Loud Thinking

There has been a sudden cut off of Sui gas supplies for the residents of Block F/2, Johar Town, Lahore.

Is there anyone in SNGPL to attend this gas disruption immediately?

“Stay committed in your decisions, but stay flexible in your approach.”

— Tony Robbins

Once bitten twice shy..!

We may have many differences of opinion, about the way late Zulfiquar Ali Bhutto ruled Pakistan. But, there are no two opinions about his financial integrity and loyalty with the country. It is a known fact that the USA’s government at that time, used every bait and pressure tactics, to force ZAB to cancel Pakistan’s agreement of Nuclear Reprocessing Plant with France. A time came, when ZAB was forced to utter the following historical words, to the then US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger:

“If you spit and ask me to clean it, I will clean it. However, if you spit and ask me to LICK it? I will not”

The moral of the story is that the cricket lovers of Pakistan, can not imagine in their wildest dreams that the honourable members of the top PCB management, also headed by an honourable person Mr. Najam Sethi, will commit the same mistake again, of putting their hands in the same hole, from where they have been already bitten once.

There are reports that Mr. Moin Khan, is being again taken back into the folds of the PCB, for either the role of the chief selector or as a cricket manager.

We are at a loss to understand, why PCB wants to bring back the same person, who miserably failed, during the last many months in not just one capacity, but also in various positions as a chief selector, manager and the head coach, as well.

During these stints of Moin Khan, Pakistan lost an ODI and a Test match against the lowest ranked team Zimbabwe. Then, we lost a Test match in UAE against the South Africans, which was very winnable. Finally, our team’s dismal performance in Asia cup and the T20 World Cup tournaments, is so fresh in the minds that it needs no repetition. However, the lowest score world record (13/4 in 6 power play overs of a T20 match), our team created under the management leadership of Moin Khan, playing against the West Indian cricket team in Dhaka, will always haunt the Pakistanis and can not easily be erased from our shell shocked minds, for a long time.

As a manager, Moin Khan is also singularly responsible, for the irreparable loss to the Pakistani team, due to the side-lining of pacer Muhammad Irfan, because of his injuries, which were caused from the overplaying of this precious bowling asset.

If, the PCB is hell bent to take back Moin Khan after all these shameful and abysmal performances of our team, where he was part and parcel of all the botched selection of some of the known nincompoop players, as well as, the non selection of Anwer Ali; and also including Shoaib Malik and Kamran Akmal, in the playing eleven, then why not call back Zaheer Abbas and Muhammad Shaoib, as well?

Here, the air must be cleared about the flimsy argument that Moin could not produce results, as the time was too short for him to prove his skills. No Sir, his incompetence has a very long story of our team’s failures, dating back since Mr. Najam Sethi took over. And also, if he was unable to give the desired results in this stint, then at least, the performance graph of our team, should not have fallen to a third class club level team. Who else except Moin Khan is responsible for this down slide?

Under the circumstances, if the PCB top notches don’t like the faces of some of the men of professional excellence, repute and integrity like M/S Javed Miandad, Wasim Bari, Muhammad Yousaf, Abdul Qadir and Amir Suhail; then at least they should consider Mohsin Hassan Khan, for the position of chief selector, coach or the cricket manager, who is equally renowned, famous, honest and proven successful person.

Mohsin Hassan Khan, is the man who delivered AMAZING results as a chief selector and even more AMAZING results as a coach, in much much lesser time than Moin Khan. Moreover, he is also the man, with most clean reputation. He has never ever being named in any match fixing scandal of Pakistan, the ICL (Indian Cricket League) or the IPL.

I don’t know why, but on this occasion the following couplet of the famous poet Mirza Ghalib, comes to my mind:

KA’BA KIS MONH SAY JAO GAY GHALIB ( How will you Ghalib Ka’ba face, )

SHARAM TUM KO MAGAR NAHI AATI (Ashamed of self you do not seem.)

“Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly until you learn to do it well.”

— Zig Ziglar

Pakistan 7th Top Nation in Global remittances in 2013

WASHINGTON: India received foreign exchange remittances worth $70 billion in 2013 from its migratory workforce to retain the top spot in the world amid a broad slowdown caused by regulatory hindrances on both movement of people and capital. China ($60 billion), the Philippines ($25 billion), Mexico ($22 billion), Nigeria ($21 billion), Egypt ($17 billion), Pakistan ($15 billion), Bangladesh ($14 billion), Vietnam ($11 billion) and Ukraine ($10 billion), rounded up the Top 10 remittance recipient nations, according to a World Bank report released on Friday.

The report, an annual World Bank exercise that underscores the point that remittances are an important source of foreign exchange often surpassing earnings from major exports, said India’s $70 billion in remittance receipts in 2013 was “more than the $65 billion earned from the country’s flagship software services exports”.

Such trajectory was even greater in countries such as Nepal, where remittances are nearly double the country’s revenues from exports of goods and services, while in Sri Lanka and the Philippines, they are over 50% and 38%, respectively. In Uganda, remittances are double the country’s income from its main export of coffee.

In terms of remittances as a share of GDP, the top recipients were Tajikistan (52%), Kyrgyz Republic (31%), Nepal and Moldova (both 25%), Samoa and Lesotho (both 23%), Armenia and Haiti (both 21%), Liberia (20%) and Kosovo (17%). Authors of the report said recipient countries could do much more to enhance remittances while obliquely criticizing the roadblocks in terms of high costs and increased restrictions on movement of people, including a surge in deportations.

“In addition to the large annual flows of remittances, migrants living in high income countries are estimated to hold savings in excess of $500 billion annually. These savings represent a huge pool of funds that developing countries can do much more to tap into,” said Dilip Ratha, manager of the migration and remittances team at the bank’s Development Prospects Group, and an authority on remittances.

The report also noted that Nigeria is readying a diaspora bond issue to mobilize diaspora savings and boost financing for development.

On its part, the World Bank has launched what it called a KNOMAD (Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development) initiative to organize, analyze, and make available remittance data, given its growing importance to nation economies. “Remittances have become a major component of the balance of payments of nations. There is no doubt that these flows act as an antidote to poverty and promote prosperity. Remittances and migration data are also barometers of global peace and turmoil and this is what makes World Bank’s KNOMAD initiative so important,” said Kaushik Basu, senior vice-president and chief economist of the World Bank.

According to the WB report, growth in remittances to the South Asia region has slowed, rising by a modest 2.3% to $111 billion in 2013, compared with an average annual increase of more than 13% during the previous three years. The slowdown was driven by a marginal increase in India of 1.7% in 2013, and a decline in Bangladesh of 2.4%. The depreciation of the Indian rupee during 2013 appears to have attracted inflows through a surge in the deposits of non-resident Indians rather than remittances.

The brief notes that while the medium-term outlook for remittances is strong, downside risks loom mainly from migrants’ return to their home countries as a result of conflict or deportation from host countries. Last year saw an intensification of deportations, with more than 370,000 migrants sent back to their home countries from Saudi Arabia alone in the five months since November 2013.

Mr. Ishfaq Dar finance Minister of Pakistan please explain:

You took last year $6.7 billion loan from IMF at 3% interest rate, when in December 2012, IMF had decided to offer loan to poor countries at 0% interest rate.

Now this year, why you have floated bonds in the international market for a 10 year period for $1 billion at 8.25%interest?

Ladies and girls beware

Since government has failed its a fit case for the judiciary for the Suo Moto action

An eye opening letter published by the daily “Pakistan Today”

Hazardous henna

Comment Editor’s Mail12 HOURS AGO BY PAKISTAN TODAY

A heart-wrenching incident of a girl from Karachi who had to get her arms removed surgically as a result of applying chemical-infested mehndi has caused me to draw attention of the people towards the dangers of using emergency cones and instant henna (mehndi).

A number of mehndi and black mehndi brands in the market are adulterated with toxic and carcinogenic substances which not only cause instant allergic reactions but may also enter the blood stream via the skin which is even more detrimental. The widespread sale of such hazardous dyes is made easier by the fact that there is no law concerning the adulteration of cosmetic products.

In recent times many hospitals have reported a large number of cases in which people’s skins have been damaged or scarred after using such adulterated henna.

The underlying purpose of sending this piece in is to pull people out of oblivion and to request the government of Pakistan to ban all such harmful products which do not provide a detailed list of ingredients and side effects. I also request the public to be careful and prefer traditional natural form of henna over instant form.

MIRAL AJMAL

KC, Lahore

Develop All Your Leaders (Even Those Who Aren’t Managers)

Most organizations have outstanding individual contributors — developers, salespeople, engineers — who wield great influence and offer critical support to the firm. Though they don’t have managerial titles, their departure would be a huge loss. These individuals meet the criteria for true leaders, but when it comes to leadership development opportunities, they may fall off the radar because they don’t supervise anyone. Even if they have chosen not to pursue a management path, they will still benefit from leadership development — as will your company. Leadership development can make them better team players, improve their communication skills, and teach them to be better coaches. What’s more, as they become more effective interpersonally, they may embrace their management potential and pursue formal leadership roles.

Adapted by HBR from “ Develop the Leaders You’ve Been Overlooking” by Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman.

“If you really want something you can figure out how to make it happen.”

— Cher

Humility is to be modest, meek, teachable and humble.