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A fractured central bank by Dr.Muhammad Yaqub, Fmr.Governor Pakistan State Bank

Posted by admin in Domestic Policy, Economics, Nawaz Sharif & Kashmiri Biradari, NAWAZ SHARIF DICTATOR, NAWAZ SHARIF FAMILY TURPITUDE, NAWAZ SHARIF LOAN SCAM, Nawaz Sharif Massive Corruption on May 11th, 2014

A fractured central bank  

May 03, 2014 

 

Dr Muhammad Yaqub, former Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan.:

 

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has been handed over to a governor and a deputy governor whose academic training is not even remotely related to monetary economics and central banking functions. Moreover, their work experience has been confined to retail commercial banking which is of no use or relevance to central banking.

The senior deputy governor, who had acquired some expertise in banking supervision by serving for a considerable time in staff positions at the SBP, has been sidelined with the result that vital monetary policy and bank regulatory decisions will basically be made by the two raw hands at the helm of SBP affairs. These two have to rub shoulders with competent and experienced counterparts from other countries, both bilaterally and in multilateral settings, and are bound to cut a sorry figure.

These appointments, based on political expediency and personal loyalty rather than professional competence and personal integrity, can enable the rulers to exploit national financial resources without SBP hindrance and are hurtful for institution-building and macroeconomic management. Imagine what would happen to the defence of the country if a poorly trained head of a private security company is appointed as the chief of army staff. One side effect of undeserving appointments at the top of the SBP is that these vital positions will gradually degenerate to become subservient to the illegal dictates of the appointing authorities. 

The SBP governor is the regulator of the banking system and custodian of monetary stability and is important for prudent economic management of the country and a sound financial system. He/she is supposed to be non-political, professionally qualified and personally strong to face and overcome challenges. 

With no professional standing or stature or relevant work experience, a governor or a deputy governor appointed on political considerations will be unable to measure up to his/her difficult task. The situation becomes all the more grim with an accountant finance minister and a businessman prime minister using their political muscles to keep the central bank and the banking system under their control. 

With the present weak and vulnerable SBP management, the political leaders would have a free hand in starting yellow cab schemes, doling out subsidised loans to their fellow businessmen in the name of investment promotion, giving collateral-free loans to young people in the name of employment generation, writing off large loans to their cronies, printing notes to finance their low-priority prestige projects and setting the level of interest rates to subsidise their own businesses or those of the business community at large rather than to promote macroeconomic stability.

These appointments are also a slap on the face of the IMF and expose its hollow statements about strengthening of the operational autonomy of the SBP. It has been stressing in its reports and press statements the importance of an operationally autonomous and professionally competent SBP for monetary and price stability and advocating further legislative reforms to enhance it. 

Their conditionality for enactment of more laws may be met on paper but there will be no qualified and courageous management team at the SBP to enforce them. It will change nothing in reality but the IMF staff will be able to show to their executive board that the government has enacted new laws to enhance SBP autonomy and score some career-enhancing brownie points within their own organisation.

It is also interesting and unusual that the new governor issued a press release a day after the assumption of office with some unfounded observations about the existing ‘monetary stability’ and prospects “to make further strides in improving economic welfare, while ensuring macroeconomic and financial stability”.

The press release claimed that the “State Bank had been playing an active role in improving the monetary and financial conditions together with the betterment of overall economy at large”. In making this statement, the honourable governor must be talking about a country other than Pakistan.

In the last decade, the economy of Pakistan has suffered from stagflation which combined in it a low growth and high inflation. One of the main reasons for this state of affairs was the inability of the SBP to stop the government from forcing it to print excessive currency notes and pre-empting the bulk of commercial bank credit to finance fiscal operations. The money supply was allowed to grow at a rate five times faster than the rate of growth of the economy creating intense inflationary pressures. For the first time in the history of the country, the annual rate of inflation has been running in double digits for almost a decade. 

This happened because of excessive government bank borrowing crowding out the private sector, which is the real engine of economic growth, and the government forcing the SBP to keep real interest rates in negative territory. It is very unfortunate that a period of rapid money creation due to excessive government bank borrowing and negative real interest rates has been characterised by the SBP governor as one of “monetary stability”.

Going forward, the governor is not committing to working off inflationary pressures by perusing a prudent monetary policy as required by the SBP Act, but rather to hold “workshops for media persons to carve out a stronger interface between SBP and people of Pakistan”. 

The people of Pakistan have been burdened with a high rate of inflation, rising unemployment, grinding poverty and mounting internal and external debt and are not interested in carving out a stronger interface with the central bank, which has contributed to their problems by its incompetence and lack of effectiveness.

What is really needed is not a stronger interface between the SBP and the people of Pakistan but rather between the governor and central banking functions prescribed in economics textbooks. Moreover, before making more monetary data available to the people, he should devote some time in studying the available data and understand what is going on in the monetary sector.

The central banks of the world have moved on to conducting monetary policies based on inflation targeting and regulating the banking system through stress testing of individual banks. The SBP is stuck in the ceremony of announcing the policy rate and issuing outdated prudential regulations. It is about time the SBP catches up with other central banks with whom the governor will have to interact, both bilaterally and in international settings.

The governor has also reiterated the “SBP’s commitment in working to achieve its national goals of maintaining monetary and financial stability”. He may or may not understand what monetary and financial stability means in economics or in the real world but let us remind him what he will have to do to honour this commitment.

He needs to become conversant with the legal requirements stipulated in the SBP Act for the formulation and conduct of a monetary policy to regulate “the expansion of liquidity” in the economy so as to ensure a sharp reduction in inflationary pressures. As required by the SBP Act, it must formulate monetary policy without excessive accommodation of government by using its authority to “determine and enforce” prudent limits on government borrowing from the SBP. 

The governor will need to safeguard the jurisdiction of the central bank and conduct monetary policy with the main aim of controlling growth in money supply to reduce inflation and channel commercial bank credit to the private sector to promote economic growth.

He also has to do a better job of regulating the banking system by effectively enforcing prudential regulations to direct the commercial banks to undertake more intensely their financial intermediation function through improvement in efficiency and enhancement of competition and narrowing of the interest spread. It is his job to ensure that commercial banks serve the interest of the country rather than earn fat profits by locking their deposits in the purchase of government securities. 

Most importantly, the governor should not blindly accept government instructions to print more currency notes but be prepared to ‘determine and enforce’ a limit on its borrowing from the SBP, if necessary.

The writer is a former governor of the State Bank of Pakistan.

Email: [email protected]

 

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It’s the System, Stupid

Posted by admin in " RIAZ THE SHAITAN OF PAKISTAN, Asif Zardari Crook Par Excellance, Domestic Policy, ELECTION FRAUD 2013, Looters and Scam Artists on May 11th, 2014

 

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Crux  of  the  whole problem , a SICK SYSTEM which  is  flawed ;  It  has  to  go .  kayser  durrani

 

 

PAKISTAN TODAY

Sunday May 11, 2014

It’s the System, Stupid

Humayun Gauhar

Imran Khan is holding a one-day rally in Islamabad today to protest against blatant rigging in four constituencies where he wants re-elections. Perhaps his real intent is to show that the entire electoral exercise was deeply flawed and illegitimate, which it blatantly was. But that is no longer the issue. The issue is that this system must go. 

Tahir ul Qadir on the other hand is also holding a one-day rally today. His intent is to overthrow the political system and craft a truly democratic constitution. He is right. The continuous protest movement will start around July, says Qadri. 

Qadri sees the big picture, Imran doesn’t. Imran doesn’t even want mid-term elections, just re-elections in a few constituencies. “See the big picture, Imran. Leave your alpha male ego aside and join hands with Qadri. Take our people to revolution that they so badly want. Remember what I told you a long time ago? ‘You cannot change the system from the inside. It will change you instead without your even realizing it’.”  

What I am about to say may be yet another pipedream but it is worth trying, for then there will be no regrets and we can stand confidently before the Almighty on the Day. People should do what they believe is right and let the devil take the hindmost. A Muslim never loses hope. Don’t expect success in your lifetime. Become a link in the chain of revolution. One day your children and children’s children will see the dawn. Allama Iqbal wasn’t there to see Pakistan’s birth. But without him it may never have come to pass. 

The world is always changed by dreamers and idealists, not by pragmatic realists who worship the satanic status quo or are afraid of rocking the boat. Dreams are the stuff revolutions are made of, mindless pragmatism born of fear of the unknown is the stuff decadence is made of. All God’s Messengers were initially called unrealistic dreamers. When they succeeded they were called great revolutionaries who changed the world. Their enemies are remembered only because they were their enemies. Their followers deformed their Messages but others became reformers and returned to the original ideal. This is so with secular revolutions too. See how Deng Xiao Ping reformed Mao Zedong’s ideology and gave it new life, taking China so high so quickly that the greatest number of people came out of hunger and poverty in the shortest time ever. It was a revolution as great as the Great October Revolution, but without Mao’s revolution Deng’s revolution would never have happened. Each is a link in an ongoing process of change and progress – The Permanent Revolution. The time for Pakistan’s Revolution of  2014 is nigh, to return us to the ideals of our founders.  

When the irresistible force of the people meets the immovable object of an anti-people autocracy camouflaged in the cloak of democracy, it blows a hole through it. Don’t get diverted by this politician or that, this political party or that, sham democracy or rigged elections. Focus on upturning the system that begets such politicians, political parties and rigged elections. 

 

We have to free our country from the tentacles for an avaricious few. But sitting back to witness the spectacle and hoping that Qadri and Imran will succeed won’t do. Unless all of us participate in our own way with whatever energy and talent the Almighty has bestowed upon us, they cannot do it alone. 

Nothing is working. All we have are hollow shells passing for institutions. Our governments are pantomimes playing government-government, like children play doctor-doctor. Adults playing such games are retarded and cause incalculable damage. Children playing doctor-doctor don’t actually cut open another’s stomach pretending to do a surgery. Adults playing government-government actually do rip open stomachs by taking unconsidered decisions driven by personal benefit that leave the country bleeding. By now Pakistan has lost so much blood that it is totally anemic and in danger of dying of blood loss. 

The executive treats Pakistan like a fief, not realizing that when it deviates from its mandate it loses legitimacy and the right to rule. The people have not given them a mandate to rule for five years. They have given them five years to deliver their mandate. When they forget their mandate they lose the right to rule and become usurpers. If your lawyer deviates from your brief you sack him and get another. Same with rulers, five years be damned. Five years more and our country could be dead or beyond reprieve, God forbid. 

Our parliament is just a building infested with violators of Articles 62, 63, toothless in checking the executive and balancing its excesses – obviously, when the executive is born from parliament’s womb. The judiciary fails to deliver justice down the line. All institutions and organizations under them are in a shambles. The media are unregulated and have become runaway political groups, some mindlessly working against the State for pecuniary gain. Laws and courts don’t exist in the book of the rich, powerful and ugly, except when they work in their favour or to take revenge. 

The only institution left standing is the military, but it is under vile attack by the government in cahoots with powerful parts of the media and judiciary. Their nefarious design is to degrade our army and upgrade our enemies so that it can never intervene again when a civilian government goes completely over the top, like hijacking our army chief’s aircraft and asking the pilot to take him to India with all our military secrets, war plans and nuclear codes in his head. Talk of being bananas. They don’t have the brains to understand that if they rule well and don’t violate their mandate no one would dare overthrow them or even wish to. 

Pakistan has been serially abused but still has enough life left in it to kick, with the non-errant media, writers and the public hitting back. Many tunes have changed diametrically as happens when an intelligent person realizes that his survival is at stake because the Big Bad Wolf is about to blow his house down. If only they could see the pathetic condition of stateless people. They are without identity, without rights, with only a piece of paper that allows them to live somewhere at someone’s compassion, charity and mercy. They are non-persons. Their identity is their struggle. Their sole objective: to regain their statehood. Ask the Kashmiris in Indian Occupied Kashmir or the Palestinians moving from ghetto to ghetto. Their homes are burned down at will, their women raped, their lives in perpetual danger of being extinguished. It is worse than the old slavery because those slaves at least had owners. No one owns stateless people and stateless people own nothing except their pride, self-esteem and struggle. Struggle, struggle and perpetual struggle is the story of our Holy Prophet Muhammad’s life (pbuh). It should be our life story too. Struggle is Jihad against an inhuman, anti-people system to forge a better one. That is exactly what Muhammad (pbuh) did. That is exactly what we should do to win our freedom from our own ruling elite. No one will win it for us and give us freedom on a platter. We have to win it ourselves.  

I don’t know what will come of Imran and Qadri’s efforts. They might fail. That is in the hands of God, on whether He thinks Pakistan is worth saving or not. But we have to try saving it ourselves before God does because He helps those who help themselves first. Our situation is so dire that the time has come for all patriotic Pakistanis to come out in protest. Not everyone may like or agree with Imran and Qadri, but in the face of extinction such feelings become facetious. Save your home, your identity, and your country first. Overthrowing this horrible system should be our only objective right now, so we should support all forces trying to save Pakistan and not indulge in nitpicking. This may be our last chance. It is incumbent upon us to see the big picture and support Qadri, Imran and others taking to the streets in protest against this vile dispensation. 

 

Imran is right, but re-elections in certain constituencies will not solve the problem. It’s the system, stupid, not its spawn the politicians or particular governments. Elections under this system will always throw up the same sort of dreadful governments. Even if you win Imran, your government will be infested by your collection of ‘electables’ that degrade your party. Democracy will obtain when there is a system in which the carpenter defeats the carpetbagger. Imran should see the big picture that it is Pakistan that needs to be saved, not an election or this system. 

Qadri is out to change this alien system born of our perpetual colonial hangover by changing the constitution that begets all our rapacious systems. The legitimacy of this constitution is questionable anyway, made as it was by a rump assembly of losers, mutilated repeatedly by civilian more than military dictators. Hopefully, others will join him too, most importantly the downtrodden people, media, civil society, small bureaucrats, traders, shopkeepers, farmers, women and youth to bring revolution. All put together we can build such a powerful head of steam that this ugly fairyland of criminals that our ruling elite has built for itself will be swept away by the tidal wave of humanity and “crowns flung high and thrones overturned” in victory. Defeat or victory, the struggle goes on. Pakistan Zindabad. 

[email protected] 

 

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Straight Talk – The General in the Line of Fire.

Posted by admin in Domestic Policy on December 25th, 2013

Straight Talk – The General in the Line of Fire.   

 

 

 

 

 

General Musharraf, the former dictator, who was the undisputed ruler of Pakistan for over eight years and is the author of the book, ‘In the Line of Fire’, is today, in the line of fire himself, on trial in the Supreme Court of Pakistan. This historical trial of a retired General will begin on 24th of December, where he will face charges, which include five counts of treason.

 

Some months back, it was inconceivable that such a day would come in this land of the Pak and the Pure, when a retired General, who was once COAS of the army, would stand, hat in hand, in the very court that he had brazenly and unceremoniously dismissed in 2007, humiliating and man handing its Chief. Many still feel that a man, who once wore a uniform, will never be allowed to face humiliation in front of a civilian court.

 

By holding Musharraf’s trial, the Nawaz Sharif government has taken a risky plunge, as it is bound to take many twists and turns and open a Pandora’s Box as it proceeds, as in his Proclamation of Emergency Order of 2007, Musharraf had named different officers, both civilian and military, as his consultants for the abrogation of the Constitution.

 

The General’s supporters, who are still many, term the treason trial against the former dictator, as political victimization and have warned of serious consequences, if senior army officers are also drawn into the trial, which is bound to drag on for months and turn messy.

 

The General is also being accused of dragging Pakistan into the Afghan war. However, let us not forget the hard facts after the deadly 9/11 terrorist attack. At that time, the American President had called the General and given him a one line ultimatum, “Either you are with us or you are against us”.

Many are of the opinion that Pakistan should not have bowed down to that ultimatum and taken a stand, but in doing so, the message to the Americans would have been a plain and simple, that “we were not with you”, which the Americans would have taken as “we are against you” and therefore their enemy.

Such a negative stand would have created a very dangerous and disastrous situation for Pakistan, which we are witnessing in Iraq, Libya, Syria and Afghanistan. The Americans would have made their threat, that, “they would bomb us back into the stone age”, becoming a reality. And this is exactly what they have done to those countries who have tried to stand up to America and challenged its demands.

Seeing a “no win situation”, the General had been forced to take a pragmatic and safe stand, by accepting the American demands and promising them Pakistan’s full support in its war against terror. And in doing so, Pakistan immediately became the darling of the West and was able to get massive aid for the country.

However, having succeeded in doing so, the General is definitely guilty of allowing this massive aid to be misused and wasted. He had every opportunity to change the course of this unfortunate country and set it on the right track, by implementing his 7-point agenda. But by failing to do so, he destroyed the future of our youth, which is as big a crime as abrogating the Constitution.

Instead of using the funds to improve the quality of life of the forgotten people of Pakistan, by improving the health, education and transport systems in the country and strengthening the institutions, these much needed funds just went down the drain.

After receiving the enormous aid, General Musharraf became a different man and instead of trying to fulfill his 7 point agenda, he pursued his own personal agenda of “Self above all” and stay in power, no matter ever the cost. What followed is history.

Today, the same General stands on trial for treason and his future is in the hands of the very man who he had jailed and sent into forced exile. It is amazing how history repeats itself, sometimes with a sadistic twist.  

In Musharraf’s case, he has given his constitutional right to defend himself, while in Nawaz Sharrif was denied this opportunity and was given a one line ultimatum, to leave the country or go to jail.

And at that time, Nawaz had also chosen the pragmatic offer, packed his bag and left the country for Saudi Arabia, but only to return after fourteen years and reclaim his constitutional position as Prime Minister of Pakistan.  

Musharraf’s fate now lies in the hands of Justices Faisal Arab, Muhammad Yawar Ali and Syeda Tahira Safdar, who form the Special Court. The prosecution lawyers feel that it is an open and shut case as, “The way Musharraf violated the Constitution, is amply documented, just like all the main illegal orders issued by him on November 3, 2007 are formally notified in the official gazette and are indisputable”.

Each of these documents constitutes the high treason charges, as all these notifications involve the abrogation of the 1973 Constitution by him alone and in all these cases, Musharraf is the signing authority. Then, there is the clear-cut Supreme Court judgment handed down on July 31, 2009, which holds Musharraf guilty of violating the Constitution.

According to the legal eagles, Musharraf will be the first military ruler in Pakistan’s 66 year history to be tried for high treason, a crime punishable by the death or life imprisonment.  The decision has raised many questions, including the timing of the trial, especially when the country is facing a serious challenge from the Taliban militants and a power and economic crisis.

 

Political pundits and skeptics are already of the opinion that this historical trial will never be allowed to reach its logical conclusion, as the army will not allow its former Chief to be humiliated in a civilian court.

Therefore, what will be the fate of the former dictator is not clear, but at least it has set a precedent, that no one is above the law and everyone is accountable. This very fact should be a deterrent for any other General and force him to think twice before dismissing a civilian government and seizing power, even if it is “in the best interest of the country”, the usual explanation to justify this illegal act by the Generals.

( Also Published: The Nation, Sunday, 22nd December, 2013) 

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EXPRESS TRIBUNE: Can Pakistan witness an Egyptian style revolution?

Posted by AghaSaad in ADHD NAWAZ SHARIF, Corruption, Domestic Policy, IMRAN KHAN-PAKISTAN'S HERO & DREAMER, LIAR POLITICIANS, Looters and Scam Artists, NAWAZ SHARIF, Pakistan's Hall of Shame, Pakistan's Ruling Elite Feudals Industrialists on May 15th, 2013

 

 

THIS ARTICLE APPEARED BEFORE THE MAY 11, ELECTIONS AND IS QUITE PROPHETIC : 

NAWAZ SHARIF~OLD WINE IN NEW BOTTLES

nawaz sharif

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can Pakistan witness an Egyptian style revolution?

Every Pakistani is willing to spend hours on criticism; what if they spent the same time taking charge of things instead?PHOTO: AFP

Mohamed Bouazizi was a Tunisian street vendor, who poured fuel over and set himself ablaze in an elegant double-storey building with arched, azure shutters. The hard-scrabble loitered in the hospital for a few hours before breathing his last breath. His self-immolation became a catalyst for the Tunisian revolution.

Khalid Mehboob, a depressed and dejected father of six, jobless and poor, self-immolated himself outside Karachi Press Club. Unlike Tunisia, normal life sustained in Pakistan.

According to the annual Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), 12,580 people were killed all across Pakistan in 2010. Thousands of innocents fall prey to sectarianism, ethnocentrism, drone attacks, abductions and judicial killings every year. Between August 24 and September 26, 2011, 166 people committed suicide in Pakistan.

So why doesn’t Pakistan tread the same road as Egypt or Tunisia? Why don’t we have throngs of protestors on our streets? Why aren’t the establishment and the existing political forces on the verge of a collapse?

There are two types of Pakistanis with two types of thought engines apparently.

The first type of Pakistanis believe in an external locus of control and they attribute the nation’s shortcomings to their sins; thanks to religious agitators.

The second type thinks that the establishment is the reason we have never prospered as a nation. Every Pakistani is willing to spend hours on criticism; what if they spent the same time taking charge of things instead?

Pakistan’s ruling political parties have had years of experience trying to assert themselves over the powerful establishment, and they have learnt their lessons the hard way, no doubt. Nawaz may threaten mass protests but he fears the military taking over at the back of his mind.

Don’t we remember that street power played an imperative role in the resignation of ex-president Pervez Musharraf in 2008?The movement which was spearheaded by the legal community, paved way for the same old political demagogues.

Pakistani people protest for a change in government, but not for a complete wipeout of leadership.

Loyalty to one’s leader is imperative in Pakistan and don’t you think otherwise. The masses protest on the orders of their leadership which, obviously, would never aim to wipe itself out.

Political parties in Pakistan are still an effective tool for political mobilisation and association. Unlike Egypt and Tunisia, Pakistan is witnessing the emergence of a civil society. Pakistani media ─  no matter how much it believes in propaganda and sensationalism ─  is still free to a great extent. Many anchors have gone beyond limits to criticise the existing regime and the establishment even. This is surprising as Egypt is the most deplorable and Tunisia is the most repressive country for journalists if compared to Pakistan.

The most commonly missed things are those that are right in front of our eyes. In all the commotion, we have failed to notice that there is a process underway; a journey to democracy and power distribution. The existence of a free press, elections, political party system and a defying judiciary has enabled Pakistan to survive in these tumultuous times. According to Pakistani political pundits, the existing political structure is better than an unknown political order.

The conclusion is clear; Pakistan may see a lot of political instability in the future, but it is unlikely to witness an Egyptian style revolution.

 
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HEC bill may kill education, benefit fake degree holders

Posted by admin in Asif Zardari Crook Par Excellance, Bhutto-Zardari Feudal Family Corruption, BOOT THE SCOUNDRELS OR SHOWDAZ, Corruption, Corruption in Islamic Countries, Domestic Policy, EXPATRIATE PAKISTANIS SPEAK-UP, Jahiliya "Jihadis"Illiterate Fanatics, LIAR POLITICIANS, Looters and Scam Artists, Morosi Siyasat & Political Crooks, MQM, NAWAZ SHARIF, PAKISTAN'S CORRUPT POLITICAL PARTIES:PPP, Pakistan's Hall of Shame, Pakistan's Ruling Elite Feudals Industrialists, PML (N) CORRUPTION, Politics, PPP, PPP 's Raja Rental Pervez Corruption, Punjab Held Hostage Sharif Bros, THE BATTLE FOR PAKISTAN SERIES, ZARDAR'S CORRUPTION on March 14th, 2013

 

HEC bill may kill education, benefit fake degree holders

 DIPLOMAFRAUD 

 
MARCH 12, 2013 

Despite the 2010 directive of the Supreme Court, the educational degrees of a total of 393 parliamentarians remain unverified as yet and are thus considered suspect or fake, it is learnt.

 

However, these 393 MPs would find themselves in serious trouble in the next elections as the authorities are expected to get their degrees, as shown in the 2008 elections, verified from the HEC before clearing them to contest in the upcoming polls.

Sources in the Election Commission of Pakistan and the Higher Education Commission told The News that although the degrees of 56 parliamentarians have been declared fake, with 18 under litigation, the documents of 393 parliamentarians have not yet been verified because of non-cooperation of the federal/provincial governments and the assemblies.

It is feared that many of these unverified degrees would be fake, but the exercise of degree verification, that was in full swing during the second half of 2010, has been halted now as the holders of unverified degrees include extremely powerful parliamentarians.

The sources said the degrees of 56 MPs had been declared fake by the HEC; there are 18 MPs whosefake degree cases are pending with different courts; the cases of 250 MPs are pending with the HEC as degrees are not being provided for verification; matriculation/inter certificates of 47 MPs have been sent by the HEC to different universities but without any response from these institutions; whereas the verification of 19 MPs’ graduation/master’s level degrees await the verification of respective universities.

Documents show that the MPs whose matriculation/inter certificates have not yet been provided to the HEC for verification include 12 senators, 96 MNAs, 88 members of the Punjab Assembly, eight members of the Sindh Assembly, 37 members of the KPK Assembly, and nine members of the Balochistan Assembly. Those whose degrees/certificates are yet be verified include members of the PPP, PML-N, PML-Q, ANP and others.

In June 2010, the HEC was directed by the ECP on the orders of the Supreme Court to have the degrees of all parliamentarians verified. The commission did the job in a remarkable manner despite the fact that its chairman had been told by the PPP leadership to go-slow on the issue. However, when the HEC Chairman Javed Leghari did not cave in to pressure, he was asked to resign but he refused.

Later Leghari’s younger brother Farooq Leghari was picked up from interior Sindh by the provincial police and later produced before the court and charged with corruption. The junior Leghari was given bail but was rearrested on other charges. He again got bail from the court but was arrested a third time from Hyderabad. The ancestral farmhouse of the chairman HEC in Hyderabad was ransacked and farmers were picked up and put under detention.

After failing to browbeat Leghari, the government started targeting the HEC. The government initially tried to devolve the commission but it was saved following the intervention of the apex court. Later the HEC was faced with budgetary cuts. Almost 40 percent of the funds required by the universities were cut back.

When the employees, including faculty members, staff and students, went on a nationwide strike up to 20 percent funds were released. Later, an effort was made to put the HEC under the administrative and financial control of the Ministry of Education and Training but the notification in this respect was revoked by the SHC.

Then the government made yet another move to take charge of the HEC. Taking advantage of the executive director’s position which had been advertised by the HEC and which the commission had the authority to appoint, the prime minister directed the secretary education and training to take charge as the acting ED.

The chairman HEC refused to accept this, which led to a huge battle between the HEC and the government. The battle again reverted to the apex court, which suspended the government’s order and ordered the HEC to appoint the ED. This was yet anther defeat for the regime.

Finally, the government decided to amend the existing HEC law to take away its autonomy besides slashing the term of the chairman from the existing four to a proposed three years. A few PPP members moved the bill as a private members bill, which came up for hearing on Jan 23 in the NA committee that instantly cleared the same.

It is apprehended that if this bill passes through parliament, the future of higher education in the country would be jeopardised.

While the suspected fake degree holders are all set to teach the HEC an exemplary lesson, some foreign nations, including Turkey, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, are replicating the Pakistani model of the HEC. While we are settling personal scores at the cost of national institutions, India is going a step further and establishing a supra-HEC with far-reaching consequences to position itself as a regional leader.

It is said that the World Economic Forum Global Competitive report indicators on higher education and training, technology readiness and innovation have shown a consistent improvement over the last three years for Pakistan, much more than many other countries, which is a clear proof that higher education reforms are paying off.

HEC sources demand that the apex court should take suo moto notice of this latest attack on the future of the country’s youth. A federal minister, who is vigorously pursuing the onslaught on the HEC too holds a degree which has been challenged in the LHC as fake so a conflict of interest situation also exists.

This article originally appeared on thepeshawar

 

 

 

 

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This article originally appeared on thepeshawar

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