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Posts Tagged Nawaz sharif’s Failures

‘Rejection of Discord and Disharmony’ Taking out bad to worst dudes Humayun Gauhar

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkxN9S_tXf4

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pakistan Today                                                         Sunday 26th February 2017

 

‘Rejection of Discord and Disharmony’

 Taking out bad to worst dudes

 

Humayun Gauhar

 

Are we witnessing the last days of Nawaz Sharif? I don’t know so perilous is our situation and so perfidious have our ruling classes become. It can be said with a certain modicum of confidence though that we are witnessing the beginning of the end. How long it takes is anyone’s guess.

 

Whether Nawaz Sharif stays or goes matters little in the long sweep of things. His departure will cause temporary titillation to many and fuel our loquacious chattering class and chai khanas, but then what? Another election? In this odious system, we will only get another Nawaz Sharif or Asif Zardari. So?

 

The question that matters most is: are we witnessing the end of our putrid, loathsome political system that throws up gangsters, plunderers, and killers? If that is so, then there is much to celebrate for change for the better is better than no change at all. Hopefully, it will be a change toward a just and egalitarian system that would rid us of this huge gang of thieves who have not only occupied every lever of government but of business and agriculture as well and everything that comes with them. All — repeat all — institutions and regulatory bodies have collapsed: you only have to meet or even see their heads and you will believe me even though they are unbelievable.

 

The good thing that may come out of Nawaz Sharif’s departure is the process of change to another system. That means changing the Constitution that has been reduced to a joke by repeated governments, legislatures and unelectable goofs masquerading as politicians. That’s all very well, but how can change take place that is good and lasting? Who will do it? The army? Forsooth. They have tried it four times before and not only fallen flat on their faces every time, shining stars and all, but created and left behind many of our greatest problems for us to suffer. Our biggest problems are our political leaders: remember that Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif and Altaf Hussain are all creatures of the army, as are many others. So are the Taliban, Afghan, and Pakistani, as too numerous other terrorist groups. So too the vice-like economic and political embrace of America that has put us into neo-colonialism. Now, fittingly, the army is left to clean up its own mess, to put it politely. Yes, he who makes a mess should clean it too.

 

 

Ajit Doval, Head of India’s RAW Spreads Terror in Pakistan

Image result for Ajit Doval Terrorist Subversive Promotor

 

 

What compounds our problems is that many if not most of these terrorist groups have been taken over by our neighbours to the left of us and to the right of us. To the front of us across the seven seas is our greatest ‘ally’, financier and ‘banker’ of last resort that also uses these neighbours against us. Even worse, they also run many of our politicians in power and outside, media, academia and what have you. All this destabilizes Pakistan further. Worse still, the place is crawling with Indian, Afghan and American spies, many of whom are Pakistanis to boot. Many of our terrorists are foreigners too.

 

Whose fault is it? Squarely our governments and only our governments for not recognizing right from wrong, for not knowing what is good for us and what is not. It also lies on us the people for getting inveigled into repeatedly ‘electing’ and tolerating such misleading ‘leaders’ and accepting this alien political system that works not for them but for their oppressors. That’s called ‘democracy’ Pakistani style, a ‘democracy’ that only creates civilian dictatorships worse than military dictatorships.  

 

So who can change the system? As world history shows, it has to be “we the people”, if necessary at the point of a sword.

 

To top it all, there is the Panama scandal that has embroiled Nawaz Sharif and family in plunder and corruption untold. It has been so embarrassing for us that our prime minister, his wife, and children, defended by their courtiers and courtesans like well-trained hounds, that one feels loathe talking about it to foreigners. But talk we must, if nothing else because that’s all we seem to be good at. Thus a desperate people are coming up with all sorts of bizarre but diverting theories. The best is: will Nawaz Sharif lose or will the Supreme Court? If it is the latter then Pakistan loses and we will be left with no civilian institution at all, only the army but for how long without a strong civilian government to back it?

 

Meantime, Pakistan’s economy is in a steep nosedive from which pulling up is becoming very difficult if not already impossible. But remember that ashes are a necessary precondition for a phoenix to rise.

 

In all this multifaceted mess Pakistan has reached the inflection point, to put it mildly. No wonder that the military has finally been forced to do what the ‘elected’ governments despised doing: go after terrorists of all ilk countrywide. Thus the military has launched an operation to root out this menace through the length and breadth of Pakistan. They call it, confusingly, ‘Raad ul Fasaad’ which is better spelled ‘Rudd ul Fasad’. ‘Raad’ (or ‘Rudd’) means ‘rejection’ and the Quranic word ‘Fasad’ means discord and disharmony. So it means, literally, ‘Rejection of Discord and Disharmony’.

 

But it’s not so simple. You cannot get rid of Fasad without getting rid of ‘Fitna’ that causes Fasad. ‘Fitna’ literally mean mischief-maker or mischief-makers. That means getting rid of economic terrorism, people or groups or countries that enable, finance, help, and give refuge etc. to terrorists in their personal and official capacities. That includes Pakistanis and foreigners, individuals, organizations, and governments local and foreign. In Pakistan, our Fitnas are our governments and politicians, many of our seminaries and sermon-spewing mullahs in mosques, some journalists in print and television, academia, the bureaucracy and yes, many people in the military, though it seems the last are declining. And many others.

 

When they launched anti-terrorist operations in the mountains and countryside, apart from Karachi, they would have known that many terrorists would melt away into the cities, as too India and Afghanistan. But fighting guerilla wars in cities is another kettle of fish. It could cause great destruction and loss of innocent civilian lives. Just look at Aleppo and Mosul: all rubble. 

 

Some wiseacres say that the launching of the countrywide military operation is a hidden coup — a coup behind a veil. Good, because the usual upfront coup will come to a cropper as usual, not because the army as a whole lacks patriotism but because of lack of understanding of how to run a complicated and diverse country like Pakistan. They’re not trained for it.

 

A useful coincidence is that the army will also be conducting the much-delayed countrywide census beginning next month from March. Perfect time for it not only to count all citizens but also to check all abodes for hidden weapons and terrorists.

 

I’ll not even try to address the mindless question whether the “army and the civilian government are on the same page”. Patently they are not; else either the prime minister or at least his interior minister would have announced the operation. The prime minister is wasting time gallivanting in Turkey; the interior minister is nowhere to be seen. The prime minister was obviously not even asked; he was just informed and there was precious little he could do about it. That is the fruit of dereliction of duty.

 

To underline how wonky our priorities have become, most people are taken up with the irrelevant question of holding the final of the cricket Pakistan Super League in Lahore. What will that prove? It will require the waste of time of many law enforcement personnel apart from a colossal waste of money that could be better used in improving the human condition. They think that it will prove that Pakistan is not a terrorism-prone country. Tell that to the sailors. Yes, it will further bloat a lot of already bloated egos and prolong many a job of the unfit, that’s all.

 

To be sure what’s happening in Pakistan is not in a vacuum. It is part of the great global change that is taking place, the shift of the political, military and economic center of gravity from east to west. Which side the camel sits on and what color the new skin the Leviathan takes remains to be seen, but at the risk of sounding racist, it could be yellow and the world could be eating with chopsticks in the not too distant future. I love China and the Chinese.

 

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Lest We Forget The Outstanding Achievements of General Musharraf

Amongst many other super things Gen Musharraf did, which Dr. Attaur Rehman has omitted, one was sponsoring Higher Education. Every public sector university received billions to send teachers for PhD abroad, on yearly basis. Even University of Balochistan was able to send 35 Assistant Professors for PhD abroad at an average cost of Rs.7m per student within 2006-8. Electrification and provision of natural gas to hundreds of thousands of villages was another…Maqsood Kayani, Selection Editor,Pakistan Think Tank

Lest we forget the Outstanding Achievements

 

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 Dr Atta-ur-Rahman
December 25, 2013 

Like any human being, President Musharraf too made some mistakes, the major one relating to the National Reconciliation Ordinance. The period from 2000 to 2008 was also full of certain outstanding achievements.

Let us take the economy first. Pakistan was financially in a very difficult position in October 1999. By 2008 it was included in the N-11 (Next 11) group of countries that were predicted to join the most powerful economies of the world. During 2000-2008, the GDP grew from $63 billion to $170 billion, and there was an annual GDP growth of about seven percent, better than most economies of the world.

Per capita income increased from $430 to about $1000, and the foreign exchange reserves that had slid to $0.5 billion in 1999 grew to $16.5 billion by 2008. The revenue generation grew from Rs. 308 billion in 1999 to about Rs.1 trillion in 2008. The debt-to-GDP ratio improved from 102 percent to 53 percent. The exports grew from $7.8 billion to $17.5 billion. Foreign direct investments increased from $400 million to $8.4 billion.

The Karachi Stock Exchange Index shot up from about 950 points to 16,500 points. The annual development budget increased from Rs90 billion in 1999 to Rs520 billion in 2008, while poverty was reduced from 34 percent to 17 percent. The dollar value was maintained at about Rs60, thereby controlling the rate of inflation.

The communication infra-structure also saw a rapid improvement. The major new roads built in this period were: Coastal Highway Karachi–Gwadar 700KMs, (M1) Peshawar to Islamabad Motorway, (M3) Pindi Bhattian to Faisalabad Motorway, (M4) Faisalabad to Multan Motorway, National Highway (N5) dualised Karachi to Peshawar, Quetta-Zhob-D I Khan road, Quetta–Loralai-D G Khan Road, Gwadar–Turbat-Rato Dero road, Chitral linking with Gilgit over Shandur Pass, Gilgit linked with Skardu via Astore – Chillum–Deosai Plains, Lowari Tunnel linking KPK to Chitral, Kaghan Valley linked with KKH at Chilas over Babusar Pass, Kohat Tunnel, Lahore-Sialkot Road, Lahore-Faisalabad Road, Karachi-Lyari Expressway, Karachi Northern Bypass, and Lahore Ring Road.

The strategically significant Gwadar Port was developed with Chinese assistance. A number of airports were developed and expanded. The Lahore airport was completed, the new Islamabad airport was started, the new Sambrial (Sialkot) airport was built, the Multan airport was expanded, the Gwadar airport was developed and the Quetta airport was expanded.

In the agricultural sector a number of important irrigation projects were initiated. The Diamer Bhasha Dam was launched. The Mangla Dam was raised by 30 feet increasing 2.9 maf water storage capacity and 100MW electricity. A number of new dams and canals were built (Mirani Dam for Balochistan, Subukzai Dam for Balochistan and Gomal Zam Dam for KP; Kachi Canal from Taunsa to Dera Bugti and Jhal Magsi to irrigate 713,000 acres of barren cotton producing land, the Thal Canal for Punjab, Rainee Canal for Sindh).

Overall three million acres of barren land were brought under cultivation. The Right Bank Outfall Drain (RBOD) was constructed through Sindh, thereby saving Indus River and Manchar Lake (Sind) from pollution. The steps taken led to an increase in wheat production from 14 million tons to 22 million tons, and increase in cotton production from nine million bales to 13 million bales.

Price control was exercised on essential items. The prices of edible household items (flour, naan, milk, tea, sugar, meat, vegetable oil etc) have tripled or quadrupled in the last five years. A rotational loan system was introduced through banks for poor farmers and loan facility for farmers increased from Rs35 billion through ZTBL only, to Rs160 billion from all other private banks.

Overall 2900MW of electricity was added to national generation capacity. The new energy projects initiated included the Ghazi Barotha hydro electricity project (1600MW), the Chashma-II nuclear electricity plant (300MW). The Neelum-Jhelum hydroelectricity project was initiated (1800 MW), the Satpara Power project in Skardu, and the Naltar power project in Gilgit.

A true revolution was brought about in the telecommunications sector. The number of mobile phones increased from 600,000 in the year 2000 to over 7 crore in 2006. Tele-density was increased from 2.9 percent to over 70 percent, and millions of jobs were created in the telecom sector. The IT sector also saw a phenomenal growth with internet connectivity spreading rapidly, particularly during 2000-2003 from 40 cities to over 2000 towns of Pakistan.

Fibre optic connectivity increased from 30 cities to over 1500 towns of Pakistan in the same period. The bandwidth cost of two megabytes was reduced sharply from $86,000 to $3,000 per month. Pakistan’s first satellite PakSat 1 was placed in space. Industry prospered as never before and industrial growth was in double figures throughout the nine-year period.

A revolution was brought about in the higher education sector with the establishment of the Higher Education Commission. The annual allocation for higher education was increased from only Rs 500 million in 2000 to Rs 28 billion in 2008, thereby laying the foundations of the development of a strong knowledge economy. Student enrolment in universities increased from 270,000 to 900,000 and the number of universities and degree awarding institutes increased from 57 in 2000 to 137 by 2008. 


This rapid transformation deeply worried India and a detailed presentation was given to the Indian prime minister on 
July 22 about the dramatic progress in Pakistan.

A number of steps were taken to strengthen democracy at the grassroots. A large number of new TV channels were allowed and the media given full freedom. The local government system was launched to empower the people through a third tier of government. Women were empowered politically through reserved seats at all tiers of government. Minorities were provided with the system of joint electorate.

In the field of defence, the production of Al Khalid tanks for the army and JF 17 Thunder Fighter jets for PAF was carried out. All missiles were tested and proven for nuclear capability and our nuclear arsenal was strengthened and protected through an impenetrable command and control system. The Army Strategic Force Command was created to protect these strategic assets.

The position of president is purely ceremonial. The power lies entirely with the prime minister. The president can only act on the written ‘advice’ of the prime minister. He acted on the advice of the PM and only after wide consultations with his cabinet colleagues and the corp commanders. The guilt, if any, lies with all of them.

The writer is the president of the Pakistan Academy of Sciences and former chairman of the HEC. 

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