CONTENTS:
0 Announcements
0 Liberty versus Democracy
By Rose Wilder Lane
0 Return to "Magistracy!"
By Dr. Nadeem Ul Haque
0 Issues of the Month: Judiciary’s Moment of Redemption;
and, Failures of the Monopoly
0 From the National Press
0 Private Initiatives
0 Good News
0 Humor Wise
0 Free Pakistan Highlights
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Quote of the Month:
It is the responsibility of the patriot to protect his country from its government.
[Thomas Paine, 1737-1809]
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DISCOVER YOUR POLITICAL LEANINGS! World's Smallest Political Quiz
Take the Quiz now and find out where you fit on the political map!
http://www.theadvocates.org/quiz.html
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PHILOSOPHY OF LIBERTY
What is Philosophy of Liberty? A screensaver by Lux Lucre and Ken Schoolland explains it.
Download and install it. http://www.free-market.net/rd/321907219.html ; http://www.jonathangullible.com
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Announcements
HOW TO PRIVATIZE SUCCESSFULLY
The Business Recorder of Friday July 27, 2007 published the first part of an article HOW TO PRIVATISE SUCCESSFULLY-I by Dr. Khalil Ahmad. The article argues that privatization may not succeed if done in an isolated manner; it needs certain other changes and a competitive environment to bear fruit.
Here is the link to the first part:
http://www.brecorder.com/index.php?id=597252&currPageNo=1&query=&search=...
The second part of the article was published on Saturday July 28, 2007
Here is the link to the second part:
http://www.brecorder.com/index.php?id=597614&currPageNo=1&query=&search=...
The same article was carried by The Post also in its issue of Monday July 30, 2007.
Here is the link to The Post article:
http://thepost.com.pk/Arc_OpinionNews.aspx?dtlid=109930&catid=11&date=07...
PRESS RELEASE:
NEW BOOKLET ARGUES PAKISTANIS DESPERATELY NEED RULE OF LAW
Lahore: July 19, 2007 Alternate Solutions Institute’s new booklet titled “The Greatest Battle for the Rule of Law in Pakistan” dwells on the importance of the ongoing struggle of lawyers’ for the rule of law in Pakistan. The book consists of three articles by Dr. Khalil Ahmad, which have already appeared in top national English dailies. The writer argues that the fiefdom of Pakistan is ruled by an alliance of various elites under the leadership of the most powerful clique which include special political, religious, judicial, economic and military interests. These interests use every resource of the state for their own welfare and for furthering their rule, and thus have deprived the people of Pakistan from their fundamental rights ensured in the Constitution. They are like an abandoned nation.
But after a suffering of sixty years, there is silver lining in the form of lawyers’ struggle for an inviolable constitution, rule of law and an independent judiciary. The writer is of the opinion that in this decisive battle for the rule of law and independent judiciary, the onus is on the shoulders of honorable judges. The fate of this battle and the fate of Pakistan also will be determined by their integrity. Whether they stick to the Constitution and its Spirit is important to decide this battle. But, if they don’t, there will be widespread discontent. That is why this battle is decisive. This is decisive also because the most learned section of our society cannot stop short of what they have stood for now, i.e. rule of law, not the rule of anything else.
Title: The Greatest Battle for the Rule of Law in Pakistan
Author: Dr. Khalil Ahmad
Publisher: Alternate Solutions Institute, Lahore
Date: June 2007
Pages: 48
Price: Rs.45
For more information, please visit:
http://asinstitute.org/page.php?instructions=page&page_id=677&nav_id=93
WRIT OF LAW OR GOVERNMENT
The article that was published in Business Recorder on Saturday July 14, 2007, under the title 'Mystifications give rise to conspiracy theories', was also carried by The Post under a different title Writ of Law of Government on Sunday July 15, 2007. The article argues that what is always required of a government is the writ of law that must be established and maintained without any relaxation and dilly-dallying. In the case of Lal Masjid, by ignoring what was happening in and around the Lal Masjid the government acted unlawfully. But in forcing the Lal Masjid brothers and occupiers to abandon their unlawful activities government acted lawfully. It tried, though belatedly, to establish the writ of the law. It tried to protect the people from the usurpers of Lal Masjid who used force, the monopoly of a government, to encroach upon the inalienable rights of the people.
Here is the link to the article:
http://thepost.com.pk/Arc_OpinionNews.aspx?dtlid=107491&catid=11&date=07...
'MYSTIFICATIONS GIVE RISE TO CONSPIRACY THEORIES'
The Business Recorder of July 14, 2007 carried an article 'Mystifications give rise to conspiracy theories' by Dr. Khalil Ahmad. The article argues that what is always required of a government is the writ of law that must be established and maintained without any relaxation and dilly-dallying. In the case of Lal Masjid, by ignoring what was happening in and around the Lal Masjid the government acted unlawfully. But in forcing the Lal Masjid brothers and occupiers to abandon their unlawful activities government acted lawfully. It tried, though belatedly, to establish the writ of the law. It tried to protect the people from the usurpers of Lal Masjid who used force, the monopoly of a government, to encroach upon the inalienable rights of the people.
Here is the link to the article:
http://www.brecorder.com/index.php?id=591557&currPageNo=1&query=&search=...
PRESS RELEASE: GLOBAL “OVER-POPULATION” A MYTH – NEW REPORT
Lahore July 11, 2007: On World Population Day, July 11th, the UNFPA will call for men to be more involved in family planning and women’s reproductive healthcare. Underlying this fine-sounding campaign is the UN Population Fund’s belief that we must stabilise and decrease world population in order to save the planet and promote economic growth.
But according to a new report title “Too Many People” by Professor Nicholas Eberstadt, an expert in population and demography, the UNFPA and other alarmists provide no credible evidence to justify this belief. The research paper has been released in Pakistan by the Alternate Solutions Institute, a partner organization of the Sustainable Development Network UK, publisher of the Eberstadt’s research report.
There is no causative link between population density and poverty – wealthy Monaco is forty times more densely populated than impoverished Bangladesh.
Nor is it true that the planet is struggling to feed and accommodate increasing numbers of people. Over the last century, global life expectancy has increased from 30 years to over 60 years; while maize, rice and wheat have become far more abundant and other natural resources have become more easily available.
Nevertheless, the UN and many other influential individuals and groups, and NGOs – such as in Pakistan – are calling for government-mandated population-planning schemes globally. But according to Eberstadt, such schemes historically have had almost zero effect on family sizes and fertility rates:
“Globally, there is no causative link between the availability of contraception and fertility levels - the rate of contraception use is virtually identical in Jordan and Japan, for instance, but Jordan's fertility rate is more than three times higher.”
According to Eberstadt, the only thing that can affect fertility rates is parental choice – unless one opts for the Chinese approach of forced sterilisations and abortions.
“Whether they recognize it or not, advocates of anti-natal population programs must make a fateful choice. They must either opt for voluntarism, in which case their population targets will be meaningless. Or else they must opt for attempting to meet their population targets – in which case they must embrace coercive measures, like China’s one-child policy. There is no third way.”
For more information, please visit:
http://asinstitute.org/page.php?instructions=page&page_id=675&nav_id=93
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LIBERTY VERSUS DEMOCRACY
By Rose Wilder Lane
Introduction by Jörg Guido Hülsmann
[Rose Wilder Lane was one of the highest paid writers in the United States during her days as a journalist, war correspondent, and novelist. The daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder, she was widely considered a silent collaborator on the Little House series. She lived from 1886 until 1968. This article was excerpted from Part Two of The Discovery of Freedom, and was posted on July 07, 2007 http://www.mises.org.
Jörg Guido Hülsmann is senior fellow of the Mises Institute. He teaches in France, at Université d'Angers. His introduction is excerpted from his forthcoming biography of Ludwig von Mises, The Last Knight of Liberalism.]
The war years had brought economic hardship to Mises (Luwig von Mises), and if he ever had any illusions about the state of the American mind before he came to the United States in 1940, he had certainly lost them by the end of the war. American public opinion was already entirely under the sway of statism. And as a consequence the old American liberties were at an all-time low.
But the forces of resistance were slowly emerging. There was a seedbed of libertarian opposition, a network of leaders — thinkers and organizers, sometimes in personal union — who were preparing the counterattack. One historian has called these years "the nadir of individualistic, Jeffersonian thought in the United States."[1] Yet the nadir was only in political practice. The thinking was no longer in disarray, but in the initial phase of a long-term resurgence. It is true that these thinkers and organizers were still scattered. They had only to find one another.
With the NYU (New York University) seminar, FEE (Foundation for Economic Education), and individual organizers and publishers such as Frederick Nymeyer, Mises enjoyed for the very first time in his life a truly congenial network of students and supporters. He had always been a respected scholar, but few of his readers and associates really appreciated the radical anti-statist gist of his theories. This held true in particular in the case of the neo-liberals, who prided themselves on their pragmatic positions and on their good sense for wanting the government in charge of creating competition.
Things were completely different in the circle of his new friends. Many of the new people that came to Mises through his NYU seminar and FEE were even more libertarian than he was. Suddenly it was Mises who on several occasions turned out to represent the more statist position in his seminar. American libertarians such as Leonard Read and R.C. Hoiles placed great emphasis on the definition of political liberty in terms of non-initiation of force.
This perspective was entirely outside Mises's utilitarian approach to political problems. He believed that the question of who initiated force was politically irrelevant because one could hardly ever reach agreement on it. The only relevant question was whether the initiation of force was suitable to attain the end of the acting person, even if his action was somehow wrong from an ethical point of view.
Another, even more substantial point of disagreement between Mises and many American libertarians was the question of democracy. Mises would come to taste the particular American flavor of hostility to democracy in a 1947 exchange of letters with Rose Wilder Lane. Apparently they had met for lunch, and Lane had the impression that Mises believed they shared the same outlook on fundamentals. At the meeting she did not feel it was the right moment to start a discussion on the subject, but later wrote him to set the record straight:
[ … ] as an American I am of course fundamentally opposed to democracy and to anyone advocating or defending democracy, which in theory and practice is the basis of socialism.
It is precisely democracy which is destroying the American political structure, American law, and the American economy, as Madison said it would, and as Macauley prophesied that it would do in fact in the 20th century. [2]
Mises did not even bother to address the issue, but observed that he never addressed people who called his writings "stuff" and "nonsense" — as Lane had done in a book review. And that was that for more than two years, after which the debate resumed on more civilized terms, probably because of Lane's friendship with Howard Pew. Mises's basic objection to Lane was that she had misunderstood him. He had never advocated any concrete regime of parliamentary democracy. He merely stressed the fact that all political systems ultimately hinge on mass opinion. [3]
Mises's American friends disagreed and the discussions and correspondence between them remained without conclusion. But the confrontation between the Austrian scholar and his American readers and disciples would be a driving force in the development of libertarian theory.
Mises's take on the importance of liberal democracy can be found in his book Liberalism.
Rose Wilder Lane summarizes her objections to democracy in her book The Discovery of Freedom:"Democracy" by Rose Wilder Lane.
Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, John Adams, Madison, and Monroe feared democracy.
They were educated men. Excepting Franklin (self-educated), each one had the education of an English gentleman. That is, the philosophy and the history of the whole European past had been pounded into his head before he was twelve years old. Therefore, when he was old enough to think for himself, he had thousands of years of human experience with every form of Government, to think about.
This knowledge was then regarded as necessary to every man whose birth entitled him to take any part in the government of his country.
They also knew the meaning of every word they used; they knew its Greek, Latin, or Anglo-Saxon root. Until forty years ago, this knowledge was still considered of first importance in American schools. Every pupil, at thirteen and fourteen, learned etymology as he had learned spelling since the age of six, by dogged repetition until the facts were fixed in his mind.
Today the confusion of the meaning of words in these United States is a danger to the whole world. Few American schools any longer require a pupil to dissect his words to their roots, and to know what he means when he speaks. And for twenty years the disciplined members of the Communist Party in these States have been deliberately following Lenin's instruction, "First confuse the vocabulary."
Thinking can be done only in words. Accurate thinking requires words of precise meaning. Communication between human beings is impossible without words whose precise meaning is generally understood.
Confuse the vocabulary, and people do not know what is happening; they can not communicate an alarm; they can not achieve any common purpose. Confuse the vocabulary, and millions are helpless against a small, disciplined number who know what they mean when they speak. Lenin had brains.
Today, when you hear the word "democracy," what does it mean?
These United States, of course; and England, the British Commonwealth, the British Empire, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Belgium, part of France, Finland when Russians attack the Finns but not when Finns attack Russia; Russia when Russians fight Germans but not when Stalin signs a pact with Hitler; the kingdoms and dictatorships of the Balkans; and economic security and compulsory insurance and the check-off system of collecting labor union dues; and friendliness and neighborliness and the unique American sense of human equality, and a vote for everybody, and socialism and communism and the Spanish cause for which republicans, democrats, socialists, syndicalists, anarchists and Russian and American communists fought, and freedom and human rights and human dignity and common decency.
That is, the word has no meaning. Its meaning has been destroyed.
It was once a sound word. It is a necessary word, because no other has its real meaning. Demo-cracy means, rule by The People; as precisely as monarchy means, rule by one (person).
Demos, The People, was a fantasy imagined by the ancient Greeks, in their search for The Authority that (they imagined) controlled men. To this fantasy they attached the meaning of God, which always attaches to every form of Authority, and there are still persons who believe that "the voice of The People is the voice of God."
The People does not exist. Individual persons compose any group of persons.
So in practice, any attempt to establish democracy is an attempt to make a majority of persons in a group act as the ruler of that group.
Consider this for one moment, not in fantasy, but as applied to your own experience in groups of living persons whom you know, and you will understand why every attempt to establish democracy has failed.
Of course there is no reason to suppose that majority-rule would be desirable, even if it were possible. There is no morality or efficiency in mere numbers. Ninety-nine persons are no more likely to be right than one person is.
In the Federalist Papers, Madison stated the reason why every attempt to establish a democracy quickly creates a tyrant:
"A pure democracy can admit no cure for the mischiefs of faction. A common passion or interest will be felt by a majority, and there is nothing to check the inducements to sacrifice the weaker party. Hence it is, that democracies have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have, in general, been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths."
The gentlemen who took responsibility for saving the American Revolution were fearful that democracy would end it. The unknown Americans, the Ebenezer Foxes, for years had been fighting Authority; each was determined "to do what was right in my own eyes." But they had no Latin or Greek, they knew nothing about all the previous efforts to make democracy work, and they were shouting for democracy.
On the other hand, the large landholders, bankers, rich merchants, and a thick-springing crop of rapacious grafters and land-speculators, led by Alexander Hamilton, the illegitimate adventurer from the West Indies who was also a genius, were demanding an American monarchy.
The real revolutionists, when they signed the Declaration of Independence and of individual freedom, were undertaking not only to win a war against impossible odds, but to create an entirely new kind of Government.
They faced the armed power of the British Empire, with thirteen disorganized, quarreling colonies at their backs, and two dangers threatening them: monarchy, and democracy.
They said nothing about The People. They repeated no nonsense about Science and Natural Law and the Age of Reason. They did not gush about the noble nature of Natural Man. They knew men. They were realists. They had no illusions about men, but they did know that all men are free.
They stood against both monarchy and democracy, because they knew that when men set up an imaginary Authority armed with force, they destroy all opportunity to exercise their natural freedom.
Educated men, they had studied the many attempts to establish democracy. The results were known twenty-five hundred years ago in Greece. Democracy does not work. It can not work, because every man is free. He cannot transfer his inalienable life and liberty to anyone or anything outside himself. When he tries to do this, he tries to obey an Authority that does not exist.
It makes no difference what he imagines this Authority to be — Ra or Baal or Zeus or Jupiter; Cleopatra or the Mikado; or Economic Necessity or the Will of the Masses or the Voice of The People; the stubborn fact is that there is no Authority, of any kind, that controls individuals. They control themselves.
Anyone in a free group can decide to give up his own idea and go along with the majority. If he does not want to do this, he can get out of the group. This is a use of freedom, an exercise of self-controlling responsibility.
But when a large number of individuals falsely believe that the majority is an Authority that has a right to control individuals, they must let a majority choose one man (or a few men) to act as Government. They will believe that the majority has transferred to those men the Majority-Right to control all individuals living under that Government. But Government is not a controlling Authority; Government is a use of force, it is the police, the army; it cannot control anyone, it can only hinder, restrict, or stop anyone's use of his energy.
As Madison says, some common passion or interest will sway a majority. And because a majority supports the ruler whom a majority chooses, nothing checks his use of force against the minority. So the ruler of a democracy quickly becomes a tyrant. And that is the swift and violent death of the democracy.
This always occurs, invariably. It is as certain as death and taxes. It occurred in Athens twenty-five centuries ago. It occurred in France in 1804, when an overwhelming majority elected the Emperor Napoleon. It occurred in Germany in 1932, when a majority of Germans — swayed by a common passion for food and social order — elected Hitler.
Madison stated the historic fact: in democracy there is nothing to check the inducements to sacrifice the weaker party. There is no protection for liberty. Hence it is, that democracies always destroy personal security (the Gestapo, the concentration camps) and the rights of property (what rights of property ownership are there in Europe, now?) and are as short in their lives as they are violent in their deaths.
Notes from the Introduction:
[1] Robert M. Crunden, The Mind and Art of Albert Jay Nock (Chicago, 1964), p. 179.
[2] Lane to Mises, letter dated 5 July 1947; Grove City Archive: Lane files.
[3] See the fall 1949 and fall 1950 correspondence in Grove City Archive: Lane files.
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RETURN TO "MAGISTRACY!"
By Dr. Nadeem Ul Haque
[Dr. Nadeem Ul Haque is former Vice Chancellor of Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, and is associated with IMF. This article first appeared in The Nation http://www.nation.com.pk on July 05, 2007 ]
Historically, the prime function of the civil service has been "magistracy" - the administration of the law. The primary role of the state as envisaged by many philosophers and as developed through history is to provide the framework to society for "individual personal and economic security." This involves 2 separate processes - one for making fair and responsible laws (a parliamentary legislative process) and the other a system of fair administration of laws (a bureaucracy and judicial system).
The term "individual personal security" involves judicious and efficient police and emergency systems that administer the rule of law regardless of stature and hierarchy. The term "economic security" is also very clear. It is the provision of secure property rights, secure system of contract enforcement and market facilitation. All this is to be provided with a minimal involvement of government.
The government must be like an umpire at a cricket game - to be seen and not felt, stopping the game only momentarily if required. The umpire does not get involved in the game nor is the umpire the star of the game.
While we are all aware of how the bureaucracy has been politicsed by the politicians and the dictates of repeated dictatorships. Each of the politically weak governments attempt to buy legitimacy through the delivery of economic growth. It is almost a bribe-repeated governments claim "I cannot give you freedom and liberty but I will give you some growth." For this "I will build dams, roads and railways!" and "I will educate everyone. Let me build more buildings!"
Interestingly the interests of donors coincide with these governments as donors too are in hurry to write those reports claiming "literacy has improved in my tenure" "in my 3 years here, I have done three projects on clean water" and "I financed a project for building a dam worth 20 billion." Donors are dumping money on development projects to achieve these ephemeral goals for better economic development.
Donor projects are a godsend for the civil service. It gives them access to large funds that can easily be used for personal aggrandizement. Such funds come with nice cars (Land Cruisers), plush offices, nice allowances, liberal foreign travel and access to substantial consulting funds. Consulting funds can easily be used for benefit(ing) friends and family! Why would you want to do magistracy when the benefits are all in development?
We can all clearly see that magistracy in Pakistan has seriously declined. Governments even try to justify the decline in magistracy by arguing that development has priority. They worry that good magistracy may also develop the prerequisites for good democracy.
Civil servants are not tuned into magistracy! For obvious reasons they prefer development. That is where the money is!
Meanwhile society is falling apart because of the lack of magistracy. No property rights exist! Life and liberty are in serious jeopardy. Even your rights have to be obtained through powerbrokers. If you are not networked into the powerbrokers even your life may not be safe. In such an environment, long term investment is very risky.
Unfortunately, historical experience is against this line of thinking. Growth with magistracy is ephemeral. Much evidence now exists to show that the rule of law, strong and fair magistracy, and solid institutional foundations are an important prerequisite for growth. Development projects and assistance which has not led to the development of strong foundations of growth have often only created temporary welfare. In cases where the state has really lost control of magistracy and rule of law, civil war has sometimes ensued. Examples from Africa are well known.
For the development of country and society, we must develop serious magistracy. The first step is to recognize long term development requires the development of the magisterial good - individual and economic freedom - by the government. Moreover, the foundations of society and state lie in the development of the magisterial good and magistracy. Consequently rather than relegating the magisterial good a second place after development, there is a need to give it priority.
If we accept this line of argument, then the current rhetoric of "development first" has to (be) accepted as wrong. If we accept this line of argument, the development and the magisterial functions of the civil service should be separated. There must be a bureaucracy that should be totally dedicated to magisterial work and no donor project should interfere with it. True development is the development of the magisterial good.
What about infrastructure development and social sector development? When we have the magisterial good developed, public sector can get the private sector to get increasingly involved in developing these objectives.
Without the magisterial good, the line between development projects and organized corruption seems to be very thin indeed! [Courtesy The Nation]
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Issue of the Month: Judiciary’s Moment of Redemption
IDEALS AND EXPEDIENCY
[Mohammad Sharif Hafiz, Virginia, USA]
I happened to read the very passionately articulated timely piece by Muneer Malik on ‘Ideals and expediency’ (June 27). Mr Malik expresses very inspiringly what our beloved Pakistan and its people need, the rule of law under the Constitution, more than ever at this time of the country's half a century history.
The bold struggle that has gained strength and momentum must be supported by every segment of Pakistani society — by the masses, the elite, the media, and the legal and civil intelligentia — for preserving the rule of law in the country. The legal community must be commended for spearheading this movement to light the torch of enlightenment and justice for all. But justice cannot be achieved without an independent judiciary, of which honest, bold, and learned judges are the building pillars.
The judges must be not only of high legal calibre but also possess high moral fibre; they must also be highly compensated for their service without external fear or internal need for greed. Only in such an environment is there some hope that other branches of the government structure — the executive, civil service, the military and others — can be held accountable for building a stable, civilised, social order. Judges must be protected at all levels of the judiciary from outside pressure for influencing their judicial rulings. The bars of protections and tenure for judges should be so held high that no external power should be allowed to unduly dismiss or remove them, except in rare circumstances under the Constitution, strictly as defined and judged under the rule of the law.
Only then can judges be expected to perform their duties and functions independently and justly under the law. In the long history of military rule in Pakistan, the first judge who stood up boldly not to bend under pressure is being supported everywhere in the country, which is indicative of the public hunger for justice under law. Now other judges are beginning to show courage in practising the rule of law without probable undue influence by the power-that-be. All this bodes well for the future of Pakistan as a free, independent, and lawful country.
The military has held too much power, and for too long, whatever being the perceived and proclaimed reasons. Now in the 21st century, we must strive for a politically elected civilian rule, no matter how imperfect it may be during its evolutionary growing, maturing period. The elected leaders must never be removed and be allowed to complete their elected term period. Let the people and the electorate be the judge to extend these leaders' tenure, to elect, re-elect or to replace them through the electoral process.
In extreme transgression of rules, ruling leaders can also be brought to the same independent judiciary system, even at the highest level, the prime minister or the president. Why do we need this dual leadership in government? This dual power structure is nothing more than a traditional carryover, ceremonial, overlapping, and conflicting or conflict-causing in its functions. This and other issues too can be decided through the maturing electoral process according to the wishes of the people.
The concept of freedom of choice, freedom of expression and the freedom for electing the ruling leaders of the people must be nurtured in the minds of the people. That it is the people who must exercise this power to freely elect their rulers, not rulers who may impose themselves as rulers; whoever they are, civilian or military.
It is in the best interest of the people of this country that the rule of law under the Constitution must be upheld; the struggle to win this right must be won with the support of all law-abiding people who want fair and just rule of law for all the ruled, and the rulers alike. [Dawn]
CJ VERDICT
[B A Malik, Islamabad]
The judgement of the Supreme Court on July 20 has exorcised the ghosts of decisions in the Tamizuddin Khan, Dosso, Nusrat Bhutto and Zafar Ali Shah cases among others. This historic verdict has revalidated the decision in the Asma Jilani Case. This decision has buried forever the infamous doctrine of necessity. This judgement is the victory of the rule of law over the law of the jungle. After July 20, might will never claim to be right. Justice has prevailed over injustice. This judgement has set Pakistan free from the bondage, the shackles and the clutches of usurpers.
That it took the Supreme Court so long to reach this stage of judicial maturity is something that will continue to be debated for a long time to come. This victory belongs to the apex court, the lawyer community, the people of Pakistan, democratic forces and all those who suffered and even laid down their lives in this struggle so that others may live with freedom, dignity and self-respect. Now on the era of hypocrisy is over. The era of Sharifuddin Pirzada is over. We have entered the era of Aitzaz Ahsan. It is the era of Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.
The judgement has sent a loud and clear message to the ruling generals that their era is now an episode of the past. General Musharraf needs to understand the message of July 20. The judiciary has become independent. From now on Pakistan can move on to a long delayed consensus on national issues. The democratic opposition is now free to run this country without the crutches of the mullah and the military. [The News]
JUDGES, LAWS AND PUBLIC PROTEST
[Kunwar Idris, Karachi]
Munir Malik’s article, ‘Ideals and expediency’ (June 27) shows a lawyer moving from his time-honoured role of legal arguments to sweeping generalisations. He is treading a dangerous course. One has only to hope that the passion of his rhetoric is not shared by the community of lawyers whose professional interest he is elected to represent.
I have chosen just two out of many incorrect or inappropriate assumptions made by Mr Malik in support of his thesis that in interpreting laws and invoking judicial doctrines the judges must “directly listen to the voice of the nation”. Harking back to the colonial times, Mr Malik says: the deputy commissioner ruled ‘without constraints’ (of law) — to keep the people “subservient to imperial dictates”.
Having been a DC for good eight years, I wouldn’t refute but remind him of a number of deputy commissioners who later became judges to enrich the judiciary with their knowledge of law or integrity of character or both. Let me name some of them. From the ICS came A. R. Cornelius, Shahabuddin, M. R. Kiyani, Constantine, S. A. Rehman, S. A. Haq and later from the CSP: Shafiur Rehman, Saad Saud Jan, M. A. K. Samdani, M. A. Rashid, Zafrullah, Sufi and Qureshi.
Let me add that three more deputy commissioners, my contemporaries, Salim Abbas Jilani, K. Z. Durrani and K. M. Chima also went to the judiciary but returned disillusioned and retired after scaling heights of the executive. Mr Malik’s reference to Justice Kiyani for ‘allying’ himself with the ’ruling classes’ would sadden all those who knew that saintly, bold and acerbic judge. Mr Malik, surely, is alone in holding him in that light merely because he was president of the CSP association. He was a CSP and proud of it.
I wonder if anyone in the legal community would endorse the second sweeping statement made by Mr Malik that the independence of judiciary in the colonial times was a “complete myth”. The common belief is that independent judiciary was a British inheritance which we have failed to preserve. I would leave it to lawyers or judges to contest this issue with Mr Malik. Mr Malik’s suggestion that the judges should not go against the reigning public sentiment in writing their judgments amounts to inventing another doctrine of necessity while condemning one that has successively upheld extra-constitutional interventions by the military.
The judiciary’s universally accepted role is to interpret the laws, not to make them but to ensure that the executive conforms to them and to strike down laws made by the legislature that contravene the constitution. Taking note of the public sentiment or aspirations rests with the legislature.
Finally, I would like to remind Mr Malik of what a US Supreme Court judge famously said: “We are final not because we are infallible but we are infallible only because we are final”. Our judges clearly trespassed on the jurisdiction of the executive when they recently ordered the suspension of some LDA officials on the suspicion of taking bribe or their obiter dicta in questioning the motives of the government’s privatisation priorities. [Dawn]
OF CROWD-PLEASERS
[Raja Shafaat Ullah, Islamabad]
It is often claimed by the legal community that Judges speak through judgments, but in practice it has never been so. Without casting aspersion on any one, one can quote David Dudely Field, an American Jurist, who had said; “Judges being human beings are swayed like other men by mere vehement prejudices. As such their judgments cannot be called impartial”. It is frequently professed by judges that they speak through their judgments but in actual fact, their lordships’ observations during the hearing of the case titled “Mian Shahbaz Sharif versus the President of Pakistan” negate this claim.
In this judgment, the dissenting note of Justice Sajjad Ali Shah says “at the very outset of proceedings indications were given that decision of the court would be such which would please the nation”. He further questioned that “ What would please the nation may not be strictly according to law. In my opinion, the decision of the court should be strictly in accordance to law even if it does not please the nation”.
In the case of the present Chief Justice of Pakistan, the observations made by some judges indicate a tendency ‘to please the nation.’ [The Nation]
A GOOD VERDICT
[Dr Irfan Zafar, Islamabad]
The re-instatement of the Chief Justice and the historic judgement given by the 13 member bench of the Supreme Court should be considered a first step towards the establishment of a just society in the wake of un-limited atrocities witnessed by our nation for the last 60 years. As a second step, the honourable judges of the superior courts should immediately take a fresh oath under the 1973 constitution instead of sticking to the oath taken at the time of the military takeover. Once this is done, the rest will follow enabling the establishment of rule of law as per our original 1973 constitution. [The News]
JUDGES, LAWS AND PUBLIC PROTEST
[Khalid Husain, Karachi]
This has reference to Kunwar Idris’s response (July 4) to Munir Malik’s article (June 27). Mr Idris has not said if the move to the judiciary of the 13 deputy commissioners named by him was routinely done, made on request, or as a punishment. Was the move back to the executive from the judiciary of the three deputy commissioners named by Mr Idris a routine move, or was it the result of vigorous and sustained networking by the three, with an obliging godfather lending a helping hand?
It is no great secret that the prospect of a permanent move of former CSPs to non-executive appointments, including in the judiciary, was viewed as one of more dreaded hazards of service, especially by the wives. Not so, however, if such move was to a lucrative agency or international body overseas. Executive positions in the government were virtual no go for officers from any other service, except for selected officers of the army. This was not apparently under a reciprocal arrangement. No deputy commissioner is on record of moving to the army, especially to the army’s elite force, the SSG.
Mr Idrees is right that justice under the British colonial rule was not a complete myth, perhaps even less so than under the system, or systems, the country has been ruled since partition. However, if justice conflicted with British interests, the interests took precedence, as they did over everything. Like their British forebears, the post-partition lot of Pakistani deputy commissioners also faithfully served the head that wore the crown, or the largest turban and starchiest outfit in their district.
With unbridled executive power, mixed for good measure with judicial power, the Pakistani deputy commissioners were an anachronism in a free country, where the need was for development of resources, and people, and where the DC’s prime role no longer remained to impose Section 144. The CSP was patterned after the Indian Civil Service but there must be something different in the training of the CSPs, for they seemed to have missed out on the ICS work credo, and wrapped up to the awe-inspiring demeanour of ICS officers, which they put on to inspire awe for the Raj. The natives, for the CSPs, remained natives.
If one spends time in the British library in London reading what the British deputy commissioners of their time have contributed to the knowledge of history, culture, social forces, agriculture, and a lot more, of the districts they served in, the scholarship of the writers is impressive. Apparently such written treatises on their districts were a service requirement of the ICS cadre.
All said and done, the CSP is no more even if valiant efforts by some to keep the image alive have not ceased. Let the diehards soldier on. [Dawn]
LANDMARK JUDGMENT
[Dr Atique Mufti, Islamabad]
The verdict of the Supreme Court of Pakistan on the Chief Justice's case is very encouraging for the whole nation. It is by no means an end in itself but is a means to another end which is still far away with its objectives as the supremacy of the constitution, rule of law, independence of the judiciary, freedom of press, restoration of destroyed institutions, recognition of merits in the services, eradication of corruption and elimination of poverty. It is now high time that the nation is convinced that public unity through constant and consistent struggle, hand in hand with the judiciary and press can achieve these ends as logical course of nature. A note of warning that it is only possible if these forces come up to the occasion. [The News]
HISTORIC VERDICT CHALLENGES DICTATORSHIP
[Spokesperson, Asian Human Rights Commission, Hong Kong]
In a 10-3 majority decision, the Supreme Court of Pakistan on Friday declared the suspension of the chief justice of Pakistan, Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, by the president, Gen Pervez Musharraf, to be illegal and instructed that he be reappointed. The Asian Human Rights Commission salutes the Supreme Court of Pakistan for this bold and upright assertion of the independence of the judiciary, which sets an example for the whole of Asia. Pakistan now again has a legitimate head to its judiciary. It is now his duty to carry the leadership that he has shown in these last few months back into his role as chief justice, in the intense struggle to uphold the rule of law and protect the rights of his people under extraordinarily difficult circumstances.
During the last few months the world has seen the courage of lawyers and judges in Pakistan, who have risked everything to defend the integrity of their institutions and professional credibility, in the interests of the entire public. Their stamina and determination will remain indelibly marked upon our memory. The Asian Human Rights Commission sincerely believes that the enormous trust vested in the chief justice by people throughout Pakistan, actively demonstrated by thousands of people risking and some losing their lives, will be reciprocated by the upholding of the highest traditions of the courts and legal values. They have made clear that they want their judiciary to be separate. They insist upon institutions for the rule of law and government through real, not fraudulent, legislative power.
Dictatorship has today been rejected as a viable form of government in Pakistan. But while the Supreme Court judgment must be celebrated, the task now falls on all serious-minded persons to think and act together and build upon this achievement. There remains much to be restored which has been lost under this military regime. The wisdom expressed in the streets and courts of Pakistan in the last few months, culminating in this judgment, must now give rise to a vision for a new Pakistan where democracy and the rule of law will wholly replace tyranny and injustice. Let us all work towards this goal. [Dawn]
AGENDA FOR THE CJ
[Shafiq Khan, Canada]
Some quarters say that before the Chief Justice Mr Iftikhar Chaudhry was reinstated, an understanding was reached between the Chief Justice and the military leaders that after the restoration, the Chief Justice would neither dig up past files nor attempt to bug President Musharraf's government. President Musharraf's government and the top generals knew that the Chief Justice might touch the following matters in suo moto actions or allow various applications by opposition leaders:
1. May 12 killings in Karachi.
2. President Musharraf's uniform.
3. President Musharraf's re-election by the same assemblies or the new ones.
4. Mishandling of the Chief Justice after the reference.
5. Nawaz Sharif's banishment.
6. Benazir's return to Pakistan.
7. Contempt and confronting statements by Mr Arbab Ghulam Rahim.
8. Allegations on MQM/Mr Altaf Hussain for terrorist organisation/activities and banning the party etc.
9. Formation of the interim government before elections.
10. Lal Masjid Silent Operation.
11. Strictest rules for the military junta not to interfere in the affairs of the democratic process.
12. Any other matter that could bother the top bureaucracy or military generals.
In my personal opinion, the restoration of the Chief Justice is meaningless unless a smooth running of the country with all quarters: judiciary, establishment, bureaucracy, military junta, and the common person is not taken into account by both sides. In my view, we don't have to wait for generations but in the next few weeks or months it will be clear which way the wind blows. [The News]
HISTORIC VERDICT CHALLENGES DICTATORSHIP
[Liaqat Ali, Singapore]
I am on a company assignment in Singapore and commute by public transport every day to and from office. TV monitors installed in buses were constantly broadcasting bad news coming out of Pakistan; suicide bombings, mosque sieges, attacks, killings and so forth, coupled with constant reminders that in this era of enlightenment and democracy Pakistan is still governed by a military dictator. I usually sat there hanging my head in shame pretending not to be listening, while shying away from sideway stares of certain co-passengers trying to decipher my nationality.
Yesterday I boarded the bus, back from office and was looking, as usual, for a seat away from TV. However, a couple of minutes later I was trying to be closer to the monitor as I overheard something extraordinary on the news: the Supreme Court of Pakistan gave a verdict against the military ruler and reinstated the chief justice of Pakistan. I was looking around as if to announce to people around me that yes I am indeed a Pakistani and a proud one at that. It was a rare occasion and I was almost in tears with joy.
Hats off to a bold panel of judges but more to a courageous community of lawyers whose defiant and steadfast struggle made it all possible. Our politicians, whose own self-interests and internal squabbles are helping dictatorship to continue, should learn from them.
I just hope that the decision opens the door for more good things to come and ushers Pakistan onto a truly democratic path. I cannot help however but recall another bold decision of the Supreme Court which was to restore an unlawfully sacked government in 1993 .Establishment and military could not digest that decision and things were overturned again within months with the help of political opportunists and sycophants.
One hopes that the Musharraf government should accept the current decision in grace and whole-heartedly. In fact, the honour and the nation demand that they quit, although the verdict itself does not. Let Gen Musharraf prove himself to be different, which he proclaims he is, by quitting. [Dawn]
TRIBUTE TO JUDGES
[S Zafar, Karachi]
Now that the judicial crisis in the country is over, it would be in order to acknowledge the great job some of our former judges have done in terms of creating awareness among the general public about the legal, constitutional and judicial aspects of this over four-month long crisis that shattered the nerves of the entire nation. By their sheer participation in television talk shows on various channels these gentleman educated us, informed us and enlightened us with the nitty-gritty of the reference against the Chief Justice. A big thank you on behalf of the entire nation to the retired justices Wajihuddin Ahmad, Shaiq Usmani, Nasir Aslam Zahid and last but not the least Fakhruddin G Ibrahim. [The News]
BRAVO SUPREME COURT
[S. Afrasaeem S Kazmi, Munich, Germany]
The reinstatement of the Chief Justice shows that we provide justice only when we have no choice for injustice. [Dawn]
OF UTMOST IMPORTANCE
[Kishan Bhatia, USA]
This has reference to Dr Saleem’s article “Judiciary and economy” (Daily times, July 11). I want to compliment him for a concise article stating the benefits of an independent judiciary that most sane people would agree with. Now that the Lal Masjid drama, with the unavoidable death of its cleric chief, is coming to a conclusion it is time to refocus on issues related to the independence of the judiciary, rule of law and improvement of economy for all people of Pakistan.
History is being made before the people of Pakistan, who have a chance to restore their fundamental rights and benefit from all the positive impacts of an independent judiciary identified by Dr Saleem in his article. [Daily Times]
THE INSPIRING DAWN
[Ch. Asim Hafeez, District Bar Association, Gujranwala]
With the restoration of Mr. Iftikhar Muhammad Ch. in his office, almost all the sectors in public have boosted up a strange type of encouragement is observed in the majority of individuals in Pakistan. Some people are so excited with the decision that they have established a lot of predictions from the judicature for future days. A majority of public is not looking the restoration of Chief Justice merely a restoration but end of monarchy.
The undaunted effort on the part of bars has proved on the society that a movement needs sacrifice for its success and whenever a people has true devotion and commitment to achieve its realistic goals, it must be facing a lot of hurdles and hindrances in its way and only the unconditional and spiritual contributions lead it to the way of success. Although it is an inspiring dawn for whole of the nation but the time demands a major tribute for those great entities which played very vital role in the success of lawyers’ movement. A movement starting in the leadership of a single chamber of society was highly assisted by various political and social sectors.
It is clear here that the silence of public was just due to historical phobia of military rule but now there must be a change in the public attitude and enthusiasm. Although we have restored our judicature to the start of March 2007 yet its potential has definitely observed a major change and a dynamic era of independent judiciary has been triggered up. [Dawn]
TREND-SETTING DECISION
[Zeenate Jehan, Karachi]
The trend-setting, unique and peaceful struggle by lawyers community, people is worth emulating for those struggling for rule of law, democracy in the world. The landmark ruling of Supreme Court carries an implicit message that the days of military adventureism are over. They better should perform their constitutional duties: return to barracks for national and make Pakistan free from the terrorism. The political parties now have to undo the blunders of past to consolidate the democratic course set in by Supreme Court ruling.
[Pakistan Observer]
JUDICIAL DAY
[F.H. Punthakey, Karachi]
The greatest day in the history of Pakistan was 14th August 1947. The second greatest day was 20th July 2007, an interpret CJP Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry who had refused to bow down before a President which ended in his reinstatement and began an era of supremacy of the Constitution and the rule of law.
For that the credit is also due to the lawyers' fraternity who fought with total unity and to the very end. The people of Pakistan owe a great debt to the CJP and the lawyers. This day must never be forgotten and I suggest that it should become a part of the country's history and to do that the government must take the following action;
1. 20th July must be notified as the Judicial Day and should be celebrated every year with seminars, symposiums and educative lectures in schools and colleges all over the country.
2. A plaque be affixed at the most prominent place in the Supreme Court of Pakistan to commemorate the victory of the Constitution and the rule of law.
3. If possible a design for a sculpture should be invited from leading artists and commissioned to be placed outside the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
4. On 20th July 2008 the Post Office should issue a specially designed stamp to commemorate this historical event.
People of Pakistan should not be allowed to forget this day, for I warn that if they do, they again will slip into an era of tyranny and injustice. May the blessings of Allah be upon Pakistan. [Business Recorder]
RULE OF LAW
[Muhammad Mahtab Bashir, Islamabad]
Paris Hilton was released from a California jail after serving about half of a 45-day sentence for violating probation on a driving ban. The self-made celebrity was flooded by reporters as she left Century Regional Detention Facility (CRDF) in Lynwood, Los Angeles. She was jailed on June 3 for violating her probation for driving while her licence was suspended; Hilton was released early due to good behaviour.
For many of us, this is not news. But for me, this trivial news stirs my soul and conscience to know how a person like Hilton was pushed behind bars. This is a tiny example of how social values become stronger. How a nation flourishes. It is the rule of law, where no one literally is above the law. I wonder how many people would dare to say yes if I ask them a question: if a person of Paris Hilton’s status committed the same offence in our country, can she be arrested and put behind bars? The difference is visible. [The Post]
SHOW OF GRACE?
[DR. Ashraf Chaddar, Lahore]
This is in reply to Humayun Gauhar's article "Where's the dictator?" (The Nation, July 22nd 2007). Merely accepting the verdict can hardly be termed 'showing of grace', considering the nature and level of the case. Where do the affidavits of the intelligence chiefs stand now?
Do we know with whose connivance these affidavits were presented? Grace demands that Musharraf should quit after the airy-fairy allegations on which he acted have been proven wrong. Conveying his acceptance of the judgement through a spokesman on the same day that he was telling the editors that he will be elected in uniform by the current assemblies come what may, is no show of grace. He had no option but to accept the verdict.
The common man may not know the nitty-gritty of the constitution but with the deft help of the media, he has finally realised that constitution is the guardian of the rule of law in the country which ultimately safeguards his interests. If the common man has been forced to think only about where his next meal is going to come from, it is because of the lack of rule of law and sanctity of the constitution, which safeguards the basic rights of the people.
The constitution and basic rights of people are interlinked. People who are attempting to convince the people that rule of law and basic issues of daily living have nothing to do with each other are in fact misleading them. [The Nation]
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Issue of the Month: Failures of the Monopoly
KESC WITHOUT ‘POWER’
[Anasul Haq, Karachi]
The power crisis in the city this year will be worse than the previous years — thanks to the negligence of the pre-privatised controlling authorities of KESC who couldn’t care less to embark upon progressive measures of capacity building to meet the growing demands of the city. Being a Karachiite myself who is suffering from the prolonged loadshedding or power breakdowns – can’t figure out which is which – it’s agonising to know the power predicament will persist over the next few years. But hoping for an improved situation overnight, only because the company is privatised, is wishful thinking.
An assurance by the authorities and a strict check on WAPDA/IPPs to supplement KESC with adequate power until the utility is able to stand on its own, is the only way that can ease the misery for the residents of Karachi. [The News]
KESC: RUNNING DAY-TO-DAY AFFAIRS
[Dilawar Husain, Karachi]
So far the matters of the KESC have totally disappointed the quarters concerned. Its privatisation failure is raising a lot of questions regarding the other units related to public services being offered for bids. Evaluation of KESC matters reveals that, in addition to all other constraints, the major problem seems to be the gross mismanagement of day to day matters by the O and M contractor, assumed to be a local electrical giant. Unfortunately, managing a private venture where you are sole authority answerable to none and public utility company are totally two different cases way apart.
The tragedy has been that Siemens from the day one has tried to manage the things exactly as they were habitual of doing in Siemens. There are very evident factors leading to this disaster. Siemens is earning a huge sum of money on a monthly basis on manpower supply. This situation warrants that you have to provide a man for any particular position, only then you can charge for it. You have to designate a person for this post irrespective of his capabilities, in order to invoice his services. It is because of this fact that people with irrelevant experience are occupying most vital position in the organisation. That is why we see a very young IT engineer solely responsible for operations.
Further complication because of the above fact is that the competent engineers who have been managing the things in most crucial situations are frustrated and not performing to their optimum. Troubleshooting is the one field where you have to put your personnel efforts into your normal job to get results which are not achievable by standard procedures and practices. This can only be done by a satisfied and motivated staff with strong backing from the seniors. At present there are engineers with 25 years of experience answerable to young engineers, that too from another field knowing nothing about utility practices. This is evoking dissatisfaction and feeling humiliated.
I have myself served Siemens for almost 18 years and have the honour of being the trainee father of all the topmost management of Siemens at present in command. They are very hardworking and competent people. It is a bad luck that they lost their way in the process and are not analysing the situation correctly to re-route the things properly. Having a shortfall of energy is one aspect and taking days to repair a fault is another thing. At least this should not happen. Whatever is within the means of the KESC should perform to its optimum.
The senior members of the KESC should be given due self-respect and brought in the lead role so that they are motivated enough to put their heart and soul in their efforts to keep the system going. All of them may not be that efficient but we cannot treat them alike. Without underestimating the capabilities of young engineers on the technical side, one has to keep in mind that administrative experience is vital for managing huge setups like that of the KESC. [Dawn]
POWER PROBLEMS
[Ghani Khan, Karachi]
The miseries and despair due to power outages have compelled people to come out on the streets demonstrating against the government’s apathy towards the power crisis. This is especially in the light of KESC’s privatisation where the bureaucrats want to part themselves from the non-performing utility. Thanks to the media, who have voiced our distress to the government where the prime minister himself has advised KESC and WAPDA to take immediate measures to lessening the distress of Karachiites.
The ‘conservation plan’ hence devised to cover the power shortage in the country by closing down the shops and businesses at nine pm is a job half done, because it can be practiced over a short period of time owing to the high opportunity costs. To revert the energy crisis, an extensive exercise of overhauling the entire network and the introduction of independent power producers may probably be the solution.
On the same note, it is important to understand that KESC is not the generator of power, rather a distribution hub. Having said so it becomes clear that Karachi is not just the sweat of the forehead for KESC alone, but WAPDA is equally responsible for an adequate supply of electricity to KESC. Therefore, it would not be fair to blame the utility alone, which is still growing out from the mindset of a public-owned entity.
However, it is encouraging to know that recently the foundation of a 220 MW power plant with funding from International Finance Corporation and Asian Development Bank to amend the flaws in KESC’s power distribution network has been laid. This was part of the legacy at the time of its privatisation. The additional plant and the funding, however, are not going to bring a sudden reversal to the negative situation in the city, but builds up hope for Karachiites to have an improved situation in the future.
In the hope of seeing improvements in the future, I would only urge my fellow Karachiites to avoid violent reactions, because opting for absurd actions would be suicidal for all of us that will do nothing except for creating further problems for ourselves alone. [The News]
KESC KUNDAS
[Ghani Khan, Karachi]
Apropos of the letter, ‘KESC kundas’ (June 29), I agree that there are thousands of illegal connections, or ‘kundas’, prevailing in the city, especially in the middle/lower middle strata of society. KESC officers are visiting such suspected homes to check for possible violations in the meters, but, against what the letter says, the consumers cannot be disregarded to be part of such illegal activity – since ignorance by no means is an excuse.
It is the responsibility of the resident of that house to be aware of any such discrepancy with his meter, which has been entrusted by the KESC under certain terms and conditions. However, even if assumed that the consumer is completely unaware of the flaws in the proper working condition of the meter, believing that he just moved into the house where the meter has been ‘manipulated’ prior to his moving in, there are ways to prove the innocence.
Why can’t we be realistic and take into account that perhaps those exploiting the system through ‘kunda’ are responsible for the deteriorating condition that the KESC is in – before we can lay all the responsibility on the utility itself. [Dawn]
POWER CRISIS
[Hussain Siddiqui, Islamabad]
The long hours of countrywide load shedding continues persistently, thus paralysing normal civic, commercial and industrial life in Karachi and other places, for which KESC and WAPDA are to blame. Nonetheless, there is another agency responsible for widening the present gap between the demand and supply of electricity who no one is questioning.
The Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB), since its inception in July 2003 has not been able to establish a single project, either wind or solar energy, worth mentioning, despite tall claims made by the management. Three wind farms, each of a capacity of 50 MW, were planned for installation by the AEDB, in the first phase, on a BOOT basis in Sindh on a fast-track basis that was to be connected with the national grid. After evaluation of proposals received from many international and domestic entrepreneurs, the board had awarded these projects, which were to be completed by June 2005. The projects were re-scheduled twice but there has been no physical progress on a single project and it is not known when any of the projects will see light of day, if at all. [The News]
USING WIND
[Salim Mastan, California]
Experts have shown that Pakistan has the potential of generating 350,000 MW of electrical power from wind. Energy obtained from wind power is virtually free after the initial development cost. Wind is an easily available and renewable natural resource unlike gas and oil. Most of the preliminary work for wind energy power in Pakistan is complete. Experts are currently working on the development of prototypes of equipment required for wind energy production. Ninety percent of the components required for this equipment will be locally manufactured. Once this phase is complete, wind energy experts from around the world will come to Pakistan and help the local industries come to par with international standards. These professionals have visited Pakistan and carried out extensive research on the facilities available, and are confident that with proper guidance, Pakistan can produce wind turbines for local use and export. Pakistan can boost its exports by capitalising on the worldwide shortage of wind turbines. [Daily Times]
ELECTRICITY FROM SUGAR MILLS
[Air Cdre (r) Azfar A Khan, Rawalpindi]
Reference a news item in The News of June 24, under the caption “Sugar tycoons seek high tariff for power.” At present, we are facing a shortfall of 1000 MW of electricity. This much electricity could easily be produced by our 70 sugar mills. The owners of these mills are demanding extremely high tariff rates for the production of electricity (12 cents per kilowatt) whereas India’s 500 sugar mills are charging 7 cents per kilowatt! For power generation from sugar mills, bagasse (dry pulp) is used during the sugarcane crushing season that lasts six months (November-April). For the remaining six months (of hot season), furnace oil could be used as an alternative fuel. Considering the existing energy crisis in the country, the sugar tycoons should show some magnanimity and agree to a tariff rate that should be acceptable to them and the government. [The News]
DOING OUR BIT
[Aman Shareef, Karachi]
It is clear to anyone living in Karachi that the energy crisis in this city is not a myth, but is largely caused by an obsolete transmission network and poor generation units. It seems that the general inclination of people is to lay the blame on someone else. In this case the “someone else” is KESC. However, it needs to be understood that we, as Karachiites, have a role to play as well when it comes to solving Karachi’s energy crisis. To help solve this energy crisis, the people of Karachi can be more proactive about saving energy. This doesn’t require a huge change in lifestyle, but can make a huge impact.
Doing simple things such as opening the curtains for light during the day and turning off the lights in empty rooms at night can save a great deal of energy. Also, during the intense heat of summer it would help to turn on just one air conditioner, instead of turning on five. Moderately illuminating homes is another way to use electricity efficiently. These small changes in lifestyle can actually prevent the continuous power outages we see all the time.
It is easy to blame KESC, but all the problems in the city are not caused by KESC alone. Unless we can admit that, we will never be able to solve this issue. [Daily Times]
KUNDA CONNECTIONS - CULPRITS WITHOUT CONSCIENCE
[Bin Hisaam, Karachi]
I am a resident of Daulat Square Apartment in Gulshan-i-lqbal, Block 13-B, Karachi. The apartments had a major power breakdown on the 23rd and 24th July 2007, which was duly repaired and fixed by the KESC people in the due course of time. While the entire building residents were criticising the KESC for taking so long in fixing the problem, I would like to highlight to the senior officials at KESC, police, CDGK, WAPDA and the provincial government that over 75% of the residents of this building are using kunda connections, which was the main reason for the fire outbreak in power lines.
It is evident that when these residents overload the transmission system with excessive use of split air conditioners, which are all operating on kunda and beyond the approved load, the power- lines are bound to suffer these kinds of breakdown. Like most Pakistanis, all residents are first in the row to criticise KESC but fail to realise that they are committing the heinous crime of power theft themselves with no conscience and accountability for their own actions.
The height of corruption and tampering with meters was observed when Philips held a competition in different localities to promote the use of energy-saver bulbs, where they would award the person whose monthly residential electricity bill was the lowest. Not surprising enough, one of the residents of this very building won the prize for having a Rs 600 bill only, while I myself am a witness to "how" their electric bill is so low, despite the installation of several split air conditioners.
It does not take rocket science to learn how they must have managed this while others living in the same locality are paying heavy amounts - only to pay for the electricity thefts by culprits like them. I would urge the authorities to penalise the culprits to set an example for others so that nobody takes a free ride this way. At least if they are punished, people who duly pay all the bills, stand in rows at the KESC office to get instalments done and make all necessary efforts to pay within due date, would not be called "fools" for their "honesty", like I currently am. [Business Recorder]
POWER CRISIS
[Bilal Khalid, Rawalpindi]
We Pakistanis are very proud that our country is a nuclear power. In reality this sort of nuclear power is useless. Stashing a bunch of warheads is not the sole purpose of a nuclear state. The real use is the energy production. Unfortunately our government has established only two to three nuclear plants of low capacity and they work on low efficiency. Instead of building dams to use hydro electricity the government should install a high capacity nuclear reactor to solve the power crisis on a long-term basis. [The News]
KESC’S FAILING
[Abdul Samad Khan, Karachi]
While many questions arise on how and why the KESC has fallen down to such an extent, one question comes to mind repeatedly is what was the bureaucracy in provincial/federal water and power ministries doing all these years? They were required to oversee the operation of the utility for the benefit of the people. Instead of waiting for the KESC to collapse completely, they should have intervened to put the things right. This is outright criminal negligence.
The bureaucracy did not act because they are least affected by loadshedding. Only poor masses are severely affected. In the event of loadshedding or power breakdown, the bureaucracy have generators procured at public expense to enjoy cool comfort or luxurious lifestyle. If the performance of the KESC has to improve, ban the generators of bureaucracy, asking them to face the music with the masses. In that event the bureaucracy shall be breathing on the neck of the KESC management to keep up utility service running satisfactorily. It is a fit case for superior courts to take suo motu notice of the criminal negligence of bureaucracy for failing to monitor the KESC affairs. [Pakistan Observer]
KESC - THE OTHER SIDE OF MIDNIGHT
[Yasir Khan, Karachi]
In any discussion on the performance of KESC, there is always a negative psyche in the statements of its participants. Be it a scheduled loadshedding, to curtail the power load on the network, or an unplanned power breakdown in the city, which is something beyond KESC's control; we are now accustomed to take any power outages as a failure of KESC. But has anyone wondered that the impediments faced by KESC are the legacy that the utility has inherited at the time of its privatisation? Rectification of those problems requires time and efforts on the company's part equally shared by Karachiites through saving energy and bearing the loadshedding and variation in the supply of electricity to see a brighter Karachi in the future.
Analysing the performance of other power generating utilities in the region, they maintain the quality of services through provision of uninterrupted power supply, with equally working towards CSR activities. However, KESC has not been able to reach anywhere in the close proximity of such a situation in either the pre or post-privatisation era. Two years on since its privatisation, the utility is still struggling to grow out of the mindset of a public entity.
Ideally, after privatisation KESC should have been performing better than what it was in the pre-privatised era. But has anyone thought of the reasons for the company's poor performance both financially and in terms of satisfactory services to its customers?
Since the purchase of the company, investors have found themselves in hot waters with increasing financial losses and surrounded by major infrastructural and management problems. The obsolete distribution network, lack of resources, capping on tariff increment and lack of supply of electricity from WAPDA with increasing demands annually has crunched the company and the investors.
Resorting to loadshedding as a means to reconcile demand to the available capacity seems to be the only solution with urge from consumers to contribute by saving energy. This would not revert the negative situation but will at least give a breathing time for the management to revamp the network and bring the company at par. These measures are constraint on the economic growth of the country but are the only immediate options available. The concerned groups demonstrating against the strategies and suspecting the viability of such plans have expressed their concerns.
In the midst of the power crisis in the city with upsurge of the Karachiites protesting against the utility, the foundation of the 220 MW Power Plant is a positive sign and a step towards the resolution of the loadshedding issue in the city. The initiative, thus taken, is the first power plant in 11 years with the last power-generating unit installed by KESC in 1996. However, it needs to be mentioned, and equally recognised by KESC, that the additional 220 MW will not be suffice to bring equilibrium between the demand and supply of electricity in Karachi.
One of the major dilemmas for KESC, as reported, is the poor transmission and worn out infrastructure network in the city, which has not received any major overhaul for the last few decades. One can only hope that the investments will bring new power generation in the future with an added network reliability that will deter power tripping.
The measures taken to curtail the barriers are good, once established, and will see Karachi at par with other metropolitan cities of the world in terms of uninterrupted power supply. However, the immediate issue is to put the brakes on the sloping graph of the supply and maintain it a bearable stage. To this effect, the 'conservation plan' devised by the government in collaboration with KESC is still pending to be practised. The strategy behind the plan was to regularise the consistent supply of electricity throughout the city.
However, businesses showed concern of losing trade due to the policy but what they fail to understand is that the practice once established, will have a trickle effect with customers planning their shopping accordingly. As residents of Karachi, we should welcome the plans to curb the power crisis for the greater benefit of the city - thinking wisely is the essence of time.
Concerning the long-term economic impact on the city due to power shortage, as consumers, demonstrating on the streets, calling on the authorities to improve the situation is not the only solution, but instead we need to have a heightened awareness of energy conservation and should be dutiful towards the city by economically and thoughtfully consuming electricity. [Business Recorder]
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From the National Press
GLOBAL WARMING IN PERSPECTIVE
[Asad Siddiqi, Lahore]
Bjorn Lomborg is right in bewailing the harm done by the disproportionate attention and funding directed towards climate change in diverting critical awareness from the more insistent but decidedly less glamorous concerns such as the eradication from large parts of the world of diseases like malaria, that can be achieved through channelisation of just a fraction of the finances earmarked for combating global warming. (“Live earth, deaf to reality” DT, July 4).
However, though environmental gurus have stepped up their denunciation of man’s rapacious assault on nature in quest of profit, they have been oblivious to the benefits of the controlled reduction through chemicals of pests that pose a threat to human health in Asia, Africa and South America. For example, Rachel Carson in her book Silent Spring, published in 1962, blamed the insecticide DDT for wiping out bird life. 10 years later DDT was banned in America by the EPA and its use was then severely restricted elsewhere in the world to the detriment of human life in developing countries, where the incidence of malaria, which continues to kill millions, could be greatly reduced by the judicious use of DDT.
The WHO finally reversed its position on DDT in September 2006. Yet despite the official recognition that DDT is beneficial to human beings and that the de facto ban was a fatal mistake, Carson’s Silent Spring continues to be viewed as a landmark warning about the problem of humanity’s impact upon the natural world, and has gained the status of a pioneering text of the growing environmental movement. We need a third world perspective on the IPCC debate on climate change and global warming. [Daily Times]
YELLOW JOURNALISM
[Qaiser Aijaz, Islamabad]
In1898 newspapers provided the major source of news in America. At that time, it was common practice for a newspaper to report the editor’s interpretation of the news rather than objective journalism. If the information reported was inaccurate or biased, the American public had little means for verification. With this sort of influence, the newspapers wielded much political power. In order to increase circulation, the publishers of these papers often exploited their positions by sponsoring a flamboyant and irresponsible approach to news reporting that became known as ‘yellow journalism’.
In this backdrop, it has been quite disturbing to witness and observe the role of Pakistani electronic media throughout its handling or reporting of two extremely sensitive issues: (a) Presidential reference against CJ and (b) the Lal Mosque and Jamia Hafsa, which could be termed the most famous episode of Yellow Journalism in Pakistan.
The way Pakistani electronic media projected the two issues reminds the journalist fraternity of the worst form of Yellow Journalism experienced by the US and rest of the world during the period 1895–1897, when circulation battle between Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World and William Randolph Hearst’s New York Journal originated. Both papers were accused of extremely sensational news in order to drive up circulation. Pulitzer and Hearst are often blamed for drawing the nation into the Spanish– American War with sensational stories or outright lying.
Pulitzer believed that news papers were public institutions with a duty to improve society, and he put the World in the service of social reform. Just within two years the World became the highest circulating news paper.
The use of ‘yellow journalism’ as a synonym for over the top sensationalism in the US apparently started with more serious newspapers commenting on the excesses of the ‘Yellow Kid Papers’
I would like to present a comparison between the yellow journalism experienced some 110 years ago in the United States and the dark yellow Journalism currently being witnessed in Pakistan for your true and sincere self-assessment.
Intentions and objectives of today’s Pakistani private electronic media are not different from what Pulitzer and Hearst had 110 years ago, where our electronic media has indulged itself into a war for enhanced viewership, with the result that all TV discussions, criticism, interviews, documentaries and stories are aimed at tarnishing the image of the present government, not recognising the fact that they put the country’s ideology on stake as well in the process.
The role of media, in case of the Lal Mosque, remained a question mark for the whole nation, while the position it took before, during and post-military operation left many confused, as is obvious from the following:
The government has miserably failed in establishing its writ in Islamabad
On the contrary, none of the private TV channels condemned the aggressive behaviour of Abdul Rashid Ghazi and his associates, nor they tried to mend the opinion of general public in favour of government action.
The TV channels, supportive of Islami Nizam, must keep the degree of the press and media freedom being offered in Saudi Arabia in front, where no media person is allowed to scream at the top of his voice “ Kal kaya honey ko hey” , “Naye waqiat janam layno ko hein.” To what extent the KSA shared information with its public or media concerning killings in Khana-i- Kaaba in 1979?
The media, therefore, must understand that when it comes to establishing the government’s writ it has to take an opposite action, no matter how weak the government is or no matter how big the casualty number is. Nor it is possible for any democratic government to develop a consensus on each and every issue as the media may think or desire.
In the light of the above, the media should rise above to play its due role by drawing the boundaries for a balanced coverage of issues falling under the definition of journalism; and implementing a code of conduct and ethics for all forms and types of journalism.
I remain pledged to advocacy for a balanced coverage and just role of the media. [Dawn]
MARKET REGULATES CONTENT
[Mehtab Abbasi]
Once again media in Pakistan is under pressure and new laws are being introduced to regulate the content. In the last couple of years the emergence of the Pakistani electronic media has pushed back the influence of alien cultures and introduced to the world the rich mix of Pakistani culture. It has also informed and educated the Pakistani public and did so by following the normal standards of decency. This is not to say that every channel that came on air was equally careful but the principle of the market place is that ultimately the market (the viewers) chooses the content it wishes to see.
One silent revolution has passed unnoticed and that is that even in relatively conservative parts of NWFP and across urban and rural areas of the province, Pashtu language channel AVT Khyber is watched with full attention and passion. The channel has managed to take into account sensitivities of the Pashtun culture in its programming proving the point that best regulation is self regulation and target markets determine the content. The channel, by no means conservative, has the right content for its target audience. [The Nation]
PAKISTAN'S MISCONSTRUED LIBERALS
[Shahzad Khalil, Sialkot]
A liberal society is a pluralistic environment in which people of different religions, faiths and ideologies live in peace with each other and respect each others way of life, dress code and political beliefs. It is a human right to practice any faith, and even be an atheist, as long as one does not impose one's beliefs on others through intimidation, harassment or use of force. The liberal society is expected to have tolerance for a man's basic democratic right to have dissent and voice this right without any fear of harm or state repression. If a woman wants to wear a sleeveless shirt, she has all the right to do so. Similarly a woman has the right to wear a hijab, without being bothered and branded a hijabi fundo; after all there should be no judgement both ways. Liberalism has been wrongly misconstrued to be synonymous with a flamboyant lifestyle, while being intolerant of other persons' democratic, political and cultural sensitivities. A liberal society is one, in which the rule of law prevails and everybody is accountable for transgressions of law, without any exception as to caste, creed or social stature. In Pakistan we have two extremes, both of which are as intolerant as the other, with fascist tendencies. [The News]
TAX WITCH-HUNT
[Raja M Afzal Khan, Gujar Khan]
The government has now authorised tax officials to demand the last five years earning record from taxpayers. It amounts to opening the floodgates of corruption through harassment of taxpayers who mostly do not have accounting staff to maintain earning accounts to the satisfaction of tax men. Furthermore, it is a betrayal of the trust reposed by new taxpayers in assurance of the CBR chairman voluntarily coming into the tax net would not involve harassment as per general perception. However, the prospective voluntary taxpayers have been duly warned of consequences of voluntary submission of IT returns. [The News]
DEDUCTION OF INCOME TAX
[Muzaffar Ali, Peshawar]
I want to bring the following facts to the notice of the Ministry of Finance, Govt. of Pakistan, Islamabad, and the CBR, Islamabad:-
That the State Bank has granted increase in salaries to its employees w.e.f 1-6-2007 but practically this increase has no effect on the take home salary of an employee as whole or most part of the increase has been deducted as Income Tax due to increase in tax slab. Take home salary of some of the employees has even decreased.
The Income Tax is deducted on whole salary (not on take home salary which is much less than the actual salary) at very higher rates w.e.f 1-7-2006 (CBR Circular No.3 of 2006 / Income Tax dated 11-7-2006).
The present rate of Income Tax on profit paid by banks etc. to depositors is 10% while that on salary is up to 20%. While salary is not profit but wages for services provided and an employee has to has to bear all the expenses of tuition fee of school going children, higher utilities bills from his salary and bear all the cost of food, clothes, health care etc.
The minimum threshold of Rs.150,000/- is also not exempted for employees having salaries more than Rs.150,000/-. At the present rates, average tax deducted from an employee comes out to Rs.3000/- per month i.e. Rs.36,000/- for a tax year which is more than tax paid by a politician, businessman, wholesale dealer or a landlord.
The increase in salary has no effect on the take home salary of an employee as the same goes to the Income Tax due to increase of his slab.
It is clear that for increase in salary of Rs.50,000/- per annum, the rate of tax is doubled i.e. with slight increase in the salary the slab changes resulting in higher rate of tax. So the increase in salary is actually 0% for employees and future increases including the annual increase will have no effect on employees take home salary.
It is, therefore, requested that instead of an increase in salaries, the rates of deduction of income tax may be decreased. The basic threshold of Rs.150,000/- may also be increased and the same may be exempted from the Income Tax as was the practice previously or income tax may be deducted on take home salary instead of whole salary as increase in salary means increase in tax and nothing else. [Dawn]
TAXES THRESHOLD
[Mohammad Asif, Takht Bhai]
According to Section 149 of the Income Tax Ordinance 2001, every employer paying salary of more than Rs150,000 per year to an employee shall, at the time of payment, deduct tax from the amount paid at the employee's average rate of tax computed at the rates specified in Division I of Part I of the First Schedule of the said ordinance. This implies that an individual drawing a monthly salary amounting to Rs12,501 is liable to pay tax to the government. But isn't this a trivial amount to be brought under the tax net? An average family is hardly able to finance its monthly requirements with this meagre amount, and what would be left if a chunk is deducted? The CBR is requested to increase the minimum threshold to at least Rs250,000 per year. [The News]
TEXTILE SECTOR
[Muhammad Shahzad, Lahore]
This has reference to the letter in Business Recorder on June 14, 2007 about "No limit to greed - textile sector" by Fahad Anwer, which is absolutely correct. The government has announced 3 percent reduction in the interest rate or mark up on loans to spinning mills and 15 percent rise in the wages of the mill workers, which will take time for implementation.
The 3 percent rate of interest is insufficient and government should do more to save the textile industry. We also request the government to give more incentives to textile sector. [Business Recorder]
MILITARY BUSINESS
[Hussain Siddiqui, Islamabad]
The National Logistics Corporation (NLC) an arm of the General Headquarters (GHQ) of the Pakistan Army has now plans to enter into lucrative power generation and transmission business, in a rather big way. An advertisement appeared in the daily newspapers on July 21 that called for the pre-qualification of international and national companies by the NLC to undertake various activities related to thermal power generation, transmission lines of 66 KV and above and grid station projects. The areas identified include consultancy, manufacturing and supply of power plant machinery, operation and maintenance, engineering and procurement, and contract and civil construction etc.
Established in 1978 as a logistics cell under the ministry of communications to handle emergency freight, the organisation has grown, over a period of years, to a conglomeration itself, currently with multiple business interests ranging from freight services to construction jobs and from operating dry ports and toll plazas to running a polymer plant. The NLC has expanded its operations to the Central Asian Republics, Turkey and Iran, it now also has a partnership with a number of international companies operating in different fields. Ironically, the corporation is not incorporated under the Companies Ordinance, thus not governed by the rules of the Securities and Exchange Corporation of Pakistan (SECP), and has not been placed in the tax net by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).
The NLC is entering into other new ventures too. Recently the federal government has entrusted it with the implementation of a ten-billion-rupee project for health and education, which is being funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB). Also, it has been reported that the NLC will be a major stakeholder in the Thar Coal Mining Company that has been formed recently by the federal government for exploitation of vast Thar coal deposits in Sindh, primarily for power generation. Of course, the NLC has no expertise, experience or qualification to manage a coal mining company. To overcome its deficiency therefore, the NLC intends to appoint international/national service companies specialising in coal geology and mining. Consequently, the consultants will be required to guide the NLC on all technical and management aspects related to the mining project. An advertisement to this effect was published in the newspapers of June 25.
On one hand the government is divesting its companies operating successfully in strategic areas such as oil, gas, heavy industries, and power generation etc. and on the other, it continues to allow the armed forces to build up a business empire at the cost of the exchequer. A new chapter needs to be added to the recently published book Military Inc. Inside Pakistan's Military Economy. [The News]
CLEAN WATER
[Dr Nasreen Javed, Gujjar Khan]
The government has been saying for some time that by the end of 2007 the entire population will have access to clean drinking water. With only five months left for the year to end the situation is dismal to say the least and safe drinking water is still a luxury particularly in the rural areas. By credible estimates even today 70 per cent of the population does not have access to clean drinking water. It therefore comes as no surprise that due to consumption of polluted and unhygienic water deaths occur in high numbers on a regular basis on account of hepatitis and stomach related diseases.
While unveiling the plan the prime minister had stated that through a massive infrastructure of filtration plants safe potable water will be provided up to the tensile level throughout the length and breadth of the country. The ground situation is that except for a few filtration plants in the cities and in the villages not even water pipelines have been laid. It thus seems that similar to many other plans the project of providing safe drinking water will also not see the light of day. Unfortunately as usual our rulers are in the habit of making tall claims without delivering. [The News]
CONSUMER’S RIGHTS & AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY
[Saleem Mahmood, Karachi]
This refers to Reyan Ali’s letter (June 24) regarding the recently-announced car policy. Like every patriotic citizen, I also wish for the prosperity of the country and spur in its economic activities. Mr Ali’s letter can be termed a nice description of the slogan ‘Be Pakistani and Buy Pakistani’. But similar responsibility lies on the shoulders of the local car manufacturers or other business entities. In a race to earn profits, they should also ensure the best possible product for their countrymen so as to lure them to do away with anything or product not Pakistani.
Mr Ali seems to have ignored a fact that such notions about locally-manufactured automobiles is not a mere propaganda but based on experiences of a considerable number of consumers that cannot be overlooked. In a bid to support the local automobile manufacturers, he has somehow set aside the consumer rights aspect that enjoys far greater importance in the developed countries and need special attention locally to join the same league.
I would take the liberty of quoting the former US president, John F. Kennedy, here:
“If a consumer is offered inferior products, if prices are exorbitant, if drugs are unsafe or worthless, if the consumer is unable to choose on an informed basis, then his dollar is wasted, his health and safety may be threatened, and national interest suffers.” (1962)
I as a consumer supports the government’s decision to import used cars. It just boosts competition, which forces the rivals to follow the standards and fulfil the requirement of consumers’ satisfaction. If we compare the local manufactured cars with imported used cars, everybody is aware of high quality standard of imported cars. Whenever the question of prices arises, much is trumpeted by the local car manufacturers about aftersales service etc. I myself am a victim of tall claims made by our beloved ‘local’ car manufacturers. I bought a locally-made 2005 model car of Japanese origin and not later than a month I started experiencing a left drift, which was so severe that it often made me think of driving below 60. Some of my friends also shared similar experiences while using Japanese and a Korean brand, the aftersales service remained a lip-service only.
Had the performance of our local car industry been satisfactory, people would never have thought of opting for used imported cars. Now with a five per cent withholding tax, the soaring prices will only prove to be a burden on potential buyers and I support Mr Ali in his demand to reconsider the policy.
Competition in any trade sector must benefit the consumer who is supposed to be the prime concern for every company, however it has been observed that besides the telecom industry no other sector has given any relief to the consumers. I guess the government should consider introduction of a regulatory body to safeguard the interests of the consumers and the car manufacturers as well. [Dawn]
CAR BUYERS
[Haider Ali Khan, Asia Strategy Institute, Karachi]
Car buyers in Pakistan have long been forced to buy inefficient and low quality local cars by the government in order to support the local vendor industry. Concessions have been given to local assemblers through a restrictive import regime and by turning a blind eye towards assemblers adopting monopolistic pricing strategies and through supply side manipulations. After such an easy start, it’s time the consumers and the government exert some pressure on the local assemblers to improve their standards and introduce some innovation in this market.
Immediate recommendations should be made in the following areas:
1. Hybrid cars: both Toyota and Honda manufacture and sell hybrid cars capable of over 100 miles per gallon fuel economy and very clean emissions. Toyota and Honda should be given targets to introduce hybrid cars in Pakistan within a short period of time; otherwise the government should allow imports of these vehicles at low to zero duties.
2) Safety: crash testing, airbags, seatbelts and passenger compartment safety standards should be made mandatory for all locally-manufactured cars. To date, there are no official statistics on whether local assemblers crash-test their cars before release. They may argue that these cars are tested when designed in Japan, however, since a majority of the parts are local and there are modifications on ride height etc to suit local conditions, these cars must be re-tested to ensure safety.
3) Recalls: local manufacturers must analyse their products in the field and take preventative measures if faults are found in a particular model. Liability must be shifted to the assemblers if due care is not taken at an appropriate time.
4) Inspection: money and time need to be spent on the government’s vehicle testing infrastructure and on the technical training of its inspectors. Remuneration of regulators must be above the norm to avoid corruptibility.
It's a crime that hybrid cars are not being introduced in a developing country like ours, whereas, Japanese manufacturers are putting all these focus on the US and the EU where consumers can actually afford to fuel their cars. It is our government’s responsibility to the public to exert pressure on the local car assemblers to move in the right direction. [Dawn]
MALIGNING FEUDALISM
[Moin Ansari, Parsippany, NJ, USA]
This is with reference to the letter by Dr Tanvir Hussain Bhatti on democracy and feudalism (July 2). The blame game continues. Industrialists think it is fashionable to malign feudalism in Pakistan. Tall comparisons are made with India. Traditionally Muslims of the subcontinent did not engage in business. They were either courtiers or landowners. The socialist Nehru abolished the land holdings in India not because of some lofty Marxist or Gandhian motives, but rather it was a Patel-led conspiracy to destroy the Muslims in India. Most of the land holdings were held by the Muslims.
By destroying the land holdings of the Muslims, the Islamic centres of excellence in Delhi, Lucknow, Agra and Hyderabad were brought down. With no opportunities in employment or education, the Muslims of India were pushed to the ghetto and slums of India.
If feudalism is so bad, then one needs to learn from the Mozambique horrors which stemmed from the abolition of large land holdings. The result was a sharp decline in food production, mass starvation and general chaos. Pakistani feudals for all their faults have kept a steady flow of food to our growing population and made it more or less self-sufficient in rice and wheat with huge exports in cotton. This is the backbone of our economy.
The Pakistani industrialists have failed to capitalise on an export-based economy as pioneered by Korea, Taiwan and China. The Indian industrialists simply implemented a failed policy of import substitution and did not participate in the world market for decades.
Penury in neighbouring India had a huge impact on our economy. The BJP government was thrown out because it failed to look into the problems of rural India. The Indian IT field only impacts about six million Indians. The other billion eek out a living on farms with low productivity.
Pakistan has to encourage its feudals into doubling and tripling its productivity in food and cotton. No magic formulae will make Pakistan prosperous. Huge dams should redirect wasted water of the Indus to Balochistan and it must increase its arable area by developing the vast deserts of Pakistan. [Dawn]
SAVE WATER, GROW MORE
[Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources, Islamabad]
Pakistan is an agricultural country abundant with natural resources and fertile sol. Unfortunately resources are limited and need to be proactively and systematically managed. In our country 95 per cent of water is being used in agriculture, 3 per cent in industries and 2 per cent in domestic households which shows that agriculture is the major source of water consumption in Pakistan. Maize is the third most important crop produced in Pakistan after wheat and rice. Similar rating is given to these crops across the world as well. Being a short duration and high-yielding crop, maize can enormously contribute to the over all food, fodder and edible oil needs of the country. A study was conducted in Lahore, Pakistan to explore the possibility of growing maize with water stored in the top soil profile. The yield of the maize grown only with the moisture stored in the soil profile was compared with the maize yield grown with the traditional flood irrigation practice adopted by farmers.
According to the results, the plant height, fresh and dry grain yield was even better than the traditional practices that require considerable amount of water. On the basis of this research it was concluded that with the adoption of this approach in the Indus Basin, 3.0 million acre feet of water could be saved each year that will certainly help overcome the water shortage in the country. Pakistan receives rainfall seasonally. About 6 per cent of the annual rainfall normally occurs in the 60 days of the monsoon season but unfortunately, more than 25 per cent rainwater goes to sea due to the inadequate water storage availability. Rest of the year, the irrigated agriculture faces water shortage. To meet the demand, the canal supply of water is supplemented by ground water which is mostly saline and in return causes adverse effects to the crop production. There is a direct relationship between water table depth and the ground water contribution despite its brackish nature. This leads to the conclusion that the availability of moisture stored in soil profile can also affect the crop production.
Therefore, the strategic use would be to conserve water in the soil profile when it is available in abundance. This will not only help conserve water but also increase crop production. It’s about time that all agriculturists and farmers should act prudently and as responsible citizens of Pakistan. By adopting such measures there is no reduction in crop yield at all but water is saved as an added advantage. [Pakistan Observer]
ASIAN RIGHTS BODY’S CONCERN
[Spokesperson, Asian Human Rights Commission, Hong Kong]
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has denied voting rights to 38 million people for the upcoming November 2007 elections. Most of the persons who have been denied their right to vote are women. In the previous elections, held in 2002, 71.86 million people were registered as voters. However, in contrast, the ECP has issued a list of only 56 million eligible voters for the upcoming election.
According to several civil society organizations like the Sungi Development Foundation and the Strengthening Participatory Organization, in the North Western Frontier Province (NWFP), over 59 percent of women have been denied their voting rights due to their exclusion on the list of voters. The numbers are comparable to those in the Sindh province where 3.01 million (53.5 percent) women voters are also not registered, in Punjab where 7.1 million (48 percent) women voters have been similarly disenfranchised, and in Balochistan where 1.11 million (24 percent) women voters have been denied their right to vote.
The military government is distorting the election process through the ECP to conform to the government’s own agenda. It is estimated that in the 2007 elections, at least 88 million voters should be eligible to vote based on the population growth rate of 2.7% per annum. In the 2002 elections there were 71.86 million voters, therefore how is it possible that in 2007 the numbers dwindle to a mere 56 million, obviously not reflecting the country’s population growth? The answer lies in the fact that the government wants to control the voter lists by deleting those names belonging to the constituencies of the opposing parties. Although the government has assured the international community that the ECP would be independent in all its procedures, without government interference, through this method of disenfranchising their opposition, the government has ensured that the 2007 elections cannot and will not be fair and free.
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is concerned that it is not possible to hold free and fair elections when millions of people are denied their voting rights, although the government insists that the 2007 elections will indeed, be fair and free. The AHRC urges the government to establish a joint electorate system in Pakistan, free of discrimination against any sect or minority.
The AHRC is also concerned about the issue of women’s rights. The gender gap in voter registration suggests political motive may be a factor in voting registration, through which more than 12.5 million women have been denied their right to vote.
By denying the right to vote of millions of women, the government of Pakistan is strengthening the fundamentalist forces that do not approve of women in mainstream politics. Women have also faced difficulties in attempting to go to the display centers in order to verify their names and information.
The AHRC urges the government of General Musharraf to hold free and fair elections through an independent Election Commission that has the consensus from all the political groups of the country. The electoral process should be made transparent. The elections should be based on a joint electoral system, and the protection of women and minorities should be guaranteed. [Dawn]
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Private Initiatives
FOREIGN AID
[Sami-Ul-Haq, Mardan]
No subject has occupied more time at international conclaves than foreign aid. It’s been called North-South transfers, debt forgiveness and the .7% solution. Back in 2005, Tony Blair’s G-8 summit pledged $25 billion annually in new government assistance to Africa by 2010 on top of the $25 billion a year already in the pipeline. The G-8 is nowhere near meeting that commitment. So how about turning all foreign assistance over to the private sector?
That’s already happening in the U.S., with good results, as reported in the recently released 2007 Index of Global Philanthropy.
Published by the Hudson Institute, the philanthropy index is a remarkable compendium of private help for developing nations. It reports that in 2005 Americans donated some $95 billion in cash, goods and volunteer time to the developing world. Add the $27.6 billion in U.S. official development aid, and total US giving in 2005 was nearly $123 billion.
US foundations sent $2.2 billion overseas in 2005, with nearly 55% of it going to health programs in the developing world. US corporations gave $5.1 billion, with Africa a big beneficiary of U.S. corporate philanthropy. Bristol-Myers Squibb, for instance, “worked with the government of Botswana to build Africa’s first pediatric AIDS hospital in Gaborone, collaborating with Baylor College of Medicine.” Gifts-in-kind and volunteerism are both playing a greater role in corporate giving.
Private voluntary organizations gave $13.4 billion in foreign aid that year. The Hudson index draws special attention to the importance and effectiveness of many smaller volunteer groups that depend on private generosity and engage in people-to-people problem solving in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Universities and colleges gave $4.6 billion internationally. Religious organizations sent even more — $5.4 billion. The single largest source of U.S. private giving abroad in 2005 — $61.7 billion — were remittances sent by workers in the U.S. back home to families and communities.
All this generosity counters the claim the US isn’t pulling its weight in foreign aid. When private aid is added to official assistance, US giving to developing countries comes to .98% of gross national income, putting it well above “the .7% solution” that international aid lobbyists have decided is fair.
It puts the US well ahead of France, Germany, Japan and 12 other countries in the Group
of 22.
This year the index also examines the instruments that governments claim as official “aid.” Get this: Countries now include the cancellation of Third World debt and decades of interest build-up — “often more than double the principal” — in official aid calculations. In 2005, debt and interest write-offs accounted for more than 20% of “aid” from Austria, Germany, Italy, the U.K., France, Japan and Spain. Other sources of what the index calls “phantom aid” are donor-countries spending on refugees and on students from the developing world.
The Hudson report is food for thought. Yes, the wealthy world must attempt to pull lagging nations into the expanding global economy. But an aid system that duns middle-income taxpayers for cash that is routed through Beltway contractors and into often corrupt Third World governments isn’t the only way to do this. Those middle-class taxpayers seem to know how to give effectively on their own, and they have every incentive to be more careful and efficient with their own money. The report finds that while a moderately priced US government consultant working in a developing country costs $300,000 per year, the private sector hires the same skilled professional at just over $100,000.
In a speech to a Family Foundations conference last year, former AOL Chairman Steve Case spoke of a “new entrepreneurial, collaborative kind of philanthropy” that would combine “the innovation of the business world, the passion and humanity of the non-profit world and the inclusive, networked culture of the digital world to generate transformative change.” It’s a truism now to say that everything changes, which means it’s past time to recognize that private giving can do more than the old models of government foreign aid. [Dawn]
PATRONISING EDUCATION, ART
[Dr Ikram Azam, Islamabad]
Big businesses spend millions of rupees every year on publicity and advertising, including calendars and diaries. These means and methods to promote business, have their own importance. But the best is to create goodwill by expressing one’s own sophisticated taste and sound learning. One way is to patronise and promote education, by buying and gifting books in bulk to youth, educational institutions and libraries, to revive the reading habit, which is essential for spreading knowledge and awareness. This also applies to arts and handicrafts. [Pakistan Observer]
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Good News
CONSUMER COURT DIRECTS HAIER TO PAY CLAIM
District Consumer Court Judge Lahore while issuing a decree against a home appliances company, Haier International to pay a claim of Rs 52,000 to a customer Rana Rashid Mehmood who had purchased an air conditioner from the company.
The court issued these orders on the complaint of Rana Rashid Mehmood who sued under Punjab Consumer Protection Act, 2005 against the Haier International. The complainant submitted that he had purchased a Haier split AC, which was installed in his house by the company authorised installer. He said the AC unit was defective from the beginning, as motor of the compressor was replaced.
It was submitted that the AC unit was not giving proper service despite the fact that the petitioner had, from his hard earned money, purchased the same. The respondent refused to replace the split unit or refund its price.
The complainant prayed to the court to accept his claim and he be awarded damages/compensation for mental torture, stress and agony amounting to Rs 500,000. The court while issuing the decree in favour of the petitioner directed the company to refund the amount of Rs 25,500, the price of the AC, Rs 1000 installation charges, the lawyers' fee amounting to Rs 5500 and Rs 20,000 as cost. [Business Recorder]
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Humor Wise
THE FOUR CATS
Four men were bragging about how smart their cats were. The first man was an Engineer, the second man was an Accountant, the third man was a Chemist and the fourth man was a Government Employee.
To show off, the Engineer called his cat, "T-square, do your stuff." T-square pranced over to the desk, took out some paper and pen and promptly drew a circle, a square, and a triangle. Everyone agreed that was pretty smart.
But the Accountant said his cat could do better. He called his cat and said, "Spreadsheet, do your stuff." Spreadsheet went out to the kitchen and returned with a dozen cookies. He divided them into 4 equal piles of 3 cookies .........Everyone agreed that was good.
But the Chemist said his cat could do better. He called his cat and said, "Measure, do your stuff." Measure got up, walked to the fridge, took out a quart of milk, got a 10 ounce glass from the cupboard and poured exactly 8 ounces without spilling a drop into the glass.
Everyone agreed that was pretty good. Then the three men turned to the Government Employee and said, "What can your cat do?" The Government Employee called his cat and said, "Coffee Break.....do your stuff." Coffee Break jumped to his feet . . . ate the cookies . . . drank the milk . . . shit on the paper . . . screwed the other three cats . . . claimed he injured his back while doing so . . . filed a grievance report for unsafe working conditions . . . put in for Workers Compensation...............and went home for the rest of the day on sick leave............!
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Free Pakistan Highlights
NEW BOOK: FIGHTING THE DISEASES OF POVERTY
Lahore: May 01, 2007
Many health policies promoted by intergovernmental bodies and governments in less-developed countries are counterproductive and lead to unnecessary suffering, according to a new book, “Fighting the Diseases of Poverty” launched here by Alternate Solutions Institute, a partner organization of Campaign for Fighting Diseases. In it, global experts challenge conventional wisdom about the diseases of poverty and set out pragmatic approaches to fighting disease.
The book's editor, Philip Stevens, says:
"Too often governments and international health bureaucracies promote grandiose and politically-motivated schemes that prove unworkable and lead to increased suffering and death. This is what happened with malaria and HIV/AIDS. Meanwhile, millions of children die every year from simple things like diarrhoea or chest infections. Governments need to prioritize their work better and get back to basics if there is any hope of meeting the Millennium Development Goals."
For a copy of the book, please contact the Institute at info@asinstitute.org
To download the full text pdf (1,613 kb), click here:
http://www.fightingdiseases.org/images/pictures/Full_FightDisofPov.pdf
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IDEAS FOR A FREE AND RESPONSIBLE SOCIETY
Ideas have consequences. They influence the political, economic and social systems that govern our actions and thereby affect the way we live our lives. Ideas have inspired many of the political and economic arrangements that have existed at different times in different places.
Some of these arrangements have promoted creativity, innovation, peace and prosperity, leading to improvements in quality of life and enabling people to fulfill their myriad needs and goals. Other political and economic arrangements have undermined creativity, inhibited innovation and lead to civil unrest, oppression, starvation, poverty and misery.
For most of history, in most places the latter type of arrangements prevailed and as a consequence the large part of humanity was poor, oppressed and miserable. Beginning around 1500, the political and economic arrangements in some Western European countries began to shift - and improvements in living standards began to be felt throughout those societies.
Over the course of the past two hundred years, the number of countries with such beneficial political and economic arrangements has gradually increased. As a result, this period has seen rapid improvements in technology and economic conditions. Meanwhile, the number of people living in abject poverty has been declining in absolute terms for fifty years in spite of a dramatic rise in the world population. Nevertheless, over a billion people continue to live in miserable circumstances.
“Ideas for a Free and responsible Society” is a collection of writings published on a CD. The CD contains a selection of contributions by some of the most important scholars and thinkers, both historical and contemporary, which explain the general intellectual concepts, some of the challenges, and some applications to public policy issues. This CD is designed for those who are interested in what these beneficial economic and political arrangements are that lead to economic growth and have the capacity to eliminate poverty. It does not pretend to provide a definitive answer but rather to point people in the right direction. The title of the CD, "Ideas for a Free and Responsible Society," was inspired by the observation that the political and economic arrangements that seem to be most conducive to peace and prosperity are those that exist in free and responsible societies.
In such societies, there exist certain institutions that guarantee political, economic and social freedom, and those institutions are in turn underpinned by ideas. Such ideas have been explored by individuals from many different perspectives, starting with ancient Chinese, Roman and Greek philosophers and continuing to the present day. The reader will find that a rich intellectual debate about the nature of these ideas exists even among the authors of texts on this CD.
The contents are not intended to be a comprehensive review of the literature of the subject, which is enormous. Instead, the CD contains a selection of contributions by some of the primary scholars and thinkers who have developed ideas which relate to a free and responsible society. Their contributions explain some of the general intellectual concepts and challenges, and the application of these ideas to public policy. It is hoped that the selections included on the CD will inspire readers to consider the advantages of a free and responsible society, to further investigate the wide array of literature on these topics, and even to put these ideas into practice.
If you live in Pakistan and want to own the CD: Ideas for a Free and Responsible Society, please download and fill out the following pro forma, and send it to the following address via mail only. This pro forma will enable us i) to remain in contact with you and ii) to have feedback as to the influence this CD would be having on your ideas and thinking.
Download the pro forma: http://ipn.lexi.net/images/uploaded/7-45a8aaa87c958--CDOrderForm.pdf
Released and distributed in Pakistan by
Alternate Solutions Institute
Email: info@asinstitute.org
Address: P. O. Box No: 933, GPO,
Lahore-54000 Pakistan
THE INSTITUTION OF ASLAM EFFENDI MEMORIAL LECTURE
To promote the mission and work of Late Aslam Effendi (1924-2006) a great free marketeer from Pakistan, Alternate Solutions Institute has instituted Aslam Effendi Memorial Lecture. The First Aslam Effendi Memorial Lecture will be held in February 2007.
To read about Aslam Effendi, please check the following links:
http://asinstitute.org/www.free-market.net/rd/page.php?instructions=page...
http://www.free-market.net/news/effendi-obit.html
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FreePakistan/message/7
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SPECIAL PAKISTAN EDITION
OF THE ECONOMIC FREEDOM OF THE WORLD 2005 ANNUAL REPORT
For quite some time Pakistani government is pursuing diligently a policy of privatization and de-regulation but keeping its hold intact by over-regulating and over-taxing, and not only is the size of government increasing but its spending also! This amounts to less and less space for economic freedom and free economic activity for the people of Pakistan.
All of the Reports (such as UN Human Development Report), Indices (such as The Index of Economic Freedom, prepared by Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal), etc. published world-wide that measure the stages of economic development or economic freedom reflect figures that do not augur well for Pakistan.
One such report based on reliable data and considered very authoritative is annually published by the Fraser Institute, Canada. To introduce and promote the concept of Economic Freedom in Pakistan, Alternate Solutions Institute, Lahore, in collaboration with Friedrich Naumann Foundation, Pakistan, has published a Special Pakistan Edition of the Economic Freedom of the World 2005 Annual Report. This is second in the series first being the Special Pakistan Edition of the Economic Freedom of the World 2004 Annual Report (available at http://ipn.lexi.net/images/uploaded/7-4257db45139a4--efw-2004-pakistan.pdf) that was published and launched last year in July
The Special Pakistan Edition of the Economic Freedom of the World 2005 Annual Report was launched on March 29, 2006, in Islamabad. For a copy of the Report, contact khalil@asinstitute.org or click the following link: http://ipn.lexi.net/images/uploaded/7-458044e235be9--EFR2005-Part1.pdf
For more information and feedback, info@asinstitute.org
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CIVIL SOCIETY REPORT ON INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, INNOVATION AND HEALTH
This report from a global coalition of 16 civil society groups, including the Alternate Solutions Institute Pakistan http://asinstitute.org analyses the relationship between intellectual property, innovation and health. It was released ahead of the report of the WHO's Commission on Intellectual Property, Innovation and Public Health. Experience shows that such UN reports are typically biased by political considerations and subject to heavy influence by vocal interest groups. As representatives of civil society, the 16 civil society groups have produced their own report on the same issue. Their aim was to produce a report untainted by political influence and based on sound economic analysis of the situation. It was motivated in part by a concern that the WHO's Commission on Intellectual Property, Innovation and Health, would not address the fundamental issues because of concerns about the response of member governments. The report has been written by a group of independent experts from think-tanks and health organizations around the world and reviewed by senior academic economists and health experts.
The coalition's research finds that 50 per cent of people in parts of Africa and Asia have no access to medicines due to a range of harmful government policies including: weak health infrastructure; taxes and tariffs on medicines; price controls; bureaucratic drug registration requirements; and regulations that prevent the formation of health insurance markets.
For a copy of the Report, contact khalil@asinstitute.org
To read the report online, click http://www.policynetwork.net/uploaded/pdf/Civil_Society_text_web.pdf
To read the Executive Summary online, click http://www.policynetwork.net/uploaded/pdf/Executive_summary_web.pdf
For more information, please contact info@asinstitute.org
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TRADE AND SECURITY: A VIEW FROM PAKISTAN
Alternate Solutions Institute, Lahore, participated in a project of the Atlas Economic Research Foundation , and contributed the following report that can be accessed by clicking the following link:
"Trade and Security: A View from Pakistan" by Khalil Ahmad
http://www.townsquareforum.net/archive/esid0034_pakistan.htm
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STATEMENT CALLING FOR SOLUTIONS TO END THE WAREHOUSING OF REFUGEES
Alternate Solutions Institute has endorsed the Statement Calling for Solutions to End the Warehousing of Refugees. For details, please visit <
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PDF VERSION OF THE SPECIAL PAKISTAN EDITION OF EFW 2004 ANNUAL REPORT
The PDF Version of the Introduction to the Special Pakistan Edition of the Economic Freedom of the World 2004 Annual Report is now available online.
To download, click one of the following links:
http://asinstitute.org
http://asinstitute.org/page.php?instructions=page&page_id=505&nav_id=93
http://ipn.lexi.net/images/uploaded/7-4257db45139a4--efw-2004-pakistan.pdf
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TAX EVASION AND MONEY LAUNDERING IN PAKISTAN: AN OVERVIEW
Alternate Solutions Institute, Lahore, participated in a project of the Atlas Economic Research Foundation , it contributed the following report that can be accessed by clicking the following links:
"Tax-Evasion And Money-Laundering In Pakistan: An Overview" by Khalil Ahmad
http://www.atlasusa.org/reports/esid_Pakistan2004.doc
http://www.townsquareforum.net/archive/esid0012_Pakistan2004.doc
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ALTERNATE SOLUTIONS INSTITUTE’S FIRST BOOK OF TRANSLATION
Alternate Solutions Institute, Lahore, Pakistan, has published its first book of translation, Ken Schoolland's "The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible: A Free Market Odyssey," in Urdu which is understood not only in Pakistan but throughout South Asia. Ken's modern fable has so far been published in 29 languages of the world Urdu being the 30th. This book explains the principles of market economy in a simple manner and helps promote the concepts of open market and property rights. The book has been translated into Urdu by Khalil Ahmad. A. S. Institute is indebted to Irshad Ameen for his tireless efforts in getting the book out of the press.
It is hoped that the book will give a new direction to the discussion of welfare state in Pakistan.
If you want to purchase the book, contact at info@asinstitute.org ; khalil@asinstitute.org
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HOW TO END ALL WARS FOREVER
Aslam Effendi, an old and unsung Libertarian of Pakistan, has written three books on free market philosophy: HOW TO END ALL WARS FOREVER, HARD FACTS OF HISTORY, and, ECONOMICS FOR THE CONFUSED. When no publisher agreed to invest in the project, he spent out of his own pocket to get HOW TO END ALL WARS FOREVER printed. But, for want of a distributor, this book which has been praised as a classic remained dumped and could not find its way to the market. For details, read ‘Aslam Effendi: A Free Marketeer in Pakistan’ <
or visit http://asinstitute.org/articles.php. Alternate Solutions Institute, Lahore, Pakistan, has purchased all the copies of the book from Aslam Effendi to make it available to the right persons and to compensate the author as well.
If you want to purchase the book, contact at info@asinstitute.org ; khalil@asinstitute.org
A. S. Institute intends to publish all of his books; if you are interested in this project, please contact at the above-given email addresses.
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HARD FACTS OF HISTORY
The Foreword of this second book of Aslam Effendi was written by Henry Hazlitt in 1992. Since then this book remained unpublished, but now Alternate Solutions Institute has taken up the task of publishing this book in a befitting manner. The book will be out most probably in July 2005.
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Edited and prepared by
Khalil Ahmad
Email: khalilkf@yahoo.com khalil@asinstitute.org
[FreePakistan Newsletter, among other things, is a compilation of views and news taken from the national newspapers’ print and online editions. It is not possible to mention the source of every piece of news or view made use of herein; but as a matter of policy, where possible the source is mentioned with due thanks. However, no opinion expressed here should necessarily be taken as reflecting the view of Free Pakistan Newsletter.]
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Disclaimer:
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