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YES! NO! TODAY! TOMMORROW!
THROWING GOOD MONEY AFTER BAD
TO REDUCE IMPORTS
TAXING AGRICULTURE
IMPORTANT MURDERS
ACCIDENT PRONE
ECONOMY IS NOW SAFE
This seems to be the rule of thumb in the present pakistani govt. Most of my reports are based on reports in the pakistani press which the Supreme Court of Pakistan has said is sufficient evidence to evaluate a govts performance. In the Frontier Post a peshawar based pro PML(N) newspaper two articles were printed on the same day which were contradictory. In one the prime minister asked the Privatisation Commision to finish privatisation by the end of the year. In the other the prime minister advised that haste makes waste. He also ordered them to privatize the state telecomunications facility which the telecommunications minister had said would not be privatized before its working was improved. The intent in all this is to get about $15billion which the state behemoths are said to be worth. The prime minister had previously criticized the PPP for their Energy policy in which foreign concerns were allowed to set up power plants in pakistan with attractive power purchase agreements which would cause an annual drain of around $2BILLION. The PTCL a highly profitable company with annual incomes of around $3-500million should therefore be worth around 5-8billion. That would cause an additional drain of at least a billion dollars annually as obviously such a huge company cannot be bought by a local company.If the other state holdings such as banks, railways,oil distribution,airline etc are also sold to foreign ventures than the country could be faced with a collosal drain on its foreign exchange reserves which are always unstable. How the country is going to do that is almost impossible to explain. So one would advise the govt to move extremely carefully on privatisation and only to sell if the rightprice is offered and the foreign purchasers assure them that they would not transfer all profits overseas and continue to reinvest profits in the country.The need for high tech inputs to our industry is not that great as most industries have improved technically over the past decade.
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The govt seems to be planning to help out about 4000 industrial units which are either bankrupt or doing extremely badly. That is the state of the private sector in pakistan where thousands of factories have been set up in sectors which are just not profitable. Many such factories are burdened with unpayable loans/bad managements and the banks are not able to foreclose usually for political reasons. Therefore one would advise the govt not to invest in industries which are never going to be profitable. The govt has over the past four decades invested heavily in industries and agriculture without any appropriate returns. Both sectors should now be able to look after themselves and the banks as well as the govt should change their thinking. All banks should be advised not to invest in overstuffed sectors and concentrate on the high tech/futuristic industries. The other sector that is important for investments is import substitution. The banks should also be advised that they take care to think of quality control before rather than after. There is no point in investing in certain sectors where we cannot match superior products from overseas. There is no point in reinventing the wheel if the pakistani wheel is not going to be superior or at least equivalent to the foreign wheel.
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The Punjab govt has with much fanfare recently announced a sort of tax on agricultural landholdings.As usual the taxes have been imposed via an ordinance thus negating the PML(N)'s oft stated policy of rushing things thru parliament rather than using ordinances. Does one see a difference of opinion amongst the brothers? Obviously it will be difficult to get the ordinance thru the provincial assembly so the agriculturists can hold off on paying the taxes as the assembly might not be able to pass the ordinance.According to what I can gather from the press it only amounts to a joke. The max tax is on orchards while for other landholdings it is just a few rupees per acre.Obviously a mango tree bears more fruit than a wheat or rice plant.. What is the object of such puny taxation. The provincial taxes on a single self occupied house in the city would be more than the tax paid by an agriculturist with a few acres of land. The agriculturists have had it there way for over 50 years. It is now time that they paid their fare share in taxes. If the govt can realise the problems of agriculturists ,industrialists and bussinessmen(who are amongst the richest segments of soceity) than why can it not realise the problems of the urban salaried. And here I am not even talking about the unemployed. Especially when the urban(employed and unemployed) get no subsidies whatsoever. Just as an example the additional surcharge on electricity has increased by over 100% during the last 11 months. On an electricity bill of around 600 units the surcharges amount to over rupees 950. Is'nt this matter of surcharges getting too much out of hand. The prices of fuel have not increased by over 100% during this period and there seems no justification whatsoever for such exorbitant overcharging. It is thus imperative that the govt take the necessary steps to bring down electricity prices. If sugar, wheat and ghee could be made substantially cheaper than that too would count as a plus. However the people have lost faith in any govts ability to control and decrease prices.The prime minister could achieve a lot if he gave up on the speech in the air method which is being adopted to avoid responsibility and depend on more practical measures. And firing a few thousand people and privatisation is not the answer as that will only increase prices further.
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The present airforce chief is one of the most accident prone in pakistans recent history.His track record is so dubious that many are calling for his removal. Just for the record some controversies that he has been recently involved in.
1. Airforce officers were caught in the USA while trying to smuggle heroin to the states. The airforce chief at that time was enjoying HAJ on govt expenses in Saudi from where he purportedly ordered the smuggling attempt. He could not accept that his officers were heroin addicted and used the military intelligence wing to arrest a US aide involved in undercover anti heroin smuggling operations.Both matters as yet unresolved.
2. In what can only be termed as one of the most unfortunate incidents in PAF history two cadets were inhumanely killed in what is being called the ragging scandal.Attempts were made to coverup the whys and wheres of the incident.After the news broke in the pakistani press a lot of hue and cry was raised and the airforce chief belatedly and reluctantly swung into action. The conditions under which the cadets died are still suspicious and attempts are being made by the airforce lobbty to somehow justify the deaths of the cadets. Reportedly they were made to stand naked in hot midday sun which caused there deaths by heat stroke which is highly unbelievable. The reports in the press suggest a coverup of the real incident which is supposed to be much nearer death by torture than death by ragging.
ADDED ON SEPT 20,1997
In what can only be termed as a belated respose to the tragic death of two cadets the COAS today banned ragging in the PAF academy. This action should have been taken much earlier as seniors at the academy did literally unmentionable things to there juniors in the name of teaching them to obey their seniors. Obviously respect for seniority can be taught in a more sane manner than the one practised upto now. However no action has been announced against the perpretrators as yet.
3. In another incident an airforce plane dropped its fuel tanks on a locality in karachi thus killing a civilian. That too is being projected as a heroic act by the airforce obby. Given the nature of the armed forces nobody thinks that such incidents can be deliberate or even done on the orders of the highups.
4. In another controversy the airforces welfare organization is involved in a deal with opposition PPP affiliates and surreptitious indians in setting up of a TV channel(SPTV). This deal is being opposed by the present govt and has been vehemently supported by the present airforce chief . Eight forign channels are shown on the station which they had promised to increase to 30 but have failed to do so.
5.Added on 26 SEPT 1997--Several Iranian technicians were killed in a terrorist/sectarian type attack. The airforce has been blamed for not providing them with sufficient protection despite knowing of tensions caused by sectarian differences.
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This announcement was recently made by the countries economics minister. On the ground stagnation and price hikes continue.Prices are set to rise further as the govt moves to impose sales taxes and capital value taxes in the cities. At the moment there are no rumblings in the urban areas but if the govt moves to reduce taxes on agriculturists than there are bound to be repercussions in the urban areas concerned. However the work on urban renewal and rural uplift which was being carried out under various programs under the PPP govt has not yet been resumed. The whole country is littered with small uncompleted projects.
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