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Posted by admin in Asif Zardari Crook Par Excellance, BILAWAL ZARDARI BAMBINO KINGS OF CORRUPTION, BILWAL & ASID ZARDARI SHAITANS OF PAKISTAN, CORRUPTION OF SHAHBAZ SHARIF, CORRUPTION-PAKISTAN SUPREME COURT, COWARD OF KARGIL NAWAZ SHARIF, Criminals, Domestic Policy, ISHAQ DAR:THIEF OF PUNJAB, MALIK RIAZ, Politics & International Relations, Sajjad Shaukat's Column on November 1st, 2014
With the passage of more than 70 days, the prevailing political turmoil in Pakistan has deepened, as protesting groups of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) led by Imran Khan and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) by Dr. Tahirul Qadri have continued AZADI (Freedom) and INQILAB (Revolution) marches, observing sit-ins at capital city of Islamabad. Although Tahirul Qadri has ended his sit-in at Islamabad, yet he has decided to observe two-day sit-ins in various cities of the country. Besides, both PAT and PTI have been conducting larger processions in various cities. Thus, demonstrations and protests have been prolonged and extended, because, the government of PML (N) led by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif could not grab the initiative to settle the issue through result-oriented dialogue.
Now, the political uncertainty in the country presents an ugly scenario in which twin protesting parties have maintained a firm stance rigidly demanding resignation of the prime minister, audit of the rigged elections, reformation of Election Commission etc. Both Imran Khan and Tahirul Qadri are not against the democracy, but are against the corrupt system of democracy, being practised in Pakistan. They have said in their various speeches that and PPP and PML (N) are taking their turn, and under the cover of democracy, their leaders have been doing business through tax-evasion and corruption.
No doubt, favorite system of governance in the Western countries is democracy. By using their legitimate right of vote, people participate in political process, and elect their own representatives to govern them. Thus, they give mandate by authorizing the elected members to hold public offices and make legitimate decisions to run the affairs of state. And, the elected representatives remain accountable for their actions, while, the system of electoral democracy also empowers the voters to take away the powers of the elected members, if they fall short of popular aspirations—good governance and so on.
In case of Pakistan’s version of democracy, it has the same system of representatives according to the constitution, but the elected representatives grossly violate the public mandate for obtaining their selfish and materialistic gains. These representatives, virtually shatter all hopes of voters by neglecting their social problems, financial difficulties and psychological distress. Promises made during election campaign are quickly forgotten, while perks of public offices are fully enjoyed. Irony of the fate is that same elite group gets elected over and over again and election campaigns are held as rituals. Unfortunately, voters, become trading pawns in the hands of politicians who regard elections as windows of business opening to plunder national wealth through all possible means of corruption whose result is poor governance.
Most of the elected representatives in National Assembly and Senate hardly make any worthwhile contribution, as they remain absent during active sessions of the parliament. Therefore, sessions of the lower and upper houses are adjourned due to lack of quorum, and the process of essentially required legislation remains blank and weary. Resultantly, the voters’ aspirations turn into hopeless ordeal, dejection and despondency.
It is notable that various malpractices such as horse-trading, nepotism, bribery, illegal obligations and other forms of corruption are very common among our politicians. In fact, the elite group of elected members uses powers of their public offices to advance their personal interests including engagement in politics of THANA and KUTCHERY (Police and Court), earnestly seeking allotment of development and discretion funds and timely steps of sycophancy to please the top party leaders. Thus, they promote their personal interests, and show total callousness towards torment of their voters.
Undoubtedly, in Pakistan, corruption is a significant obstacle for good governance, supremacy of law, and rational use of authority to run the affairs of state and to maintain public cohesion and national harmony. Regrettably, corrupt practices and misuse of public office lead to general frustration, opening windows of protest with sense of dissent, disapproval and conflict against the governing authority. The environment of agitation and demonstrations carry seeds of large scale disturbances, creating law and order situation, social disorder and political chaos, culminating in poor governance.
It is our misfortune that rampant corruption in the country has infected the entire edifice of national institutions. Political leadership is busy in power grabbing process, while the poor suffer under hard environment where healthy food, clean drinking water, respectable shelter, justice, education and health care facilities are almost non-existent.
In this regard, the ordeal of poor in Pakistan can well be anticipated by prevailing unemployment, poor living and health conditions, price hike, social injustice, contempt for merit, promoting cronyism, and poor law and order situation.
Regrettably, the concerned ministers remain busy in settling scores against their political rivals, using floor of parliament and media channels. Most of their time is spent on preparing fierce speeches to level fresh tirades of accusations and counter allegations.
The poor voters remain bewildered as protesting groups, PAT and PTI, pointed out corruption of subsequent rulers of the PPP and the present ones of the PML (N). While, ruling elite and their associates in opposition benches of the parliament have termed the protests as unlawful, unconstitutional and undemocratic.
Besides, political leaders enraged outbursts, filled with allegations and counter accusations. Some of them, especially of the PPP and PML (N) have shamefully tried their best to drag the Armed Forces into political turmoil. They have brazenly accused Pak Army and country’s prime intelligence agency, ISI (without any evidence) for orchestrating the prevailing political impasse which was created by the politicians themselves. In their fierce speeches, while, indirectly criticizing Army, leaders of PML (N) and some other parliamentarians said that they would oppose any move which could derail democracy in the country by rejecting the unconstitutional demands of PTI and PAT including resignation of the Prime Minister Nawaz and the dissolution of the National Assembly.
On the other side, on September 12, 2014, DG of ISPR Maj-Gen. Asim Bajwa once again elaborated, “Pakistan Army supports democracy and constitution, and does not think it necessary to respond to rumors.” He added, “The army chief in his address on Youm-i-Shuhuda (Martyrs’ Day) clearly said that the army believes in continuation and democracy.”
Some media analysts and political leaders have tended to show their loyalties to top political leadership by mentioning about the possibility of military take over. Such elements have an agenda to spoil civil-military relations—to create division between the Armed Forces, distorting their image in the eyes of general masses. But all these observations proved untrue, as Army did not take any step like military take over or martial law.
It is notable that in 2011, during the Memogate case, some political entities and media commentators were saying that martial law will be imposed in the country. The then Chief of Army Staff Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani stated, “The Pakistan Army has and will continue to support democratic process in the country.” As Army was acting upon the principle of non-interference in political affairs, therefore, the previous government completed its tenure.
It is noteworthy that for the last few months, Pakistan’s Armed Forces are successfully obtaining their objectives in North Waziristan Agency (NWA) through military operation Zarb-e-Azb against the terrorists who had challenged the writ of the state, and had frightened the entire nation by their terror-acts. The Armed Forces also engaged in rescue-operations in the flood-affected areas. Besides, Pak Army has also been coping with subversive activities in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and other parts of the country including tribal areas in wake of India’s war-like diplomacy and cross-border infiltration from Afghanistan’s side.
However, these parliamentarians and leaders have disregarded the commitment and sacrifices, being offered by the Armed Forces in the operation Zarb-e-Azb and flood relief operation.
In fact, under the cover of democracy, some politicians of the government and the opposition parties are diverting the attention of the general masses from those articles of the constitution, which are mentioned in the ‘Principles of Policy.’ These articles clearly mention that people would provide with justice, gap between the rich and the poor would be reduced, and poverty would be eradicated in the country. However, our politicians and the subsequent governments of the industrialists and feudlords failed in delivering good governance to the people in accordance with the constitution. They have only deceived the public mandate in the pretext of democracy which has been named as a ‘corrupt democracy’ in Pakistan.
Nevertheless, rampant corruption in Pakistan is posing a very serious threat to the state as well the true democracy. It has become a significant obstacle towards development, and adversely impacting the good governance and rule of law, culminating in poor governance. Now, the right hour has come that the political leadership must conduct introspective analysis of their style of governance, and must develop a desire to fight the menace of corruption through accountability and transparency. The aim should be to put the house in order.
Sajjad Shaukat writes on international affairs and is author of the book: US vs Islamic Militants, Invisible Balance of Power: Dangerous Shift in International Relations
Email: [email protected]
Posted by admin in Domestic Policy, Economics, Politics & International Relations on October 12th, 2014
Islamabad: June 12, 2013
The Federal Government will announce the budget for 2013-14 this evening. Ishaq Dar, the Finance Minister, will be intoning and juggling figures, incomprehensible to the country’s 180 million deaf and dumb creatures. I laugh heartily at the regular comments of the super rich that the budget is the ‘poor peoples’ budget . The common people are not concerned because they have become stoics . They mostly live in villages under oppressive conditions without regular employment opportunities and without education , health care , potable drinking water and without electricity. The Government is not be trusted .
In the USA , the budget is discussed for an entire year i.e after its presentation by the President to the next year’s President’s speech . But then USA is the USA while Pakistan is Pakistan . Our Financial Year is July-June . From the 13th ,the budget will be discussed for a fortnight only upto the 25th.With the majority of members on the Government side , the discussions will be an eyewash only.
The only time when the country was not bored stiff by the high flown language of the budget was when Dr. Mahbub ul Haq was the Finance Minister in the mid eighties . He skipped over all the rubbish : the rhetoric before the actual budget relating to taxes and duties . He did not blame the previous governments of all wrongdoings under the sun. But he laid great emphasis on investment in the people viz. education and health which are taboo for the successive governments before and after him . He went to discuss the changes in taxes and duties . His budget speech was over in less than an hour .
Since the creation of the country , the common people whose miseries are bemoaned by every political worth his salt . While their condition is becoming worse with each passing day, successive governments blame the previous governments or the vagaries of the weather , the poverty line has reached 45 -50 % of the country’s population . The Government is levying taxes more than the capacity of the people to pay under the dictates of the donor agencies . The GNPs , the GDPs and the Per Capita Incomes are but poor indicators of a nation’s prosperity . The Government’s figures indicate the Per Capita Income is $ 1380 . Yet it is not visible on the people faces . The successive governments pride on the number of cars assembled locally and owned by Pakistanis , the number of motor cycles , the number of refrigerators , deep freezers or air conditioners assembled locally . It never shows the number of children without education and health facilities , the number who are without potable drinking water . The Government figures indicate the number of houses in the country or by cities . They never indicate where they are located in posh localities or in slums .
Prosperity and happiness are written on the faces of the people whereas the Pakistanis are glum and depressed . Countless people do not know where the next meal is going to come from . Education and health care is becoming expensive day by day . Even children in Montessoris attend tuition centres whose fees are around Rs 4000/- per month .All this tantamount to the ‘Education Genocide’. School drop outs are routine : the people inability to pay the expenditure related to education.
The fault lies with the interest based economic system. The experts have been trained in educational centres modeled in the West : by modeled by Bretten Woods financial Institutions — the World Bank, the IMF which are interest based.
Pakistan started borrowing from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in 1950 on their terms instead of the Government exploiting the country’s resources . The Bank’s interest rates are based on commercial banks rates prevailing New York .
During the military regime of General Musharraf , the Prime Minister and Finance Minister , Shaukat Aziz , liberalized the imports of non essential items . Loans and credit , both foreign and domestic banks ( the latter to the influential few ), were easily available . Thus the elite lived beyond the country’s means . However , in the Civil Government that followed, the donors tightened their purse string in view of the adverse reputation of that Government . Resultantly , it went for bank borrowings and deficit financing both of them were injurious to the country’s financial health . During the past five years , the total , both domestic and external , ballooned to unimaginable proportions . One could visualize the grim face of Ghulam Ishaq Khan , one of Pakistan’s most stern finance managers .
Three recent statements made by prominent people merit attention :-
In the Capitalist system , most countries were in danger of a meltdown . They are borrowing from wealthy countries like Germany and France . The USA has to repay the Chinese loan of $ 16 Trillion . The country’s debt is equal i.e $ 16 Trillion .
Men and women both from the developed world and third countries are working for longer hours or they are working in two or three jobs a day to enable them to live in comfort but they are not happy . Leisure , like everything ,can be had but at a price . The question that arises in one’s mind “what at cost “ . The world has seen the failure of the Capitalist System . This is the modern version of ‘Slave Trade’.
Before the advent of the banking system , interest based income , the paper currency , the floating exchange rate , devaluation or revaluation , recession , stagflation ,the basket of currencies , people and nations traded either through barter or metals the most favoured ones were gold and silver . That is Islam advocates : the abolition of interest , the abolition of exploitation , the abolition of the Capitalist System and the abolition of paper currency . Allow the people to be happy and not in ‘human bondage ‘.
Muslim Government and Muslim scholars must do their homework and establish a framework as an alternative economic system based on the Islamic teachings .
To be continued…………
The writer is not a world famous Economist’
Mahfooz ur Rahman
Islamabad: June 12 , 2013
Posted by admin in ADVENTURES OF SHREK NAWAZ, Domestic Policy, Politics & International Relations on September 26th, 2014
I was only three when I came to Pakistan from India in the company of my late parents in 1947 . My parents and other elders of the family had mixed memories in retrospect some very sweet .But others were very bitter scenes of Partition . My forefathers enjoyed a good and settled life in India.
However , Pakistan became the only home I have known in my life . I have never looked back . My family and I found love here : within the family , in our friends’ homes , in schools , colleges or universities , in hospitals . Nor do I feel any desire to visit India unlike those who write about their visits in ‘’Aman Ki Asha’ to each others’ countries though I read every bit about ‘Aman Ki Asha ‘ . Through the course of my life I have travelled and seen many countries both in the east and the west , Pakistan remains my cherished land . Pakistan always remains in my prayers . I wish the best for it . My family , both immediate and extended , and my friends , will bear my out that I wish that the country must remain a peaceful and a prosperous one .My parents taught me the dignity of honest hard work and achievements through it. However , like others less fortunate , my children and I faced discrimination for most of our lives .
Had the Muslims not struggled under the indomitable determination of Mr. Jinnah , they would have always been in minority in India on the basis of one man one vote . However , after achieving Independence , that great expectations have evaporated whether the form of government was secular , religious , parliamentary or presidential or military . The ride has not been very smooth .
Immediately after partition , Pakistan lost two important leaders viz. Mr. Jinnah and Mr. Liaqat Ali Khan . Had they lived , the mission for which they struggled would have been placed on even keel.
After of the death of Mr.Jinnah , a controversy started whether he wanted a secular Pakistan which still continues . While most governments in Pakistan and its machinery are inclined towards secularism , an overwhelming majority has a Muslim bent of mind . The liberals quoted his speech made on August 11 , 1947 , three days before the country’s independence , to support their contention . Mr. Jinnah , towards the end of his speech said
“ You are free to go to your temples. You are free to go to your mosques “
Over the years , the many religious parties or groups , big or small , have muddied the waters. .While a couple of them managed to win some seats in each elections , they have never succeeded to form governments independently . However , their antics annoyed much of the educated middle classes . The youth is thoroughly disenchanted and allergic to them. As a reaction to them , they veered to the opposite direction , the girls wearing jeans and tops and the boys wearing bracelets and strange hair dos . In the absence of an example , they are directionless . In one instance , a young girl disembarked from a chauffeur driven elegant car in a Rawalpindi Cantonment market wearing a dress of see through material .My family and I were shopping there . I remembered Maulana Azad’s prophesy that the youth will turn against Islam particularly in the environment of less ‘dos’ and more ‘donts’. The youth do not have an example for them to follow . Dr. Israr Ahmed , Dr. Zakir Naik and some others are good . The people trust their knowledge and their wisdom .But their circles are limited . Only Dr. Zakir Naik has his own TV Channel .
Each group ,who claim to work for the spreading Islam , live in the own cast iron shell . Some of the members sell their soul to the devil very cheaply in exchange of small gifts of this world . At least five times a day , we ask Allah to show the right path . However , the moment we leave he mosque or our houses , we step into another realm , the realm of Satan , the realm of evil where there is business as usual . If prayers (Salaat ) provides guidance to reform oneself and become a good human being , why are we all going in the opposite direction . Allah’s Commandments cannot be wrong . We must know ourselves: analyse ourselves . Let us admit that we stink . We are morally bankrupt . I am also confused . I am only a commoner.
A delegation from the Export Development of Canada and I were to meet the Joint Secretary (Law) , Mr. Bashir Jehangiri ( before he was elevated to the Bench) at 1 PM . When we arrived at his room , we were told that he was preoccupied with the Law Secretary . We waited for one hour . Meanwhile the call to prayer had been answered by the faithful . Since this was October , the congregation had been arranged in the lawns outside the Pakistan Secretariat . One of the members of the raised a pertinent question pointing towards the two prayer congregations standing very close to each other . I lowered my head in great shame . I said only one word in reply :EGO”. If Allah is one , the Holy Quran is one and the Holy Prophet (Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him) is one , there is no reason why Islam should not be one and why the prayer congregation should not be one . Beats logic .
Are Muslims belonging to India , North or South America , South Africa or Tibet inferior to the Muslims of Pakistan . Before partition of the Sub Continent , in the 1920s , 1930s and 1940s , the slogan was Hindi- Muslim bhai bhai . However , after the emergence of Pakistan and within our boundaries , we cant get along with others who might have a different opinion viz. East Pakistan . Why and when did we become opinionated ? Within our immediate families , the father or the mother or real brothers or sisters do not talk to each other . Is it “ Allah Ka Azab “ for our meanness ? Things have become so odious that we were not able to build the Kalabagh Dam and other dams despite our fears of water scarcity in the future years .
A country with high hopes is lagging behind in virtually field in the comity of nations despite being Muslim and which has the Holy Quran to show the right and despite having courageous soldiers and hard working men and women. This is a food for thought for each one of us .
A labourer , who works in a house nearby and who visits my house frequently at night to fetch water for drinking , does not wear warm clothes in this harsh Islamabad weather . On my asking him , he told me that he did not have warm clothes . Allah forbids ,If he falls ill , he might not have money for his treatment .
We never tire from quoting the example of the great Caliph Umar (May Allah be pleased with him) who said that he fears Allah’s wrath if a dog goes hungry on the banks of the River Euphrates . What about this man , this poor labourer , and thousands of others like him who go to bed hungry . According to one estimate , 60% people in Pakistan live below the poverty line . Many families have been compelled to commit suicide because they have no means to feed their children .
Islam is an universal religion . It cannot be confined within the narrow state boundaries . One can live a decent life anywhere in the world without trespassing the limits ordained by Allah , if He Wills. Unfortunately most of us have missed the essence of our deen . Islam teaches discipline .Our Prayers , our Fasts and our Haj all teaches discipline . I liked the pictures of people waiting to board a ferry in New Zealand and the street scenes of Dublin .
Allah’s angels were enough for His Commandments to be fulfilled . But He made man superior to the angels and bestowed upon him the ability to distinguish between virtue and evil so that he should strive to promote virtue and to make every effort to eliminate evil within his sphere of influence .
“ We must learn to live together as brothers or we are going to perish as fools” . Dr. Martin Luther King .
Mahfooz ur Rahman
Islamabad
December 17 , 2013
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