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Posted by admin in " RIAZ THE SHAITAN OF PAKISTAN, ADHD NAWAZ SHARIF, BOOT THE SCOUNDRELS OR SHOWDAZ, CHACHA SAM'S MAKHAN BAZI, Corruption, EXPATRIATE PAKISTANIS SPEAK-UP, GHADAAR-I-PAKISTAN NAWAZ SHARIF, Looters and Scam Artists, Nawaz Sharif & Kashmiri Biradari, Nawaz Sharif Dangerous Man, NAWAZ SHARIF DICTATOR, Nawaz Sharif Massive Corruption, NAWAZ SHARIF MUZZLES PRESS, NAWAZ SHARIF SAGA OF ABSOLUTE & CHRONIC CORRUPTION, NAWAZ SHARIF US & SAUDI AGENT, NAWAZ SHARIF: THE LOOTER, Nawaz US Agent, Pakistan's Hall of Shame on August 31st, 2013
HISTORY OF CORRUPTION OF NAWAZ SHARIF SO CALLED POLTICAL LEADER OF PAKISTAN PART 1
In the early eighties, after that Nawaz Sharif had completed his education his father Mian Muhammad Sharif started him in the business. However, this proved a disaster. As a second option Mian Muhammad Sharif set him up with Pakistani actor Saeed Khan Rangeela to get him into acting (something which Nawaz Sharif wanted).
A few days later Saeed Khan Rangeela sent his regrets to Mian Muhammad Sharif saying that his son was too dumb for acting and movie industry. Mian Muhammad Sharif then a cricket coaches to train his son for cricket, but his physical fitness was too low for the sport. It is rumored that by mid-day on his first day at training Nawaz Sharif threw the bat down and left the stadium saying, “This is too tough for me.” As a last resort he paid General Ghulam Jilani Khan a considerable sum of monies to introduce Nawaz Sharif to General Zia-ul-Haq recommending him for a political post, who in turn made Nawaz Sharif the Finance Minister of Punjab. This was the day when the street thugs of Mohni Road had stepped on to becoming the national thugs of Pakistan.
The day Nawaz Sharif had become Finance Minister, the entire family’s earnings were few million rupees and had only one refinery. From there they went on to: Ittefaq Sugar Mills was set up in 1982, Brothers steel in 1983, Brother’s Textile Mills in 1986, Brothers Sugar Mills Ltd in 1986, Ittefaq Textile units in 2-3 in 1987, Khalid Siraj Textile Mills in 1988, Ramzan Buksh Textiles in 1987, Farooq Barkat (pvt) Ltd in 1985. By the time of Zia ul Haq’s fateful plane crash, Mian Muhammad Sharif’s family was earning a net profit of US$ 3 million, up from a few million rupees. By the end of the decade their net assets were worth more than 6 billion rupees, according to their own admission, nearly US$ 350 million at the time. But this turned out to be small-change when Nawaz Sharif became the Prime Minister.
When Nawaz Sharif became prime minister, the group took a decision to secure project loans from the foreign banks and only working capital were taken from the nationalized commercial banks. The project financing from foreign banks was ostensibly secured against the foreign currency deposits, a number of which were held in benamee accounts, as repeatedly claimed by Interior Minister Naseer Ullah Babar at his press conferences. In 1992 Salman Taseer released an account of Nawaz Sharif’s corruption stating that the family had taken loans of up to 12 billion rupees, which were never paid back. On March 2, 1994, Khalid Siraj, a cousin of Nawaz Sharif claimed that the assets of the seven brothers were valued at Rs 21 billion.
These were the accounts of profits and companies which were openly known to public. However, the family kept their side business going all the while ” the gambling dens and heroin control in Lahore ” and along with their industry the side business also mushroomed.
During the Afghan-Soviet War Nawaz Sharif’s cousin Sohail Zia Butt started working under the drug baron Mirza Iqbal Beg, then Pakistan’s second biggest drug lord after Ayub Afridi. Mian Muhammad Sharif and his sons had a permanent share in his gambling and heroin business. In 1990 Suhail Butt won a seat on the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad ticket in the Punjab Assembly. It was through Sohail Butt’s association that Nawaz Sharif became a close associate of Mirza Iqbal Beg. It was through him that Nawaz Sharif became benami owner of many of the privatized government entities, such as Muslim Commercial Bank. Sohail Zia Butt other than getting involved in the drug business made billions in the co-operative societies’ collapse, mainly through the National Industrial Credit and Finance Corporation. It was Nawaz Sharif’s share in his cousin’s drug business which he used to buy off the generals thereby delaying the inevitable dismissal of his government.
In 1995 when Mirza Iqbal Beg was imprisoned, Sohail Zia Butt took over his drug empire. It is at this time that he became one of the biggest drug and crime bosses in Pakistan and was nicknamed the “King of Hera Mandi” and at one time all six underworld gangs of Lahore were working under him.
By 1995 family’s declared annual profits from industrial units had increased 1500% from US$ 30 million to staggering US$ 400 million.
This is the short version of how in mere 15 years small street thugs running gambling dens became leaders of a country running narcotics, underworld and smuggling empires, untouched by everyone.
Posted by ansarmukhtar in BOOT THE SCOUNDRELS OR SHOWDAZ, Corruption on August 26th, 2013
Deadly debt trap
The only way to come out of prevalent economic mess is to accelerate growth and enhance tax revenues
By Huzaima Bukhari & Dr. Ikramul Haq
Pakistan trapped in deadly ‘debt prison’ needs concentrated short and long term efforts to come out of it. Unfortunately, till today no workable plan and viable strategy is devised by the government or any political party in opposition to tackle the issue. The debt burden — Rs14.5 billion internal and $60 billion external — is becoming unmanageable as major resources are consumed by debt servicing. The budget allocation of Rs1.52 trillion for retiring public debt and payment of interest during fiscal year 2013-14 would prove short as there was surge of Rs180 billion in external debts alone during July 2013.
On July 29, 2013, the rupee recorded its lowest value against the dollar: Rs102.4 in the interbank market, Rs104.7 in open market, but actual rate was Rs105.5. Continuous slide of the rupee is not merely due to widening demand-supply gap or maneuverings by unscrupulous elements. Other factors are external debt repayments of around $1billion and speculations about official devaluation in the wake of IMF bailout.
Devaluation will have devastating effects e.g. tremendous surge in public debt (one rupee loss in the exchange rate adds Rs60 billion to public debt), enhancement in debt servicing, further widening of fiscal deficit and more expensive imports, especially of crude oil raising cost of all goods and services.
Already huge debt servicing is taking a heavy toll on economy — fiscal deficit for financial year 2012-13 jumped to 8.8 per cent of GDP as shortfall on the part of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) alone was Rs442 billion. The fast depletion of foreign exchange reserves — from $14.776 billion in July 2011 to $5.153 billion by July 2013 — aggravated the situation. Heavy repayments to the IMF and others plus financing of current account deficit amounting to $2.3 billion in 2012-13 forced the new government to approach the IMF for a bailout package.
The situation on internal debt is equally disturbing. The government, for the first time in the history, borrowed from local banks Rs one trillion during the fiscal year 2012-13. The net government borrowing from domestic banks increased to Rs1.012 trillion between July 1, 2012 and June 28, 2013 against Rs629.9 billion over the same period last fiscal year. The federal government borrowed Rs1.005 trillion for budgetary support as compared to Rs696.5 billion during the corresponding period fiscal year.
The reckless and unabated borrowing from commercial banks is not only retarding growth but also depriving private sector of the much-needed funds for investments. It is but also forcing State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to inject heavy amounts of liquidity in the banking system through frequent open market operations as high borrowings wipe out liquidity from the money market.
The only way to come out of prevalent mess is to accelerate growth, generate employment, enhance tax revenues, and stop financing luxuries of elites and losses of public sector enterprises (PSEs). But the present government, like the PPP-coalition government, is not serious about it. During its election campaign, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) made tall claims that on assuming power it will get rid of the “cancer of external debts”.
However, the PML-N government is knocking the doors of international lenders more vigorously than the PPP. Besides the IMF’s lending of $5.3 billion to pay off previous loan, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar is approaching Asian Development Bank and World Bank for further borrowing. The main priority of the government is to rely more on external borrowing than mobilising own resources.
Internal debt is now 68 per cent of GDP breaching the limit of 60 per cent imposed under the Fiscal Responsibility and Debt Limitation Act 2010. The law requires the government to prepare and revise the debt management policy every year in January but nothing has been done as there is no debt reduction plan. Making things worse, the government is not inclined to impose fiscal discipline and reckless borrowing continues to pay off liabilities of the corruption-ridden inefficient PSEs. According to SBP, the funding of PSEs has hit economy heavily, increasing the stock of total debt & liabilities (TDL) by Rs500-600 billion.
All the governments — civil or military alike — have failed to end debt enslavement by raising revenues even to the extent of Rs6 trillion, though actual potential is not less than Rs8.5 trillion [complete roadmap was given in Taxing targets, The News, August 26, 2012]. Unless it is done, Pakistan can never come out of the ‘debt prison’.
The Senate was informed on January 23, 2013 that over 3.39 million individuals had National Tax Numbers (NTNs), but only 885,999 businesses filed their returns. The former finance minister, Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, admitted that the number of income tax filers had drastically reduced to 1.6 million by 31 December 2012. The Senate was told that “a large number of businesses and individuals, who were regularly filing their income tax returns, are now avoiding their legal obligations by either under-declaring or incorrectly declaring their assets and incomes”.
After admitting widespread tax non-compliance, no action was taken against any official of the FBR. There is no will to eliminate wasteful spending on monstrous government machinery and inefficient PSEs. The way the government is moving our foreign debt would reach US$75 billion in 2015 and domestic debt would be Rs22 trillion. The policies of appeasement towards tax evaders, money-launderers and plunderers of national wealth and monopolisation of resources by Riasti Ashrafiya(state aristocracy) have pushed the country towards disaster.
The word ‘austerity’ is not in the dictionary of state aristocracy — indomitable military-judicial-civil complex and men in power. The habit of living beyond means — our national addiction — has turned the nuclear-powered Pakistanis into a nation holding the beggar’s bowl. When foreign lenders see the lifestyle of our ruling elite, they immediately show indignation — it is hard to believe for them that the rulers of a nation surviving on borrowed funds can display such flamboyance.
The reluctance to collect taxes from the rich and mighty, rather giving them free benefits and perquisites at state’s expense, is worsening the miseries of the poor. There is no scarcity of resources as propagated by the rulers to shift blame on others, but the real cause is outlandish living of the elites off taxpayers’ money [‘Public parasites’, The News, July 21, 2013]. Look at residences of judges, generals and high-ranking civil officials with army of servants and fleet of cars.
Wasteful spending on state aristocracy and unwillingness to tax the rich is playing havoc with the economy. Behind the present chaotic socio-economic and political situation in Pakistan, amongst other factors, is an ever-widening gulf between the rich and the poor. With every passing day more and more people are being pushed below the poverty line — their total number is now not less than 60 million in a country where rulers unashamedly waste billions on their comforts and personal security.
The present crisis testifies to the failure of power-hungry, money-greedy politicians and incompetent, inefficient and corrupt bureaucrats. Even the so-called technocrats always take the first flight to Washington after creating mess — where are Shaukat Aziz and Abdul Hafeez now? In this bleak scenario, Riasti Ashrafiya is not ready to surrender extraordinary perks and privileges enjoyed by them at the cost of taxpayers’ money. How can rulers and bureaucrats living in fortified containments, completely oblivious of the ordinary people’s plight, feel the pinch of life’s hardships?
We cannot come out of debt-enslavement unless we restructure our state on the principle enshrined in Article 3 of the Constitution — from each according to his ability, to each according to his work. For this, everyone should be given work and fair reward for that. There should be a complete change in the style of governance — the president, governors, prime minister, chief ministers, ministers, parliamentarians, and high-ranking government officials should be paid ‘consolidated pay’ liable to tax like income of an ordinary citizen.
Palatial residences occupied by them should be sold or converted into income-yielding assets, and all perquisites of civil servants and public office-holders should be monetized to remove the burden off our country’s broken financial back.
______________________________
The writers, lawyers and authors of many books, are Adjunct Faculty Members at Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS)
Posted by kulsoom Waheed in " RIAZ THE SHAITAN OF PAKISTAN, Asif Zardari Crook Par Excellance, Corruption, Looters and Scam Artists on July 14th, 2013
LAHORE – The Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhary’s son, Arsalan Iftikhar was extended ‘royal protocol’ at the Allama Iqbal International Airport on Wednesday, according to media reports.
The protocol is reserved for the most esteemed public personalities; not extended to parliamentarians and ministers even.
Media reports said that Arsalan Iftikhar was given special protocol when he arrived at Lahore Airport by Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight PK-615. A special vehicle was detailed to pick him up as soon as he stepped on the airport right from the stairs descending from the plane.
Arsalan Iftikhar has been charged with seeking millions of rupees in profit from former Chairman Bahria Town Malik Riaz during his foreign trips. The Shoaib Saddal Commission is investigating the matter.
Observers inquired that under what status was Arsalan Iftikhar provided protocol, terming this a bid of the PIA to seek the CJP’s favor.
Commenting on the situation, leading TV anchor Mubashar Luqman said that no enquiry had been initiated against Arsalan Iftikhar so far. The CJP had headed the bench during the course of the petition’s hearing but had later rescued his son, which raised troubling questions about the integrity of one of the country’s central institutions.
– See more at: http://www.pakistantoday.com.
Lahore citizens crammed into an operational Metro Bus. PHOTO: ONLINE
According to the Punjab government, 30 billion rupees is the amount of money spent on the Lahore Metro Bus Service. The actual figure may be a lot more, but let’s just take their word for it and apply a bit of perspective to it instead.
Overall the entire allocated money for Punjab infrastructure development is Rs63 billion which means that 50% or half of the development budget of Punjab was spent in Lahore.
This excludes the cost of the numerous underpasses and overhead bridges that were built in Lahore.
Compare this Rs30 billion to the Rs16.5 billion allocated to the health sector for the entire province of Punjab. Just imagine if this same budget, allocated to the metro service was spent on the health sector instead.
A state of the art hospital like the recently developed Rawalpindi Institute of Cardiology was built within Rs2.8 billion, taking that as our benchmark, we would have been able to build 10 such hospitals with the RS30 billion spent on the Metro Bus!
An interesting perspective, right?
Compare this with the Rs25 billion development budget for education in Punjab for the current year. From this 25 billion a total of Rs5 billion was spent on giving away laptops. Although the goodwill gesture behind the act remains, pragmatism is in severe dearth. Unfortunately, the schools in this country lack basic infrastructure, sanitation and clean drinking water – laptops are a far off dream.
Some may think Punjab as a province is able to afford suchshenanigans but a close look at the economic situation of the province gives a very different picture.
In these hard economic times, under the PPP government, it is Punjab that is the worst performing province.
The province’s annual average growth rate of 2.5% between 2007 and 2011 lagged far behind the 3.4% for the rest of Pakistan, according to the Lahore-based Institute of Public Policy (IPP). Over 83% of the Rs783 billion Punjab budget for the current year will be financed by federal transfers and 12% by provincial tax revenue.
The more worrying factor is that Punjab is generating very little revenue of its own and the provincial government has completely failed to address this problem, in fact it is making it worse by spending billions on projects which will further strain the treasury.
Interestingly, very little is being said about the running cost of the Metro Bus Service as the costs have not been ‘calculated yet’ but conservative estimates are that the subsidies would cost the government a minimum of Rs1 billion a year.
This project has the potential to become another state owned bleeding giant.
This is reckless spending which matches the obsessive behaviour of emperors from not so democratic times. Pakistan is set for harder times economically and the leaders are demonstrating absolutely no sense what so ever or any serious intent to address the actual problems this country faces.
I believe that the Metro Bus Service has nothing to offer this country except further economic misery.
* All figures quoted from the Punjab government site.
Posted by admin in Corruption, Looters and Scam Artists, Pakistan's Hall of Shame on June 27th, 2013
Politically Incorrect
Amir Mateen
Pakistan is in turmoil. From politicians to the generals to the common man—everybody is embroiled in chaos up to the neck. But there is one exclusive community that basks in luxury and relishes the best of both worlds — super bureaucrats.
There are almost 50 Grade-22 officers now. This excludes the super-duper Salman Farooqui, who as Secretary General in Grade 22 with the status of a State Minister, holds the golden key to the Presidential treasures. Also excluded are half a dozen Grade-22 officers hired on contract including Special Secretaries to the President Mrs Nasreen Haque, Special Secretary Establishment Division Munir Ahmad and the three secretaries of the Election Commission of Pakistan, the Senate and the National Assembly, not to forget the two retired generals monitoring Defence Division and Production. Wow, quite a figure. Well that’s just half of the story.
Another 170 are waiting in Grade-21, half of them having their two-year waiting requirement fulfilled, are pulling every string to get into the Super Club-22. Where will it lead to? The Club-22 ballooning into a 100 or even more, if we allow them to have their way. Remember the Devolution of power. It was meant to, besides provincial autonomy, cut the size of the government. The idea was not to have duplication of ministries. And here it is – the babus keep coming out with new divisions, autonomous and regulatory bodies, wings, departments — all those fancy words that basically come down to more expansion and more perks.
There are 44 Divisions already besides autonomous and regulatory elephants. Why do we have a Human Rights Division?
Ever heard a Grade-22 officer by the name of Shaigan Shareef Malik raising his voice for the Baloch missing people or standing by the Hindu women abducted in Sindh. All we know is that the government is the biggest violator of human rights.
The government may have abolished its privatization policy but the one-time expanded Privatisation Division stays. Do you know about National Harmony Division? What does Inter Provincial Coordination do? Or the National Food Security and Research Division or the more intriguing National Heritage and Integration Division. Even the CIA could not have coined such dubious names for these outfits. Underneath these fancy names are huge edifices created for our worthy members of the Club-22 to run their small fiefdoms of staff cars, the colonial peons and toilets are clearly marked “For Officer”—tax-payers money be damned. After all, they did not pass that CSS bloody exam 35 years ago to be the ‘public servants,’ goes the saying.
They trick is to keep upgrading these post. The Chairman of the Provincial Planning and Division was a Grade-21 post that got elevated to Grade-22. The same is the case with the Chairman Land Commission and Senior Member of the Punjab Revenue Board. Punjab also has a Grade-22 officer as the Acting Chief Secretary. No wonder Shahbaz Sharif loves these babus so much and holds a contempt for his own political class. His earlier Chief Secretary, Javed Mahmood, who was accused of crushing down a Colonel, the last we heard, was supervising family agriculture in Kasur after taking a long leave. He will still be eligible for all the perks and pension for sure. Club mates take care of each other. In the past, others have worked for Chaudhry Shujaat’s Mill as Manager while keeping their job.
Yet the ground is ripe for making way for more members of the Super Club. About ten vacancies of Grade-22 are still vacant and are being run by acting Heads. This includes the CDA and we all know that the last few heads of this prized outfit have either been pushed out or, such as Kamran Lashari, faces corruption charges before the Courts. By the way, Lashari is now adviser with the Punjab government. Told you Shahbaz Sharif loves them—who cares about the Supreme Court.
Also, the Supreme Court has also ruled that no extensions will be given. Yet the contracts to retired people keep coming. In fact, the two most important Divisions are being run by retired officers on contract. Wajid Rana, who was given a contract in last November, runs the Finance Division. More important, Munir Ahmad has been hired as Special Secretary in Establishment Division for a two year contract. Why? Because he specializes in bending rules and making more room for people like himself. Why should there be a Special Secretary when they already have Taimoor Azmat as the Establishment Secretary. Then why should there be a Special Secretary of Water and Power also?
It’s a total mess. Salman Farooqui refuses to give way at 70 plus whereas hundreds of junior officers in non-DMG grades sulk for years for the promotion board to just sit down.
Nargis sethi has an additional charge while the most senior 22-grader in officialdom, Zafar Mahmood, sits at home for the last four months for a ‘posting’. By the way, it was again His Lordship who caused this anomaly. A recent holy judicial scripture makes it mandatory for the government to give reasons if they send an Officer on ‘Special Duty’, the official-speak for the notorious acronym OSD. Trust the bureaucrats to find novel ways of beating the law. They just make them sit at home without salary for months, which is worse than being an OSD. What a send-off for one of their own kind who retires after 35 years of service in April…retirement without salary.
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