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Posted by Dr. Manzer Durrani in Pakistan's Hall of Shame on April 3rd, 2012
LIST OF”GROWH OF DAKOOS,” OR FRATERNITY OF ROBBERS OF A NATION
The only way to stop terrorism exported from Pakistan is to deport these financial terrorists or bank loan defaulters from finding sanctuaries in US, Britain, France, South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, UAE, Luxembourg, Monaco, Switzerland, Cayman Islands. They use the stolen wealth of Pakistan to hoodwink the fiscal regulators of their host countries. These financial terrorists have bankrupted Pakistan and have created made it into a crucible for militancy and Anti-Western sentiments. These financial terrorists are the seeds whose fruit is the virulent Anti-Western Terroris, borne out of abject poverty and rampant illiteracy.
To all international immigration and law enforcement agencies:
Here is a list of Pakistan’s bank loan defaulters and tax evaders, who have robbed the poor nation of Pakistan blind. Please apprehend them and prosecute them according to your laws, if they land in your country. These people are worse than drug dealers. They starved a nation of 180 million people into abject poverty, never paid their due share of taxes, and brutalized those who work for them. In Pakistan they have hijacked the justice system. Beware, that if they enter your country with tainted money, they are liable to commit the same crimes; by exploiting your tax system, launder their money in your economy, and send it back to Pakistan as remittances. However, these are not those Pakistani expatriate, who live and work in your societies. These are the new arrivals and vulgarians, out to manipulate the economic systems of your countries.
Dubai is one of their safe havens. They may fly in from Dubai or Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Brunei, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia to N.America (USA & CANADA), Europe, British Isles, Brazil, Mexico, Paraguay, And Caribean.
Pakistani bank loan defaulters or “bank robbers,” have taken hugeloans from the bank deposits of hard working Pakistani wage earners, namely: the honest businessmen, bureaucrats, farmers, soldiers, sailors, airmen, doctors, lawyers, artists, professors, teachers, scholars, clerks, peons,and day laborers. have been robbed by these absconders from Justice. If you give them sanctuary, they will spread their activities in your nations too. These are habitually and chronically corrupt people.
WE PRESENT THE NAMES OF KNOWN DEFAULTERS
PAKISTANI BANK DEFAULTERS OR “ROBBERS,” WHO HAVE STOLEN FROM THE BANK DEPOSITS OF HARD WORKING PAKISTANI WAGE EARNERS, HONEST BUSINESSMEN, BUREAUCRATS, FARMERS, SOLDIERS, SAILORS, AIRMEN, DOCTORS, LAWYERS, ARTISTS, PROFESSORS, TEACHERS, SCHOLARS, CLERKS, PEONS, REHRIWALLAHS, IN SHORT THE NATION OF PAKISTAN. WE PRESENT THE NAMES OF KNOWN DEFAULTERS
First Tawakal Modrab Karachi
AMOUNT ROBBED
Rs 628million
loans written off while the borrowers (Robbers) run scott free:
Robbers name:
Abdul Qadir Tawakal,
Rafiq Tawakal,
Ali Husasin Mooney
and Abid Husain did not even bother submitting their NICs.
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AMOUNT ROBBED
Rs146million
written off while the borrowers (Robbers):
Shahfa Corporation Lahore and its owners
Robbers name:
Saluddin Ahmed Sahaf,
Wajiddin
Mahmood Shafi also got Rs146million written off.
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AMOUNT ROBBED
Rs 91million + Rs50million principal loan
Robbers name: Hidden owners
Regnet Dyeing and Finishing Mills also got Rs 91million written including Rs50million principal loan.
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AMOUNT ROBBED
Rs.80 million + 40million principal loan + Rs.40 million
Robbers name: Hidden Owners
Fatima Foods Lahore also got Rs 80million written off with Rs 40million principal loan waived off.
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AMOUNT ROBBED
Rs 335million written off including Rs 140million principal amount.
Robbers name: Hidden owners
National Garments also got Rs 335million written off including Rs 140million principal amount.
AMOUNT ROBBED
Rs 1.17billion written off including principal amount of Rs546million.
Robbers name:
Multan Mohib textile got Rs 1.17billion written off including principal amount of Rs546million.
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In Karachi
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AMOUNT ROBBED
Rs 70 million written off including Rs 11.3 million principal amount.
Robbers name:
Bawany (sic i) Industries
got Rs 70million written off including 11.3million principal amount.. The names of the fathers of borrowers are not on official record of the bank who got this loan written off.
AMOUNT ROBBED
Rs 2.744million written off
Robbers name: Abdul Haleem also got Rs 2.744million written off
The papers show that even a London based ex-employee of a bank, Abdul Haleem also got Rs 2.744million written off and now the bank says it did not have even the ID card of its own former employee available in record. His principal loan was Rs 2.7million which was written off.
AMOUNT ROBBED
Rs 168million loan and got the whole principal wavied off. They also got the mark up of Rs225million written off too.
Robbers names:
Farooq Sheikh,
Mrs Shereen Farooq,
Zafar Sheikh,
Mumtaz Saleem,
Tahir Sehikh
got Rs 168million loan and got the whole principal wavied off. They also got the mark up of Rs225million written off too. Adamjee Industries also got Rs 48million written off including Rs168million principal amount.
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AMOUNT ROBBED
52m written off
Robbers names:
Fayyaz Malik and Farooq Malik
Master Rubber Tyer owners Fayyaz Malik and Farooq Malik got 52m written off.
AMOUNT ROBBED
A sum of Rs190million outstanding the Jatoi family was also written off.
Also industrial unit Ms Metropolitan National Textile Karachi owned by
Robbers names:
Sikandar Ali Jatoi,
Mazhar Ali Jatoi,
Jamal Hassan,
SM Masood was given the loan without any NICs
FOREIGN COMPANY
AMOUNT ROBBED
Rs.10.8 Million
Robbers names: The papers showed that even, the owners of Daewoo Corporation -Kim Woo Choong, Kim Joun Sung, Lee Woo Bok, Yoon Nuke Neon, Chug Myuong Kul did not submit their Ids at the time of obtaining Rs10.8million loan. Interestingly, the same amount was later written off by the bank. They got principal amount written off in addition to Rs2.3million mark up payable against this loan.
NATIONAL POLITICIANS
AMOUNT ROBBED
Rs37.987 million
Robbers names:
Ch Shujaat Hussain, Pervez Elahi
Even Ch Shujaat Hussain, Pervez Elahi and their family members who got Rs37.987 million loan written off never produced their national identity cards.
AMOUNT ROBBED
Rs. 0.9million
MILITARY RETIRED
Robbers names :
Hearts International Rawalpindi got Rs0.9million written off while the bank did not have the IDs
Dr Major Gen retired Zulifkar Ali Khan,
Dr Abdus Qudus Khan,
Mohammad Rafi,
Shamim Ashraf Khan,
Naheed Mashud Kiani,
Rahat Azfa.
AMOUNT ROBBED
Rs 64 million
Robbers names :
Johnson and Philips also got Rs 64 million loan written off and there is no record of NICs of the borrowers-
Bilal Ahmed Qureshi,
Raja Ahmed Khan,
Habibulah Baig,
Rashid Y Chinoy,
Abdul Rehman Khan,
Syed Abdul Noor.
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AMOUNT ROBBED
Rs 26 million
Robbers names : Johnson and Philips again got another loan of Rs26million written off and once again the same borrowers did not give their NICs.
Ahmed Chemical limited owners
Aftab Khan,
Jehan Ara Khan,
Mahjabeen Ahmed,
Sabiuddin Ahmed,
Iqbal Ahmed Khan,
Iram Aftab,
Aftab Ahmed Khan NICs are not available. They got Rs0.6million written off.
AMOUNT ROBBED
Rs 4.3 million
Robbers names : Ksornos Corporation Lahore also got Rs 4.3million written off. Again NICs of:
Sh Abdul Hafeez,
Sh Imran Hafeez,
Sh Salman Hafeez,
Sh Nauman Hafeez,
Qari Khalid Mahmood,
Shahbaz Murad and
Zahida Hafeez are not available in the record.
AMOUNT ROBBED
Rs 40 million
Robbers names
Zodesh Limited got Rs 40million written off.
The borrowers:
Zoraia Lashari,
Imrana Lashari,
Ms Lubna Lashari
and Hayat Khan did not give NICs.
THIEVES OF GUJRAT:
Mohammad Akram Rs 2.5m,
Fazal Hussain Rs 0.6m,
Malik Mohammad Akthar 0.5m,
Yaqoob Brothers Rs 0.5m,
Nisa Enterprise Rs 0.5m (Islamabad).
Mohammad Saleem Rs0.7m
THIEVES OF QUETTA:
Abdul Qadir Rs 0.511m,
Mohammad Alm Rs 0.4m,
Haji Moula Dad Kalat Rs 0.5m,
Mohammad Hassan Rs 0.5m,
Mohammad Ramzan Rs 0.5m,
Gul Mohammad Rs 0.5m,
THIEVES OF KARACHI
Babar Rafiq Rs0.6 M,
Mosar Ahmed Rs 0.5m,
Qaisaurz Zaman Rs 0.6m,
Sajid Husain Rs 0.570m,
Nasir Rafique Rs 0.531m,
Badar Ahmed Rs0.596m,
Mazhar Fared Rs 0.683m,
Khalid Mahmood Rs 0.653m,
Saeed Ahmed 0.61m,
Jawad Textile Industries 1m,
Masnoor Yousuf Rs0.536m,
Mohammad Ismail Rs0.595m,
Amir Hashmi Rs0.5m,
Sajid Ali Rs0.7m,
Mushtaq Hussain Rs 0.579m,
Tahir Ehtasham RS 0.6M,
Mohammad Noman Bhatti Rs 0.54m,
Saleemuddin Rs 0.522m,
Anisuddin Rs 0.522m,
Mobina Begum Rs0.639m,
Miss Tabasum Shehnaz
Rs 0.6m,
Mohammad Yousuf Rs 0.665m,
Mant Lal Mault Rs 0.674m,
Athar Maqbool Rs 0.7m,
Shahid Khan Rs 0.5m,
Azaam Afridi Rs 0.633m,
Syed Qasim Hussain Rs 0.539m,
Abdul Qayyum Rs 0.681m,
Mohammad Burhan Khan Rs0.825m,
Syed Khurram Raza Naqvi Rs 0.543m,
Hassan Shakeel Rs 0.825m,
Ali Hassan Rs 0.534m,
Mohammad Irfan Khan Rs 0.550m,
Shafiq Ahmed RS 0.820M,
Ali Hassan Hassan Rs 0.534m,
Mohammad Irfan Khan Rs 0.550M,
Khawaja Moin Hasan Rs 0.666m,
Raza Hasan Rs0.528m,
Syed Afaq Moid Rs 0.679m,
Syed Mohammad Nasim Ali Rs0.680m,
Syed Aslam Ali Rs0.67m,
Asif Rehman Rs 0.665m,
Asim Ilyas Rs 0.5m,
Adnan Hassan Rs 0.820m,
Syed Rasheed Ahmed Rs0.5m,
Mobina Afzal Rs 0.7m,
Kamran Rauf Rs 0.74m,
Najma Akthar Rs0.825m,
S Sharifuddin Rs 0.825m,
Imtiaz Hussain Zaidi Rs 0.6m,
Khalid Baig Rs 0.589m,
Mohammad Awan RS 0.6M,
Tariq Baloch Rs0.668m,
Mohammad Mobin Sheikh Rs 0.614m,
Ms Golden Paint industries Rs0.7m,
Mohammad Arshad Shakeel Rs 1.441m,
Altaf Hussain Shah Rs 0.5m,
Mehmoodul Hassan Rs 0.548m,
Mashuddin Rs0.9m,
Atizaudin Rs 1.5m,
Wajihuddin Rs1.5m,
Ihtashamuddin Rs 0.557m,
FS Aizauddin Rs 0.5m,
FS Azauddin Rs 0.58m,
Mrs Rubina Rs 0.655m,
Abdul Azim RS 0.556M,
Abdul Razakk Rs 0.5m,
Akthar Hussain Rs 0.519m,
Asif Soomro Rs 0.554m,
Fayyaz Ahmed Rs 0.544m,
M Saleem Rs 0.539m,
Sadiq Bano Rs 0.54m,
Moizudin Rs 0.562m,
Abdul Haq Rs0.5m,
Mrs Kasuar Perveen Rs0.514m,
Mohammad Rafiq Rs 0.551m,
Mohammad Saleem Rs 0.591,
Rana Mohmmad Rs0.545m,
Rukhsana Begum Rs0.504m,
S. Rehan Shahid Rs0.560m.
Hssan Khan Rs 0.503m,
Kashan Ali Rs 0.624m,
Saleem Medical Store Rs 1.5million,
Ms Huma Electric Inds Nameem Ullsah Rs 1.4m,
Ms Tariq Electric Inds Rs 3.2m,
Ms New National Steel Inds Rs 2.5million,
Ms Kashmir Industrial Corp Rs 1.1m,
Irfan Basharat Rs 2.1m,
Jhangir HaIder Rs 6.5m,
Mohammad Sadiq Rs 2.66m,
Punjab Ceremics owners Zahid Shakeel Rs 7.6million,
Ms Gulberg Caterers owned by Mohammad Aslam Rs0.9m.
Posted by Dr. Manzer Durrani in Pakistan's Hall of Shame on April 1st, 2012
Pakistani Journalists are about to receive a $50 Million bribe to change public opinion in favor of US. But, let us not forget that most of Pakistan’s Journalist would not take this bait.Among them Kashif Abbasi, Talat Hussain, Kamran Khan, and Dr.Shahid Masood, and a few others are rare exceptions.
US State Department supports the presence of two Pakistani journalists in US.
ISLAMABAD:
Two Pakistani journalists filing reports home from Washington are drawing their salaries from US State Department funding through a nonprofit intermediary, highlighting the sophisticated nature of America’s efforts to shape its image abroad, The Christian Science Monitor reported on Friday.
Neither of the two media organisations, Express News and Dunya News, discloses that their reporters are paid by the nonprofit America Abroad Media (AAM) on their websites or in the reports filed by their correspondents. Though the journalists have worked under the auspices of AAM since February, AAM only made their links to the news organisations known on their website Wednesday, after being contacted by the Monitor.
“If an American journalist working as a foreign correspondent in Pakistan was paid in a similar manner, would it be morally or professionally acceptable for his news organisation or audience?” asks Badar Alam, editor of Pakistan’s English-language Herald magazine.
The amount currently allocated for the project is some $2 million over two years from the public diplomacy funds allocated by the State Department, according to State Department officials in Washington familiar with the project. That includes salaries for the two correspondents – Huma Imtiaz of Express News and Awais Saleem of Dunya News and a bureau for both TV channels.
Aaron Lobel, president of AAM, says his organisation receives donations from a number of private funders, too, which it mainly spends on its programs on international affairs that run on Public Radio International in the United States.
“The content production is done first and foremost [by] Pakistanis who are here and work with their channels back home to produce content,” says Lobel.
Sometimes the Pakistani journalists and editors at home come up with stories. But AAM also holds production meetings where the group’s managing director, Aliya Salahuddin, suggests stories, says Lobel.
“I understand the fears that define the joint ventures that comprise the US-Pakistan relationship. [But] we are very proud we have a good relationship with Dunya and Express. It allows Pakistani journalists to cover the US with a Pakistani perspective. I haven’t encountered any Pakistani channel that doesn’t want to work with us,” he says, adding that AAM is hopeful of partnering with more Pakistani channels in the future. Both reporters cover a wide variety of stories.
Making a clear connection
AAM’s ombudsman, Jeffery Dvorkin, insists there is no US government involvement with content production.
“My role as ombudsman is to help AAM ensure there is no effort by its funders, including the government, to interfere with any of the content produced. Thus far, there have been no efforts of this kind. Secondly, AAM continues to make it clear to the government and to all funders that in order for AAM to proceed with this initiative, the government could have no involvement in content production or selection,” he says.
The State Department official counters that both the US government and AAM ‘encourage’ the channels to make their ties clear. “We’re very proud of this program,” the official says. But eight months into the program, officials from AAM had not reached out to the channels regarding disclosure.
The official notes that this is part of a broader effort to reach out, including bringing Pakistani journalists to the US for short visits under the International Visitor Leadership Program.
Defending his newspaper’s decision not to disclose the source of Imtiaz’s funding, The Express Tribune’s [executive] editor Muhammad Ziauddin told the Monitor: “The lady reports in conjunction with the [nongovernmental organisation AAM]. The lady has been recruited by us in consultation with the NGO in a way we do not need to mention this. By putting that line we would be putting this into perspective but since we already edit [her stories] according to our thinking we do not need to. Editorially we sensitise it to a great extent.”
He adds that the process of building links with government officials is commonplace the world over. “I know a number of instances where a correspondent has landed in Pakistan and has been won over by our own information departments and briefed by our government agencies. Obviously they would like to keep his sources intact and at times he or she obliges [the government].”
Ziauddin adds that the partnership was conducted ‘as an experiment’ and in the future the newspaper intends to pay for its own correspondent in Washington, just as they do in London.
Awais Saleem, chief operating officer of Dunya News, also stated that since final control resided with the channel, they did not feel the need to declare the partnership with AAM to their viewers.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 3rd, 2011.
Posted by Dr. Manzer Durrani in Foreign Policy on April 1st, 2012
Protesters hold up a burning mock drone aircraft during a rally against drone attacks in Pakistan. (Credit: Reuters/K. Pervez)
If there is one thing Republican presidential candidates agree on, it’s the treachery of Pakistan. Rep. Michele Bachmann leads the pack. At last week’s GOP debate, she called Pakistan “violent” and “more than an existential threat” to the United States, because it is “a nation that lies, that does everything possible that you could imagine wrong.” Texas Gov. Rick Perry said Pakistan has “shown us time after time that they can’t be trusted.” He called for a cutoff of aid, a line that drew applause from the audience. Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman said on Sunday that America might have to “look for a new partner in the region” and also suggested a cutoff in aid might be in order.
It is not only GOP leaders who are obsessed with Pakistan. “The Ally From Hell,” screams the cover of this month’s Atlantic. New York’s Democratic Rep. Gary Ackerman called Pakistan “perfidious” recently, saying the country was not an ally, a friend, a partner or a teammate. “Pakistan is on its own side, period,” Ackerman said at a House Subcommittee Hearing on Afghanistan and Pakistan.
One would think from all this talk that America’s behavior vis-à-vis Pakistan has been pure and good. But the reality could not be further from the self-righteous claims persistently emanating from Washington’s complainers. America has acted no better than Pakistan in the relationship, and may even have been the worse partner. Understanding the fury over NATO’s recent killing of 24 Pakistani soldiers requires a deeper look at the relationship.
Let’s begin near the beginning. Within days of the 9/11 attacks, then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage was deputized to meet with a Pakistani official. According to Pakistan’s then-President Pervez Musharraf, Armitage said that Pakistan, if it did not cooperate unconditionally with the United States, needed to be prepared to be “bombed backed to the stone age.”
Armitage was only reinforcing Secretary of State Colin Powell’s message to Musharraf, which included a list of demands, among them full use of Pakistani airspace, closure of its borders with Afghanistan, and use of its territory as a staging base. In return, Pakistan was granted loads of cash — and the pleasant experience of not being bombed back to the stone age.
“If the signals America gave Pakistan had been subtle, they would have been ignored,” says Anthony Cordesman, who frequently advises the U.S. government on the South Asia/Middle East region. Maybe so, but the ultimatum delivered to Pakistan established unrealistic expectations on what could be delivered. No understanding was made of Pakistan’s own interests. No attempt was made to consider Pakistani public opinion. Pakistan was not treated as an ally. It was treated as a vassal.
Had those endeavors been undertaken, Pakistan’s subsequent actions and double-talk might have been foreseen. For, while America might demand subservience and unqualified support for its campaign against al-Qaida and the Taliban, Pakistan has its own concerns. These include staying strong in a mortal struggle with India; reckoning with climate change (and the possibly related massive flooding); managing the uneasy tension between scores of different ethnic groups; and maintaining the difficult relationship between the powerful military and the civilian government.
Any arguments about Pakistan’s behavior that do not take these needs into consideration are incomplete at best. “To judge an ally by how it serves another nation’s interest at the expense of its own” is simply foolish, says Cordesman, a strategist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
And yet that is what consistently happens in the U.S. chattering classes. Pakistan is spoken about as if it is simply an empty land devoid of independent needs. Remarkably, Huntsman’s comments about Pakistan — he called it “merely a transactional relationship” — came the day after news of the NATO airstrikes. Something is deeply wrong with the foreign-policy conversation in Washington when Pakistan is reprimanded as a poor ally after 24 of its soldiers are killed by an American-led coalition.
Not that the deaths were unprecedented. The New America Foundation reports that 283 drone strikes in Northwest Pakistan from 2004 have killed somewhere between 1,717 and 2,680 individuals. It estimates a civilian fatality rate of 17 percent, even relying on the dubious press accounts that often describe almost anyone as a “militant.” While these deaths usually get short shrift in the American media, that is not the case in Pakistan.
“American foreign policy has created a fragile situation in Pakistan,” reads a recent blog post by a contributor to Dawn, a Pakistani daily. “Pakistan’s participation in this so called ‘War on Terror’ has shaken its foundations to the core.” On the website of the News International, the largest English paper in Pakistan, all five of the most-commented articles deal with NATO’s attack on the Pakistan soldiers.
Most commenters support the words of Pakistan’s prime minister, who warned after the attack that it would be “no more business as usual” in Pakistan’s dealings with the United States. NATO’s most recent mistake has magnified the problem, but America’s territorial incursions into Pakistan resulting in civilian deaths routinely dominate the media. In Pakistan, America is the ally from hell.
Now it should make more sense why members of the Pakistani military might not have informed Americans of Osama bin Laden’s presence: They did not want U.S. incursions on their territory.
Violating Pakistan’s sovereignty is only part of the problem. Pakistan is so deeply divided that forcing it to kowtow to American wishes naturally stirs up nationalist resentments that undermine the country’s stability. In his new book, “Pakistan: A Hard Country,” the journalist Anatol Lieven writes that U.S. pressure is one of the few things that can actually jeopardize Pakistan’s stability. Pakistan is not the failed state media commentators make it out to be, Lieven writes, but U.S. pressure threatens to make it so.
“No conceivable short-term gains in the Western campaign in Afghanistan or the ‘war on terror’ could compensate for the vastly increased threats to the region and the world that would stem from Pakistan’s collapse,” Leiven writes. And yet short-term gains are the focus of almost all of American commentary on Pakistan, and much of American policy.
Much, but not all. There is reason to believe that a good chunk of U.S. official fulminations against Pakistan’s perfidy are for show. “In my experience, they are all too well aware” of Pakistan’s limited ability to act as we want it to, “even if they are not going to state it publicly,” says Cordesman, who has worked for the Departments of Defense and State, and on NATO’s international staff.
A December 2009 cable from WikiLeaks supports Cordesman’s view. Sent by then-Ambassador to Pakistan Anne Patterson to the State Department in 2009, the cable argues that drones are effective in killing al-Qaida henchmen, but will not succeed in entirely eliminating the terrorist group’s leadership. In the meantime, “Increased unilateral operations in these areas risk destabilizing the Pakistan state, alienating both the civilian government and military leadership, and provoking a broader governance crisis within Pakistan without finally achieving the goal [of eliminating the al-Qaida and Taliban leadership].”
Destabilizing Pakistan is the worst option of all. It is a large nation with nuclear weapons, situated between Afghanistan, China, India and Iran, with a sizable contingent of anti-American sentiment. Few things should be more disturbing to American minds than the prospect of Pakistani disintegration.
And yet that is exactly what the hawks who so loudly denounced Pakistan’s perfidy risk achieving. Remember that the next time you hear about the country’s halfhearted support for American operations in the region. Better to be halfhearted than half-brained.
Posted by Dr. Manzer Durrani in Economics on April 1st, 2012
How a flourishing Pakistan economy has been destroyed by fiscally inept policies of the Zardari/PPP government. Despite, record exports, deficit spending almost 40 percent, has dried up investments and made credit unavailable for consumers.
Pakistan economic review projects that because of strong economic policies taken up by Pakistan government manufacturing and financial services sectors have flourished in fiscal 2008.
Economic review of Pakistan shows that there has been a growth rate of 7 percent per year for four successive years till 2007. Though Pakistan is a poor country, yet its growth rate has been better than global average growth rate.
As per economic review in Pakistan several economic reforms that have been taken up in recent years helped in its economic growth. Economic review at Pakistan shows that there has been improvement in currency reserves and foreign exchange reserves of Pakistan have developed. In present situation of recession, however, growth in economy of Pakistan has been held back a little bit.
Economic review of Pakistan has been focusing in recent times on how to deal with economic recession. Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani who is Prime Minister of Pakistan has initiated a number of procedures to address regional economic imbalances. Economic indicators look positive in present situation. Discount rate of central bank has been improved to 1.5 percentage points. This will help in dealing with high inflation rate in Pakistan.
Pakistan economic review projects that government encourages foreign investments in various fields of real estate, telecommunications, software, energy, fertilizer, aerospace, textiles, steel, ship building, arms manufacturing, cement and automotives.
Reduction of poverty from Pakistan is a major issue for economic department of government. In present analysis, plans have been made to develop roads, dams and power generating plants to generate more job openings and increase development. According to new plan, 541 billion rupees will be used for economic development of country.
Export of goods is a major concern for Pakistan economy. From 1999, exports of Pakistan have increased from $7.5 billion to $18 billion in financial year 2007-2008. Major items for exports include cotton fiber, vegetables, rice, electrical appliances, furniture, cement, tiles, marble, textiles, clothing, sports goods, powdered milk, livestock meat, software, seafood, leather goods, surgical instruments, carpets, rugs, ice cream, chicken, wheat, processed food items, Pakistani assembled Suzuki cars, salt, defense equipment, onyx, marble and engineering goods to mention a few.
Some important import items of Pakistan are petroleum and petroleum products, automobiles, medicines, industrial machinery, construction machinery, trucks, electronics, civilian aircraft, computers, pharmaceutical products, computer parts, food items, toys, defense equipment, iron and steel.
Posted by Dr. Manzer Durrani in India on April 1st, 2012
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Deep deficiencies abound in defence procurement |
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New Delhi Mar 31, 2012 |
The revelation this week that the Army chief had written to the prime minister, telling him essentially that the Army was unfit for war should have surprised nobody. Last month, General V K Singh had written in to the defence minister in far greater detail. In January 2010, then Army chief, General Deepak Kapoor, had announced that 80 per cent of his tanks were night blind, which in other words admits that they were unfit for war. And when the use of force was considered after the 26/11 Mumbai terror strikes, all three service chiefs sent to the defence minister a laundry list of equipment deficiencies.
Besides this, a slew of media reports over the preceding decade have highlighted deficiencies in the mechanised forces; artillery; the air defence network; the infantry and Special Forces being key among them. Systematic military intelligence analysis, of the kind that is routine in Rawalpindi and Beijing, would leave Pakistan and China with no doubts about India’s military weakness. But the Indian public might miss the broader picture.
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Tank fleet
Designed to deter Pakistan from sponsoring terror strikes inside India by posing a threat to retaliate with a deep offensive into that country, the tank fleet remains near night blind. While the 800-odd T-90S tanks in service, as well as the 124 Arjun tanks can fight at night, India’s 2400-odd T-72 tanks, a 1960s Soviet design, are mostly night blind, and are comprehensively outclassed by Pakistan’s T-80UD tanks. The planned purchase of add-on night sights for the T-72 had dragged on fruitlessly. Even if it is implemented, it would hardly make up for the badly outdated T-72 design.
The Army chief’s letter to the PM also drew attention to the deficiency in armour piercing tank ammunition, with depots holding vast quantities of training ammunition that is incapable of penetrating an actual tank. In any high-intensity war, ammunition shortages would bring the strike corps to a grinding halt well before the attainment of its objectives.
Artillery
For a century, the most crucial arm on the battle, in terms of casualties caused on the enemy has been the artillery. India’s 220-odd artillery regiments (there are 18 guns in a regiment) field equipment that is at least a quarter of a century old since there has been no artillery procurement since 1987.
As a result, the army uses a mix of many kinds of different guns, a logistical nightmare in terms of maintenance support and ammunition handling. The process of inducting new artillery will take at least five years, and is complicated by the MoD’s blacklisting of almost every major international arms vendor. The Artillery Rationalisation Plan proposes to acquire 3,000-3,600 155mm, 45 calibre ultralight and 155 mm 52 calibre towed, mounted and self-propelled guns in the next decade for about 180 of its 220 artillery regiments. But there is no movement for now.
Air defence
Pakistan’s inability to detect the incursion by the US Special Forces team that killed Osama bin Laden made that country seem militarily inept. Similarly, India’s porous air defence network could lead to national embarrassment. The radar network, which must provide seamless and layered coverage across the length of the border, has huge holes, and the development and production of new radars by Bharat Electronics Ltd has lagged badly.
India’s air defence guns are today 40-50 years old. The L-70 and ZU-23 guns are from the 1960s and 1970s, while programmes to upgrade them by mating them to modern radars have still to be implemented. Missile systems like the SAM-2 Pichora are repeatedly given life extensions, even as they remain obviously incapable of bringing down a modern, high-performance fighter. The situation is even worse for the mechanised forces’ mobile air defence, equipped with Russian platforms like the ZSU-23 Schillka and the OSA-AK (SAM-8) that date back to the 1970s.
In the last financial year, the MoD has signed Rs 17,000 crore worth of procurement contracts for air defence artillery. But Rs 13,000 crore of that is for just two squadrons of indigenous Akash missiles, which will be deployed in the northeast. Many of the big holes remain unplugged for now.
Special forces
Even as the army takes pride in the capabilities of its Special Forces, many of these units still engage in counter-insurgency operations with the venerable AK-47 assault rifle, perhaps the only Special Forces in the world that carry such outdated equipment. Equally worrisome is their night vision capability, a key concern since Special Forces operate mainly at night. Another key capability that lags is man-portable communications.
Infantry
The Indian Army’s 350-odd infantry battalions, respected worldwide for their discipline and commitment, are amongst the most neglected arms. This is ironical, given that most Army chiefs have been infantrymen. Most infantrymen say that the infantry’s primary weapons, the 5.62 mm INSAS rifle and light machine gun, which the Ordnance Factory Board fabricates, have not met the standards of a modern army.
Even more worrisome is the infantry’s night-fighting capabilities. Most of the 30,000 night vision devices (NVDs) which Bharat Electronics Ltd had been asked to build remain undelivered. Short range radio communications remain another dire weakness. Senior officers admit that Pakistani terrorists who infiltrate into J&K often carry better NVDs and radio sets than the army jawans who combat them.
However, a sense of realisation appears to be dawning on the MoD and there is a concerted attempt to modify procurement procedures and structures in order to fill these glaring gaps in defence capability. But, given that the average procurement contract takes six to seven years from conception to delivery, many of these gaps will continue for now.
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