any economic indicator people are worse off today than they were five years ago. Unemployment and inflation are higher. Vital infrastructure – railways, roads, public transport, hospitals, schools, water supply and sewage systems – have deteriorated to unprecedented and unacceptable levels. It is almost as though the $20 billion has vanished into thin air.

Well, some of it has. Consider, for example, the single case of the purchase of Boeing 777 aircraft by Pakistan International Airlines in 2011. Transparency International Pakistan maintains that of the $1.5 billion paid for the aircraft, $500 million were diverted as kickbacks to the government functionaries. Multiply this by dozens of multibillion dollar deals over five years, across different economic sectors, and it is clear that many of the billions taken in the name of the people of Pakistan have disappeared into private bank accounts.
Not all of the $20 billion is unaccounted for. Some of it is on rude display in the fleets of bullet proof luxury vehicles of politicians and bureaucrats. Less visible is the money spent on acquiring and maintaining the fleet of private jets at the disposal of the country’s ‘leaders’ and their acolytes. Also hidden from view but widely reported are the luxurious lifestyles of the people’s ‘servants’. A distasteful example of this was the news that the government planned to spend Rs. 260 million to renovate the President’s kitchen.

The second question that the people of Pakistan are entitled to ask is this: Should they be liable to pay back money taken in their name but used almost exclusively to enrich the ruling coterie? It is clear that the highly paid international bureaucrats who work for the IMF are not stupid. It cannot have escaped them that the money they are doling out is misused, or worse, stolen. Why then should the people of Pakistan pay for their willful negligence? This raises issues of legality and precedent. Is it lawful for a country to refute debt taken on by corrupt politicians? And, are there any precedents for this? The answer to both questions is yes.

The concept of odious debt was established in international law by Alexander Nahum Sack, a Russian born jurisprudence expert, in a paper published in Paris in 1927. Odious debt “is a legal theory that holds that the national debt incurred by a regime for purposes that do not serve the best interests of the nation, should not be enforceable. Such debts are, thus, considered by this doctrine to be personal debts of the regime that incurred them and not debts of the state.”

The doctrine further suggests that since odious debt is deemed the personal debt of the rulers in power at the time the debt was secured, recovery should be from their personal assets. There are also several precedents in which countries have repudiated national debt. The United States set the first precedent of odious debt when it seized control of Cuba from Spain. Spain insisted that Cuba repay the loans made to them by Spain. The U.S. repudiated that debt, arguing that the debt was imposed on Cuba by force of arms and served Spain’s interest rather than Cuba’s, and that the debt therefore ought not be repaid.
The debt was annulled. In recent times, there is the example of Haiti. When the dictator Jean Claude Duvalier was overthrown in 1986, 66 US senators supported a resolution calling for cancellation of Haiti’s debt on the grounds that the money was misused. In the end, half of Haiti’s debt was written off.

By far the most effective use of the ‘odious debt’ doctrine in recent times is by President Rafael Correa of Ecuador. In 2008 he repudiated Ecuador’s national debt of $ 3 billion and announced the country would default and fight creditors in international courts. He succeeded eventually in getting a 60% write off on Ecuador’s debt.

Sadly, it is doubtful that Pakistan’s current leaders will be able to take the IMF bull by its horns. They lack the competence, integrity and, yes the intelligence, to do so. What a tragedy for the poor people of Pakistan who will continue to pay for their leaders’ larceny.

(The writer is Chairman of Mustaqbil Pakistan)

Moreover, Mr. Naeem Sadiq wrote on 12, July 2013 in the daily “The News” quoted as below.
Quote.”Dear Bank
Naeem Sadiq
TheNews
Friday, July 12, 2013
Many thanks for the $5.3 billion loan. One small step for a bank, a giant leap for a chronic borrower. I can proudly claim that my debt, steadily rising every year, has now reached $66.17 billion. This would mean that every member of my family must cough out $366 to repay this loan. This can only happen if we all stop eating, drinking – in fact living – for the next 10 months. Is that what they also call collective suicide? I made sure not to consult my unenthusiastic family, on whose behalf these loans were taken. They never seem to agree with my lifesaving – or should I say death-delaying? – initiatives. You too must be equally ecstatic. After all you end up gaining the most. You will retain most of this amount as repayment of the earlier loan, while my unflinching yearly debt-servicing will keep you charmed for a long time to come.

You had raised a number of questions before you approved the loans. Why is it that despite such massive borrowing, my family shows no signs of getting any better? Why are 50 percent of the family members illiterate and 60 percent below poverty level? Why are half the children out of school? Why is there no electricity half the time? Why does no one in the family have access to clean tap water?

You also wanted to know the reasons for the striking disparity in the lifestyle of some other members of our family. They move about with armed guards in obscenely large vehicles (often smuggled), live in luxury homes, have properties and cash stacked in foreign lands and drink corporate soda or water only from those neat-looking plastic bottles. It is only this segment of the family that is forever pushing for more loans. They are the ones who justify the bank’s slogan of ‘poverty alleviation’ – since this is the only group whose poverty gets truly alleviated.

My sixth sense tells me that you already know the answers to all these questions. You were merely going through the motions, filling forms, giving an impression of officious formality and appropriateness. The fact that I earn little, waste a lot and pilfer the most, makes me an ideal customer for the sort of business you are in. I have learnt to plead my case by closely studying beggars who flock the streets of Karachi during the holy month of Ramazan every year. I use exactly the same techniques with only three minor variations – dress, language and location.

Now, some bad news for you. My entire family, except those very few who gained the most from your loans, got together last night to say that they would no longer tolerate being pushed into this bottomless cesspool.

When I gave them your message that they needed to tighten their belts, they said they were too poor and did not have any belts to tighten. They said they were fed up of the loans taken on their name – the loans that make the elite of the family get richer and have still more fun. The mounting loans have made them poorer than before and taken away the last shreds of dignity that covered their half-naked bodies. Getting crumbs like 0.8 percent for health and 1.8 percent for education made them still more unhealthy, and yet more uneducated.

In simple words, my family has decided not just to stop seeking any further loans but to also stop any further debt-servicing. An unemployed maths teacher in my family spent some time to calculate that we paid $37.2 billion as debt-servicing alone in the last eight years. This is many times more than the principal amount that we borrowed during this period.

We are absolutely sure that there is no law that can force us to close our schools, starve our children, privatise our resources and abandon our welfare, simply because our selfish elders borrowed huge sums on behalf of those who cannot even spell the word ‘loan’ or have ever seen a bank from the inside.

Having paid off the principal amount several times over, we have a good reason to ask for total debt cancellation and an immediate freeze on any further debt-servicing. Do you realise that discovering a new mode of dying – by getting trampled while struggling to receive free food donations – speaks volumes about the poverty that your loans have been able to alleviate?

Sincerely,

Issac.dare@gmail.com
naeem sadiq
twitter : @saynotoweapons ” Unquote.

Attention Mr. Ishaq Dar, the IMF and the World Bank.

we paid $37.2 billion as debt-servicing alone in the last eight years. This is many times more than the principal amount that we borrowed during this period.

An Eye Opener by Mr. Naeem Sadiq

Dear Bank

Naeem Sadiq
TheNews
Friday, July 12, 2013

Many thanks for the $5.3 billion loan. One small step for a bank, a giant leap for a chronic borrower. I can proudly claim that my debt, steadily rising every year, has now reached $66.17 billion. This would mean that every member of my family must cough out $366 to repay this loan. This can only happen if we all stop eating, drinking – in fact living – for the next 10 months. Is that what they also call collective suicide? I made sure not to consult my unenthusiastic family, on whose behalf these loans were taken. They never seem to agree with my lifesaving – or should I say death-delaying? – initiatives. You too must be equally ecstatic. After all you end up gaining the most. You will retain most of this amount as repayment of the earlier loan, while my unflinching yearly debt-servicing will keep you charmed for a long time to come.

You had raised a number of questions before you approved the loans. Why is it that despite such massive borrowing, my family shows no signs of getting any better? Why are 50 percent of the family members illiterate and 60 percent below poverty level? Why are half the children out of school? Why is there no electricity half the time? Why does no one in the family have access to clean tap water?

You also wanted to know the reasons for the striking disparity in the lifestyle of some other members of our family. They move about with armed guards in obscenely large vehicles (often smuggled), live in luxury homes, have properties and cash stacked in foreign lands and drink corporate soda or water only from those neat-looking plastic bottles. It is only this segment of the family that is forever pushing for more loans. They are the ones who justify the bank’s slogan of ‘poverty alleviation’ – since this is the only group whose poverty gets truly alleviated.

My sixth sense tells me that you already know the answers to all these questions. You were merely going through the motions, filling forms, giving an impression of officious formality and appropriateness. The fact that I earn little, waste a lot and pilfer the most, makes me an ideal customer for the sort of business you are in. I have learnt to plead my case by closely studying beggars who flock the streets of Karachi during the holy month of Ramazan every year. I use exactly the same techniques with only three minor variations – dress, language and location.

Now, some bad news for you. My entire family, except those very few who gained the most from your loans, got together last night to say that they would no longer tolerate being pushed into this bottomless cesspool.

When I gave them your message that they needed to tighten their belts, they said they were too poor and did not have any belts to tighten. They said they were fed up of the loans taken on their name – the loans that make the elite of the family get richer and have still more fun. The mounting loans have made them poorer than before and taken away the last shreds of dignity that covered their half-naked bodies. Getting crumbs like 0.8 percent for health and 1.8 percent for education made them still more unhealthy, and yet more uneducated.

In simple words, my family has decided not just to stop seeking any further loans but to also stop any further debt-servicing. An unemployed maths teacher in my family spent some time to calculate that we paid $37.2 billion as debt-servicing alone in the last eight years. This is many times more than the principal amount that we borrowed during this period.

We are absolutely sure that there is no law that can force us to close our schools, starve our children, privatise our resources and abandon our welfare, simply because our selfish elders borrowed huge sums on behalf of those who cannot even spell the word ‘loan’ or have ever seen a bank from the inside.

Having paid off the principal amount several times over, we have a good reason to ask for total debt cancellation and an immediate freeze on any further debt-servicing. Do you realise that discovering a new mode of dying – by getting trampled while struggling to receive free food donations – speaks volumes about the poverty that your loans have been able to alleviate?

Sincerely,

Issac.dare@gmail.com

naeem sadiq
twitter : @saynotoweapons
———————————————————————
How the state promotes crime and militancy. Look at the yearly average for prohibited bore licenses (PB) and non prohibited bore licenses (NPB) issued in last 10 years to the rich and powerful, to friends and relatives and to party men and criminals.

Yearly average of PB licenses, from 2003 to 2007………361
Yearly average of PB licenses, from 2008 to 2012 ………13895

Yearly average of NPB licenses, from 2003 to 2007………15261
Yearly average of NPB licenses, from 2008 to 2012 ………240494

Ref: official info obtained by using FOI and SC Suo moto case 16/2011

Dear Mr. Ishaq Dar,

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/

In this regard, as per my many earlier submissions to the PM and the entire nation, I am fully convinced, without an iota of doubt that it is sheer disaster recipe for the Pakistan’s economy, to seek loan (that too on an exorbitantly high rate of 3%) from IMF, to repay their old loan. Moreover, your argument that this was the only option to avoid a default, also do not hold water, as firstly, I have explained not one but many viable options in my earlier communications and secondly, default is better than the destruction of the very foundations of the nation’s economy. Hope you know very well that in the recent past, many countries have bravely negotiated with the international lending agencies and succeeded in getting reduction of up to 60% of their loans.

However, in Pakistan’s case our loan amount is increasing with an unbelievable speed. It was recently reported that when PPP government took over in 2008, our debt liability was $40 billions and now it has increased to much more than $60 billion.

The nations fails to understand that why you remained silent as PMLN’s financial expert and also as a senator, during the PPP tenure, when it crossed the LEGAL and constitutional limit of 6% debt to GDP ratio. This was such a grave violation of the law that had PMLN taken up this issue with the Supreme Court, the PPP government would have been immediately dismissed.

So how can you now absolve yourself from this financial mess, by just saying that you took over the government with nation’s economy in very bad shape?

Also, how can the history exonerate the PMLN in general and Mr. Ishaq Dar in particular, for not playing a pro Pakistan role when the PPP government was playing havoc, with the country’s economy?

As such, Mr. Ishaq Dar, there is only one way of atonement of our past acts of commissions and omissions, by not to further burden the nation’s economy with extremely and unprecedentedly expensive loans of IMF, lest the future generations may not have to say that “لمحوں نے خطا کی تھی صد یوں نے سزا پائ”

Kindly still there is time to explore other options to avoid IMF loan. Nothing is impossible. Where there is a will there is a way.

With best regards,

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad
0321-9402157
Lahore.

Sent from my iPad3 4G LTE

The daily “The News”  published the following on Thursday, 27 June 27, 2013 at page # 4.

Link:- http://e.thenews.com.pk/6-27-2013/page4.asp#;

Link:- http://images.thenews.com.pk/27-06-2013/ethenews/t-23752.htm

Mr. PM! There are three options to avoid IMF loan

ISLAMABAD: Renowned economist Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad has written an open letter to the Prime Minister Main Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, in which he has suggested three out of the box solutions to avoid taking loan from the IMF.

The following is the text of the letter:

H’able Prime Minister Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif Sahib;

Salaam.

I am fully convinced that you still firmly believe in the content and spirit of the subject mentioned poetry (AY TAIER E LAHOUTI USS RIZQ SAY MAUT ACHI  JIS RIZQ SAY AATI HOO PARWAZ MEIN KOOTAHI), which was also the punch line of one of your elections 2013 advertisements.

However, I was really disappointed by the speech of Mr Ishaq Dar, which he delivered at the NA on Saturday, 22 June, 2013.

Hope you remember very well, how the timid Pervez Musharraf had told the nation that if he had not accepted the US demands of war on terror, Pakistan would have been bombed by the USA, to the Stone Age. Similarly, Mr Ishaq Dar had tried to scare the nation, by saying that if Pakistan doesn’t take further loan from the IMF, for the repayment of the old loans, it will go into default. By the way we’ve paid off the principal anyway, as have dozens of countries, some several times over. In any case, when Argentina, Ecuador, even Dubai, defaulted heavens didn’t fall.

Sir, perhaps you remember, in one of my recent emails it was stated that “Fatemi Sahab, don’t make Musharraf of Mian Nawaz Sharif Sahab. Remember, a timid person can be a ruler but he can never be a leader. It’s the duty of the advisors to never leave the PM or the president, in a state, where he is forced to make decisions under the influence of fear. This can only be done if the advisor informs the leader all the strong and weak points in a balanced manner.”

I also hope that Mr Ishaq Dar knows very well the dirty role of the world lending agencies as exposed in his famous book “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man” written by John Perkins and published in 2004.

According to his book, Perkins’ function was to convince the political and financial leadership of underdeveloped countries to accept enormous development loans from institutions like the World Bank and USAID. Saddled with debts they could not hope to pay, those countries were forced to acquiesce to political pressure from the United States on a variety of issues. Perkins argues in his book that developing nations were effectively neutralized politically, had their wealth gaps driven wider and economies crippled in the long run. In this capacity Perkins recounts his meetings with some prominent individuals, including Graham Greene and Omar Torrijos. Perkins describes the role of an Economic Hit Man (EHM) as follows:

“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 US 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 included 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.”

In 1988, economist Davison Budhoo revealed in his 22-page resignation letter – more of an expose of IMF ‘expertise’ – after his 11 years with it: “When we went on a mission, we did not even have the scope to innovate, to look at the country and make projections, that you thought were reasonable… there was already a briefing paper before we entered the country. We were told what we were expected to do, and give conditionality in terms of what the fiscal deficit was and how much it should be reduced; even before we entered the mission… we were expected to structure our findings in relation to the figures in the briefing paper, which were put there without any research, and were predetermined. So the conditionality was also predetermined… In this sense, every IMF mission is fraudulent even today…”

Mr. Prime Minister, not that I am only saying that your government must not take IMF loan to pay the old loan, which will be the biggest trap for our future generations; but I have also given three out of the box solutions (at the bottom of this write up) for Pakistan, to resolve this issue of old IMF loan payments, without taking fresh loans from the IMF.

As has been reported in the media, now a days, an IMF delegation is visiting Pakistan to offer fresh loan of $5-7 billion, to be mostly utilized by Pakistan, for the repayment of old IMF loan.

It is very surprising that PML-N’s government is not working on the lines to ask the IMF to have a heart; and be patient with our loan repayments, considering the fact that Pakistan has been totally destroyed during the last 15 years of war on terror, jointly fighting with 49 NATO countries as a major non NATO ally. Moreover, this war has inflicted more men and material losses on Pakistan than the combined losses of the 49 NATO countries. As such, Pakistan has a right to be given some moratorium in its repayment of IMF loans. Even otherwise, Pakistan has already repaid more than the entire amount of the loan by partnering the West in its WOT; and also by not demanding any penny from the NATO for the military over flights to and from Afghanistan. Here, the NATO must also be reminded that at the beginning of the Iraq war, NATO offered more than $20 billion to the Turkish government, for the over flights.

Mr. Prime Minister, every student of economics knows that never to use good money to chase bad money. Hence, there is no logic in seeking fresh loan to repay the old loan. This is a sure shot recipe for disaster, just like treating a cancer patient with fake medicines. IMF should be clearly told that Pakistan was well within its rights, to have asked for the write off, of the remaining unpaid amount of their loan. However, what we are seeking is just a moratorium.

Pakistan cannot afford to pay IMF’s remaining loan, over the peril of its economic demise.

In this regard, you may also order the Foreign Office to contact all the 49 NATO governments, to garner moral and financial support for Pakistan, so that we are also able to strongly look after their interests, in providing all the necessary facilities for their troops in Afghanistan. The USA and the NATO  should also be reminded that Pakistan is not charging a single penny for their military over flights, for which they offered more than $20 billion to Turkey, during the last Iraq war.

As such, Pakistan’s whole hearted cooperation in the WOT deserves matching reciprocal response in the shape of using their influence in IMF, to facilitate Pakistan by way of at least 20 years moratorium in the IMF loan repayments.

Just for your information, I am reproducing below my six questions to the then finance minister of Pakistan, Mr. Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, which remained un-replied till date, but are an eye opener, that how Pakistan was plundered by the past government.

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 $11.3billion?

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

4. Besides the interest, how much service, handler’s 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?

Sir, I apprehend that Pakistan was being forced to pay back the loan with penalties for not utilizing the sanctioned amount of $11.3 billion IMF loan.

Remember, we got only $7.6 billion from the sanctioned amount. As such, IMF and the West are treating Pakistan like a conquered country, rather than a major non-NATO ally in the world war on terror (WWOT).

As far as the question of generating foreign exchange is the issue, the concerned may be advised to proceed on the following lines:

1. Like India did many years ago, we may also keep our gold as a security, with some of friendly country(s), in lieu of obtaining matching amount of foreign exchange.

2. Recently Abu Dhabi helped Dubai, in its financial crisis, by providing 10 billion US dollars. We can also approach our friends to help us on the same terms.

3. As a last resort, if the West and the NATO countries have decided not to help Pakistan in our financial crisis, and they are forcing us to take the loan from the IMF, to repay its previous liabilities; and for which they are not even ready to reschedule our loans, as was done with Pakistan in the Pervez Musharraf’s era, when Paris Club loans of Pakistan were rescheduled, then instead of going for the default option, we should offer nuclear umbrella, in exchange of a reasonable amount of payment, to our friends in the gulf and the Middle East, from the Oman to Syria, who are always weary, of the Israeli nuclear blackmail. I know this will cause a lot of furor in the West led by the USA, Israel and India, but they can be told in plain words that if a nuclear Pakistan goes bankrupt, it will be more dangerous for the whole region and severely catastrophic for the world.  And after all, we will be going for this option only to repay their outstanding loans, so that the coffers of the West are kept full. As far Pakistan is concerned, it has already been forced to live in a Stone Age, fighting their imposed WOT, for the last more than a decade.

Email address: nayyar51@hotmail.com

 

Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif Sb.

Salaam.

Today (31 May, 2013) it has been reported that ministry of finance expects to earn $1 billion from the auction of 3G telecom license, during the first three months of your government. Link:- http://jang.com.pk/jang/may2013-daily/31-05-2013/u148138.htm

In this regard, some facts are placed before you to judge for yourself that why this telecom auction can and must generate much more than $1 billion.

PPP government finance minister Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, had budgeted a figure of ONLY $800 million income in the FY 2011-12 (this is on record and can be confirmed from the documents), for which auction was planned in March, 2012, for NOT ONLY 3G but 4G LTE and 5G LTE-A.

Just imagine 4G LTE and 5G LTE-A were to be given free with the auction of 3G. Whereas, in April, 2010 India ONLY auctioned 3G, for a whooping amount of $15 billion. Now after over 3 years, this figure almost may be equal to $20 billion.

Here, the question arises was Indian economy or telecom density size (at that time in 2011-12 when Pakistan went for the aborted auction) was more than 18.75 times bigger than Pakistan’s economy and telecom density? Sir, all this gap was to be made up with corruption and corruption alone.

Plus the mother of all corruption was the plan (clearly written in the tender that 4G LTE and 5G LTE-A license was to be given free along with 3G) to plunder the national wealth with future telecom technology licenses, to be gifted free of cost.

Here, again the question arises that when in the year 2004 Pakistan auctioned the 2G telecom license we didn’t give 3G license for free. And now when in 2012, we went for the auction of 3G, why advance technologies of the future were being given for FREE. (currently we are on 2G, whereas Kabul, India has 3G and Oman 4G LTE).

In view of the foregoing, I am more than 100% sure that now when we are entering middle of the year 2013, if the 3G (along with 4G LTE & 5G LTE-A) auction is done in an intelligent, smart and honest manner, Pakistan can very easily fetch anything between 2-5 billion USD.

Last but not the least, I would humbly like to inform that by the grace of Allah, first I single handedly convinced the government in 2011 to go for the auction of the 3G license. And, later on again in the year 2012, I had to wage a full fledged war to stop the government after the issuance of tender, to abort their nefarious designs and plans to indulge in mother of all corruptions.

In this regard, I had the FULLEST support from Senator Pervaiz Rashid and Ms Anusha Rehman & Prof. Ahsan Iqbal Sahab. Geo, Dunya & Ary TV media also fully supported me in this Jihad against the mother of all scandals. Moreover, Mr. Zahid Malik of Pakistan observer and Transparency International Pakistan, also played a very active part in stopping the government going the wrong way in this case. My salute to all these patriotic Pakistanis.

Best regards,

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad

 

 

Today on 28th April, 2013 again the World Bank and the UNO have asked the question that how to end the poverty from the world?

My Reply

Since, a recent study tells that countries which took loans from WB & IMF have experienced increasing suicide rates, there is hardly any answer required to the question, that; what it will take to end the poverty?

Moreover, who else know better than WB, IMF & UNO that 90% of the loans given to poor countries by the WB & IMF etc., is taken back in the shape of consultant fees and other such charges. In the end, the poor loan recipient countries hardly get about 10% of the benefits from your loans and they pay back 100% of the loan with very heavy interest charges as well.

The biggest proof of the failure of your policies are that you give fresh loans to repay the old loans.

During Musharraf era, there was a shocking news that in one particular loan case, it was conditional to hire the wife of the WB country chief, as consultant; and Pakistan was forced to pay her fees at an exorbitant rate equal to 65% of the total loan amount. No action was done by your anti-corruption department against that country Chief of Pakistan.

Your extremely hard/harsh loan terms are killing the poorest of the poor people in many ways, what to talk of poverty.

Don’t forget that very soon WB & IMF, may be tried for crimes against humanity; because your loans not only breeds and enhances corruption, they increase poverty, which also breeds terrorism.

Kindly immediately revisit all the inhuman terms and conditions of your loans, particularly given to the poor and developing countries; and also consider writing off these loans which are in fact, sucking blood from the poorest of the poor, to serve the lavish life styles of your employees, consultants, advisers and contractors etc.

So, this is the real face of the world loan giving agencies to the poor countries and then you have the audacity to ask questions and suggestions that how to end the poverty and hunger from the world, where EVERY NIGHT ONE BILLION PEOPLE SLEEP HUNGRY ON THIS PLANET.

HOPE YOU WILL NOT BE SO CALLOUS AND NOT REPEAT THIS JOKE WITH OVER ONE BILLION HUNGRY PEOPLE AGAIN.