Saturday, March 3, 2012
Friday, March 2, 2012
Our democratic kleptocrats
Highly illustrative of the morality of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan’s politics was the passage of the Twentieth Amendment Bill through the Senate last month. The honourable members of that most honourable Upper House held out until, it seems, their ‘demands’ were met. Sixty of these representatives of the people of Pakistan, indirectly and expensively elected, were allowed to recoup a little drop of the amount they were forced to spend to gain access to the most honourable Upper House. They were paid by a generous government, an amount of Rs360 million each under the guise of ‘development funds’. Added to that, the retiring senators were endowed with what they feel and are their due perks and privileges.
This, apparently is, but the renewed beginning of the raking in of monies by our politicians, shameless or broke as they be. Earlier this week, Maleeha Lodhi wrote: “The use of public money to cement political support points to the likelihood of more ‘political spending’ in the run-up to the polls.” She terms it “patronage-driven fiscal profligacy”.
Others are not so polite. Excerpts from letters to the press from two citizens of Pakistan bluntly say it as it is: ‘Our senators blackmailed the government by demanding Rs360 million for passing the 20thAmendment Bill,’ and ‘If it is not another form of bribery, what else is it?’
Now, we come to the democratic aspect of what has gone on for the past four years of ‘restored’ democracy, or rather ‘revenge’ (as the PPP likes to have it) upon Pakistan, and its 180 million-odd inhabitants. One must always remember that anyone or anything that fits the bill ‘born again’ has to be suspect. There is always an element of extremism and high hypocrisy about them.
This government perfectly fits the definition of a kleptocracy, one characterised by greed and corruption. It is a form of political corruption ‘where the government exists to increase the personal wealth and political power of its officials and the ruling class at the expense of the wider population, often without pretence of honest service’. Well, in the case of the Senate of Pakistan and the Twentieth Amendment Bill, there certainly was not even a pretence of pretence— a disgraceful blatancy was the order of the day.
Kleptocrats achieve their aims by the embezzlement of state funds. Kleptocracies are not normally associated with democracies where there are checks and balances and accountability, so in that, we are a fraudulent exception. Kleptocracies generally define corrupt dictatorships, military juntas and their like, where the kleptocrats, in the absence of democracy, are able to control personally public funds and disburse them as they please. Such is the case with the senators and the Twentieth Amendment Bill.
One telling trait of kleptocrats is their use of their country’s treasury, as they would use their own personal bank accounts. They spend state money on luxury items, buying and spending without a care or worry. Of course, the worst aspect of this abject kleptocracy is that the funds misappropriated are generally those supposed to be channelled towards public amenities — the construction of schools, hospitals, roads, parks and playgrounds, sewerage and other sanitation systems. In our case, much of the filched money, either spent or transferred to numbered bank accounts in safe countries ironically comes fromfunds allocated to ‘poverty alleviation’.
To quote: ‘The quasi-oligarchy that results from a kleptocracy also subverts democracy.’
نئي انتخابي فہرستيں بھي درست نہيں،عدالت کا دروازہ کھٹکھٹائيں گے،جاويد ہاشم
Thursday, March 1, 2012
PTI to protest against petroleum price hike: Imran
Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan on Thursday said his party would protest against hike in petroleum prices.
Addressing a press conference, Imran said the people of Pakistan were unnecessarily being burdened. He further said the government needed to check prices instead of increasing the people’s miseries. “The poorer the people become, the richer the rulers get,” he added. He said his party would launch demonstrations in all the provinces.
Imran claimed Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf would arrest Benazir’s killers on coming to power. The PTI chief said the rulers had issued red warrants for Pervez Musharraf but no one would issue red warrants for the corrupt rulers. He said the UN inquiry pointed out that facts about Banazir’s assassination were concealed.
Imran said he and his party fully condemned the Kohistan attack in which a number of passengers of buses were killed. He also condemned sectarian killings in Parachinar. “It is the government’s responsibility to ensure law and order,” he added.
He opined that appointment of judges through parliamentarians under the 18th Amendment was a way to hide corruption. Imran said anybody could join the PTI. “We don’t need anyone’s permission to allow people to join us,” he added.
The PTI chief said some people were spreading rumours that Imran’s tsunami has stalled. He said it was the corrupt people who were scared of tsunami.
Imran said perhaps the by-elections had been held as per the old electoral lists and announced to move the Supreme Court on the issue. Earlier, PPP leader Israr Shah who had lost his legs in the blast when travelling with Benazir’s rally announced joining the PTI. He said he was joining the PTI to compelete the unfinished agenda of Benazir Bhutto.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Monday, February 27, 2012
Imran Khan terms by-election a fraud
Chief of Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI), Imran Khan on Monday termed holding of by-elections in the country as a ‘fraud’, fearing that next general polls might also be unfair and fraudulent.
“Holding by-polls on ten constituencies is I think fraud with people of Pakistan because the elections were held on previous bogus electoral rolls… We don’t accept the result,” the cricketer-turned-politician told media representatives.
Khan feared that the Pakistan Peoples Party government would not let the next general polls be held in a fair and transparent manner “because they are afraid of PTI.”
He said the PPP and PML-N supremos were not sincere in curbing the corruption menace.
“Corruption is the major issue of Pakistan, but since Nawaz and Zardari both are facing corruption charges therefore neither they got the bill on corruption approved by the National Assembly over the last four years nor they will in the future,” Khan said.
“They (Nawaz and Zardari) always join hands for their common and personal interests,” he opined.
About Balochistan unrest and APC on the issue, the PTI chief said government has lost a chance to redress grievances of Baloch people after Musharaff era.
Professionals, not politicians, to handle energy sector: PTI
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) on Sunday announced it will delegate decision-making authority from politicians to professionals in the energy sector to tackle the prevailing crisis.
The party, while describing the incumbent government as incapable of handling the energy crisis, laid out its five-year strategy to overcome the problem at a seminar it hosted on the subject.
“The current government has neither the ability nor the political will to make the sector financially viable by reducing losses and leakages in the system and cutting the cost of energy generation,” PTI chief Imran Khan said.
Earlier this week, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) held a conference over the same issue where the PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif identified energy crisis as the biggest challenge for any new government.
“Business as usual” is not the solution for the problem, Imran said while addressing PTI’s first energy related seminar.
He underlined the need for preventing political interference in institutional matters.
“The elimination of terrorism and bringing good governance are short-term targets. Tackling the energy crisis, however, is a long-term goal,” Imran added.
Indigenous resources such as domestic gas and Thar Coal have been ignored. Ever-increasing dependence on imported furnace oil has amplified the total oil import bill from $3 billion to $12 billion in the last decade, said a statement issued by the party.
PTI warned that if immediate actions are not taken, Pakistan’s power shortages will rise from the current 5,500 megawatts to over 11,000 megawatts in the next five years, resulting in longer hours of load shedding.
The natural gas deficit will rise from 1,600 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) to 3,500 mmcfd and the energy import bill will rise from $12 billion to $60-120 billion by 2025, depending on oil prices and drastic increases in tariffs.
Jahangir Khan Tareen, in his comprehensive presentation on energy crisis in the country, also unveiled PTI’s short and medium term plans to overcome the problem.
The short-term plan that has been designed for two years will attempt to minimise impact of power and gas shortages in the country besides reducing burden of ever increasing tariffs on poor.
In the medium-term plan of five years, PTI will aim to resolve the circular debt crisis and encourage influx of capital flows, plug gas deficit by increasing supply by 3,500 mmcfd, eliminate load shedding by improving efficiency of power plants, and bringing existing offline capacity online.
He said we will liberate public sector enterprises from government interference and appoint independent boards with real powers, including selection of Chief Executive Officers.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
VIEW: Whose business is it anyway? —Andleeb Abbas
Balochistan is a province wronged. Being the largest and potentially the richest, yet the most deprived, is why the people of Balochistan find it hard to have a reason to belong to this country
Outrage and outbursts are the normal reaction to incursions on the sovereignty of Pakistan. It has happened so many times and so often that outrage has become almost irrelevant and outbursts have become irresponsible. The sad thing is that the more the Pakistani government pretends to bounce back on its stance on the US intention to continue its policy of interference, the more the US mocks it and exposes the weakness of the government’s ability to command any respect internally and externally. The normal reaction of most of the public is to paint the US as a bully and villain and to carry out anti-American rallies by burning effigies of American presidents. These tactics are counterproductive. They feed the interests of our enemies. The biggest problem Pakistan has had in the last decade or more is to be branded as a country full of extremists and such actions and reactions just feed into the agenda of those trying to prove that Pakistan is a country that is full of dangerous fanatics, thus justifying their right to use drones and other invasion techniques.
The billion-dollar question is: who owns this country? Do the leaders of this country have a right to play with its resources the way they choose to? Do powerful institutions like the army or Supreme Court have a right to assert their control? Do the warlords and landlords ruling the rural Pakistan have the right to play their almighty game and get away with it? Do the people of Pakistan really own up to their responsibility of defining the future of their country? The problem with the country is that there are many owners of this country but really no ownership. The definition of ownership in the minds of all these interest groups is that I have full control over what I want to control and the rest is irrelevant. The real definition of ownership is that this is my country and whatever I do best for myself and my dear ones, I will do for the country as well. However, this definition is dismissed as being unrealistic and idealistic and too silly to be taken seriously. Facts, however, show that a country becomes open for foreign ownership when its own owners fail to take charge. That is precisely what has happened to our country. With leaders always ready to negotiate deals that are short-term and myopic, compromising sovereignty under the guise of having no other option is the age-old excuse for lack of foresight and integrity.
The resolution introduced by the US House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations chairperson Dana Rohrabacher in favour of the “right to self-determination for the Baloch people, for being victims of human rights violations and oppression despite being the largest province” is a clear violation of the sovereignty of Pakistan. Who has given them this right to make this statement? Two things primarily. Firstly, the US due to its status of being a superpower can use extraterritorial rights to influence and impose its own policies and laws on other nations. The classic example of this is the recent sanctions and bans the US has placed on Iran. While they are entitled to decide on their own foreign policies with other countries but they think that if they feel a certain sentiment or inclination towards a country, so should other countries. They do not think this approach as unreasonable or extraterritorial laws as arrogant. They justify this by saying that the purpose is to curb a nation whom they think is doing something to endanger the world. Their philosophy is that if a united stand is not taken, it will not be effective in curbing the targeted nation. Thus, in Iran’s case they have put sanctions on import of oil from Iran and have asked the European Union (EU) to do the same. Similarly, they have requested Pakistan, India and so many others to discourage trading terms with Iran. The response to these demands differs from country to country depending on how much the country is dependent on the US. While the EU has asked for a six months period to find alternative sources of oil imports, India has flatly refused. Pakistan of course has lately tried to take on the US but it seems that the Americans are not impressed by this bravado and consequently keep on pressing charges that seem ridiculous in the beginning but on closer examination one finds that they are only acting on an understanding of how our leaders find it so easy to compromise on their promises and resolutions.
As the walkouts of assembly take place and the American ambassador is called to task by the government, we also hear about the meeting between Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar with Hillary Clinton taking place in the UK, supposedly to enact a staged performance where, to impress the public, another cursory apology will take place. Unfortunately, these gestures are so perfunctory that all media outguess our leaders’ intention even before they act upon it. They may be achieving their intent of pacifying the public but it is not hard to imagine how they would be exposing their weaknesses to the Americans. Knowing their weak position both on economic grounds where they are indebted heavily to the American-dominated lending institutions like the IMF, etc, and politically where their own credibility is on a serious downturn, even an ordinary American Congressman just gets up and proposes a resolution on Balochistan, while saying little or nothing on Kashmir.
Balochistan is a province wronged. Being the largest and potentially the richest, yet the most deprived, is why the people of Balochistan find it hard to have a reason to belong to this country. Thus, instead of burning effigies of Americans, what needs to be done is to stop offering lip service apologies to the people of that province and saying how unfair the deal has been for them. It is this constant pretence of feeling bad and yet not doing anything about them that has created a huge deficit of trust between the Baloch and those governing the country. As long as the focus remains on blaming others, very little progress will be made. Sometimes it is the Americans, other times Indians — similarly, the present government blames the previous government and the provinces blame the Centre. It is these internal weaknesses that encourage external interference and aggression. The golden rule says, put your house in order and that is the best safeguard to any attack from outsiders.
The writer is an analyst, consultant and Information Secretary of PTI Punjab. She can be reached at andleeb.abbas1@gmail.com
Umerkot rally: Imran hits the des
The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf chief, Imran Khan, made his first mark in the desert of Sindh while speaking at a ground which is famous for either being filled by rain or Benazir Bhutto.
Between 25,000 and 30,000 people attended the party’s public meeting at Umerkot’s Marvi ground on Saturday where Imran assured them of emancipation from feudalism, thana culture and age-old leadership which has failed to serve them. “Good days are on the horizon,” he declared. “The PTI’s local government system will pave the way for empowerment of the poor who will then dominate the thana and it will never be vice versa again.” Imran failed to offer any details of the system he has conceived and often talks about.
Imran won the crowd’s response even though the show lacked a usual feature – it was not laced with musical performances. One local singer who was scheduled to perform did not turn up.
The PTI chief thanked his party’s vice chairman, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, for organising what he said was a successful event. Qureshi has a considerable following in the area among the people of Pali, Samejo, Halepoto and other Muslim communities as well as in the scheduled caste Menghawars and Bheel Hindus. People also came from Tharparkar, Mirpurkhas and Sanghar districts.
The district is at present considered a stronghold of the Pakistan Peoples Party which won all the national and provincial assemblies seats in the 2008 general elections.
“The people of Pakistan will be happy to see Sindhis wake up to the call of the tsunami,” Imran said. “People will get free justice and the unemployment, lack of standard education and other facilities which breed crime will be eradicated.”
He said that when he comes to power, not only will petty thieves be sent to jail but also the biggest dacoits who had become presidents would face the same fate. Imran came down hard on what he called the Zardari-Sharif nexus. “Amid spells of Noora Kushti (a phoney war) they united for the 18th and 19th amendments, and when the tsunami threatened Nawaz Sharif, finally for the 20th constitutional amendment. But they will never be on the same page for an anti-corruption law because both of them are thieves who plunder in different ways.”
Imran challenged both parties, the PPP and Pakistan Muslim League (N), with defeat in the next elections, which he declared would be “historic”. He promised to transform the country into a place where people from the other countries would come for jobs, ending the local brain drain.
Umerkot, Mirpurkhas, Sanghar and Tharparkar from where the majority of the audience came for the public meeting were badly affected by the rains and floods in 2011. The government’s efforts to get them back up on their feet have been badly criticised by its political opponents, including Nawaz Sharif, as well as civil society. However, Imran did not utter a word on the issue.
Quresh defended the party’s popularity in Sindh. “They mock us that we don’t have big names in Sindh but they don’t see what we have here: this crowd of poor people who are here on their own and not brought on public expense.”
He held successive governments responsible for failing to eradicate poverty from this arid region, which is, however, rich in mineral resources and untapped human capital.
Qureshi said that he has a spiritual bonding with the people of this desert, which is stronger than that of any political following.
The PTI’s general secretary, Arif Alvi, said that the people of Sindh were poised to rebel against the PPP, which he said has always plundered the province whenever it has come to power. They want a credible leadership which the PTI will give, he assured.
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