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Posts Tagged Destroyer of Pakistan Economy

ARCHIVES 2013:The Budget is an annual drama , full of sound and fury but signifying nothing . Mahfooz ur Rahman

The Budget is an annual drama , full of sound and fury but signifying nothing .

Mahfooz ur Rahman

Islamabad: June 12, 2013  

bretton-woods

 

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  :-

 

  1. The new Prime Minister , Mian Nawaz Sharif , has been quoted by the country’s media that every Pakistan , even a new born babe , is under a debt of Rs70,000/ .
  1. The Finance Minister has quoted the total debt at Rs 14 Trillion  . Others quote a higher figure because there is a huge trust deficit between the Government and the people . This figure can be debated . He also indicated that the Government is prepared to go to the IMF  for obtaining a financial bail out.
  1. One of the country’s most eminent  Economists, Dr. Ashfaque H. Khan , has also advised it in his article ( published in yesterday’s ‘The News’ ) ‘Time to go to the IMF’ for a bail out package.  

 

  1. Pakistan is in danger of a debt trap or a meltdown : each more vicious than the other.

 

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   

 

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American Press Toe US Government Line to Build-up US Puppet Zardari.

The Inept, Makaar, Conniving, Incompetent & Murtaza Bhutto’s Murderer Asif Zardari 

FROM:LOS ANGELES TIMES

 

Pakistan leader’s legacy: The art of political survival

As President Asif Ali Zardari ends a history-making five-year term, his approval ratings are low, but he has hung on. 

Asif Ali Zardari

The government of Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, center, ended its five-year term Saturday, setting the stage for the country’s first transfer of power from one civilian government to another. (Emilio Morenatti / Associated Press /September 6, 2008)

 
By Alex Rodriguez, Los Angeles Times

March 16, 2013, 11:09 p.m.

 

ISLAMABADPakistan — Throughout his presidency, Pakistan’s Asif Ali Zardari has looked over his shoulder. Would the military bounce him from office? Would an aggressive Supreme Court find a legal lever to send him packing? Would infighting and dissent erode his fragile coalition government?

Now, as he and his government make history by becoming the first civilian administration to ever complete its five-year term — despite public approval ratings as low as 14% — Zardari’s legacy is clear. He turned political survival into an art form.

“You give Zardari a roomful of politicians, and he will find you 51%. That’s an art he has perfected that no one really knew he had,” says Cyril Almeida, a Pakistani newspaper columnist. “By and large, he has done his own thing and cut whatever deals he needs. But he hasn’t gone after enemies and opponents, and that has kept the political temperature at a manageable level.”

Known to most Pakistanis as “the accidental president,” Zardari fell into the job after the slaying of his wife, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, assassinated in 2007 as she was launching her political comeback. Many Pakistanis still call him “Mr. 10%,” a reference to corruption allegations that have followed him since stints in previous decades as a Cabinet minister.

Zardari’s government ended its five-year term Saturday, setting the stage for the first transfer of power from one civilian government to another in Pakistan’s 65-year history. Every other civilian government’s term has been interrupted by military coups or politically motivated ousters.

A caretaker government is slated to assume power as the country embarks on a campaign season that will culminate in parliamentary elections, expected in May. Members of the federal and provincial assemblies will then select a president later in the year. Zardari, 57, remains president and, unless he wins reelection, will step down upon the inauguration of a new president.

Zardari’s prime minister, Raja Pervez Ashraf, will step down as soon as the ruling Pakistan People’s Party and its main opposition, the PML-N, agree on a caretaker replacement. Parliament and the Cabinet dissolved Saturday.

The transfer of power through the ballot rather than military might is seen by most Pakistanis as a crucial step in the country’s democratic evolution.

But as Zardari’s PPP enters what is sure to be a tumultuous campaign, it faces an electorate deeply disappointed with the ruling government’s failure to remedy the country’s biggest ills.

Daily power outages that in the summer can last 12 hours or more shackle the economy and make everyday life miserable. Zardari has never been able to tamp down Islamist terrorism, and a recent wave of sectarian attacks by Sunni Muslim militants against the country’s minority Shiite Muslim community poses a new national security threat with the elections around the corner. The federal government remains heavily indebted to international lenders, and corruption taints every echelon of society.

An annual “Worldwide Threat Assessment” report delivered to the U.S. Congress last week by James R. Clapper, director of national intelligence, criticized Zardari’s government for being unwilling to tackle “problems that continue to constrain economic growth. The government has made no real effort to persuade its disparate coalition members to accept much-needed policy and tax reforms, because members are focused on retaining their seats in upcoming elections.”

The same sense of frustration with Zardari’s government runs through Pakistani society.

“This government has ruined the country in the last five years,” says Azhar Iqbal, 50, owner of a cookware shop in one of Islamabad’s central shopping districts. “It’s bad everywhere. Every night when we go home and turn on the television, we hear about this or that number of people killed.”

Despite popularity ratings as low as 14%, according to a recent Pew Research Center poll, Zardari and the ruling PPP government aren’t necessarily doomed in the upcoming elections, and in fact might be able to garner enough backing to engineer another coalition government and retain power.

The PPP and its primary rival, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif‘s PML-N party, already have entrenched support bases, and cricket legend Imran Khan’s upstart Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party is expected to cull more voters from Sharif’s vote bank than the PPP’s, analysts say. And while dissatisfaction with the government is widespread, historically Pakistanis haven’t expressed their frustration at the ballot box. Turnout in Pakistan’s national elections has always been low, ranging from 36% to 45%.

The ultimate winner may not be the top vote-getter, but the better coalition builder.

“Political polarization in Pakistan is sharp,” says Hasan Askari Rizvi, a Lahore-based political analyst. “The PPP may lose some seats in Parliament, but they still will have the capacity to form a coalition government. Whereas Sharif isn’t seen as someone who can build a coalition. … So by default, the PPP may be able to pull through because they can produce a better coalition.”

During the last five years, Zardari’s most formidable opposition has not come from Sharif, but from the military and the Supreme Court, both institutions that have always viewed the president as a liability. Both the court and the army have hounded Zardari, at times stoking fear within society that the government would collapse.

But neither institution ever pushed Zardari and his government over the edge. The Supreme Court ousted Ashraf’s predecessor, Yousuf Raza Gilani, on a contempt charge in 2012, but since then has eased up on the government.

“While the army’s high command is angered by the mismanagement of the economy by the Zardari government, there’s also an understanding that they don’t really have solutions themselves,” newspaper columnist Almeida said. “And the Supreme Court can’t oust a political government because its entire public standing is based on the fact that it resisted unconstitutional moves by [former President Pervez Musharraf] in 2007.”

That year, Musharraf, who saw Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry as a threat to his authority, ousted him, a move decried by lawyers and opposition parties as illegal.

“So the routes have been shut,” Almeida continued. “There’s no obvious route to dismantling this government.”

alex.rodriguez@latimes.com

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