A day for prayers Aug 14

Today is as good a day to ruminate on what hit Pakistan. The first one to hit us was the sycophant turned demagogue, Zulfikar Al Bhutto. From comparing Ayub Khan with De Gaulle and Attaturk, he pounced upon the Tashkent Declaration to malign his benefactor when the latter was down and out because of the ill conceived war against India. Some say conceived by Bhutto himself. The Tashkent Declaration actually saved Pakistan’s blushes and Bhutto in the end was caught lying, not a first or a last for him. His whole People’s Party was founded on a lie.

Pakistan was on the way to an industrial revolution. Ayub Khan was grooming Bhutto, not Gauhar Ayub, to continue the good work. Under him gradually the country would have been brought back from Basic Democracy to the more conventional form of democracy. But the opportunist Bhutto would not wait. As a reaction to the culture of 22 families he went to the other extreme, promising the awam ‘roti,kapra aur makan’, distributing the cake even before it had been baked, brought the students out on  the roads (never to go back to the classrooms again), handed the keys of the factories to the workers (the factories never to recover from this grievous wound till today). With the country broken up, still went ahead with his vindictive and vengeful (against the Dauds and Saigols) nationalization of industry. Do you put industrialist behind bars and then expect them to keep investing?

This was the worst aspect of nationalization which put brakes on further investment by the scared investors, local and foreign. A trend which has continued till today in fits and starts. Pakistan’s march to prosperity was effectively halted. In the name of bettering the lot of some of the poor, the remaining were doomed to perpetual poverty. Even worse than all this was the legacy he left to the country – his daughter.

Two acts of his daughter made sure that the work he started of ruining Pakistan’s economy would be continued. Knowing the precarious economic situation of the country, personal foreign exchange deposits were down from 12 billion to 3 billion, barely enough to meet foreign debt repayments, she pushed the country into a nuclear arms race with India. Foreign exchange deposits had to be frozen to avoid a sure Default. Sanctions by US and EU brought the country to its knees. 9/11 saved Pakistan from becoming a failed state as surely as I write this.

Her crime is compounded because, while she clamoured for the government to go tit-for-tat against the Indian nuclear tests, her statements and photos splashed in newspapers for days, she told CNN, playing her US card, she would have gone for a cold laboratory test. Also that the people were euphoric but they did not realise the economic repercussions (which apparently she did). I have not been able to determine who lied more, the father or the daughter. An IMF official called her a ‘shameless liar’, she did not react. It is to my eternal bewilderment how people who have never told a lie in their whole life, teach their children not to lie, yet stomach such lies and still hang on to their misplaced hero worship.

If this was not enough to keep Pakistan permanently in the rank of poor nations, she opposed Kalabagh dam, again out of vindictiveness, opposed it when it was ‘Zias dam’, agreed to build it when prime minister, opposed it again when it became ‘Nawazs dam’, which if started in 1986 would have given enough power and water to pull the country out of the economic recession (Roosevelt launched the Tennessee Valley Authority to pull US out of recession). 

 
Please join me in raising our hands in praying to God to save us from such ‘Saviours’ and their ‘Relatives’.
Khurshid Anwer

A government of school girls and school boys Aug 12

by Khurshid Anwer

PPP excels in cronyism and in appointing minister who are hardly out of school. I forget where I read the following:
A multitude of ministers, advisers, special assistants and ambassadors (their number at the centre approaches 100) do little. The portfolios of many are a butt of public jokes. In the provinces their number is larger but their work less. The irony of a situation in which the politicians are gaining jobs while the workers (non jialas) are losing them does not seem to register. When a cabinet has scores of ministers, power inevitably comes to rest in a clique or a cabal, That is what has come to happen. That perhaps was also the intention. The country needs fresh polls but of that there is not the remotest possibility.

Talat Husain on Aaj Tv showed a complete list of the ministries and ministers, many of whom, he said, are unseen and unheard. He was most scathing of the preformance of the government. Pointing to the PPP flags on every lamp post on the constitution avenue, he said, does PPP belng to Pakistan or does Pakistan belong to PPP. The latter, I think – magar sharam unko phir bhi nahi aati.
School girl Fauzia Wahab says poverty is being alleviated, government is taking every step which could assuage the masses (how this is being done, she is keeping up her sleeve).
Dr Ashfaque Ahmed says poverty is increasing, 2.5 crore below the poverty line (obviously he does not know what Fauzia Wahab knows).

The Nation editorial says – Unemployment is intensifying at an alarming rate, not only small enterprises but also huge industrial groups are shutting down. One of the prominent industrial groups at Hattar is on the verge of collapse and has stopped paying salaries to its employees. Instead of hollow promises government should come up with solid policy to revive industry (obviously the editor does not know what Fauzia Wahab knows).
Rahman Malik says it is in the PPP manifesto to end poverty (how nice if poverty could be ended just by being in the manifesto).
Fauzia Wahab and Rahman Malik need to go back to school to learn that poverty can only be alleviated through the two major non-government employers – industry and agriculture. What is Fauzia Wahab’s party doing about expanding these; these will not expand without power and water; power and water will not be had without mega dams, not in 12 years but sooner.
MD – PIA a bankrupt institution. No wonder. Appointment of incompetent cronies, some fresh out of school – eager to oblige by taking on 660 extra hands  (it is a chicken and egg question, was it bankrupt before the 660 were taken on, or did it go bankrupt because of the 660 free loaders).
In other countries where a ‘workers party’ is not in power, private sector is losing jobs in thousands. 371,000 lost in US in July on top of 463,000 in June. And US is a democracy. Democracy does not mean the will of the incompetent majority.

Bare mian to barre mian, chote mian Subhan Allah:
Nation aug 07 – NAB has sent notice to Jehangir Badar to explain his following properties.
Shares in Bakhtawar hotel, International hotel, Lahore hotel, National Tourism Hostel, Usman plaza, Butt plaza in Badami Bagh, Kamani Factory on Band road. Shares in hotels in Dubai, London and Toronto.

Petrol pump in Virginia. Two houses in Allama Iqbal town, a 10 kanal house under construction in Ali Town on Raiwind road and a two kanal commercial plot near Thokar Niaz Beg.
The rewards for being a student leader of the peoples party.