The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants, and it provides the further advantage of giving the servants of tyranny a good conscience.
-Albert Camus (1913-1960)
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CONTENTS:
0 Supporting Third-World Poverty
By Nizam Ahmad
0 Reviews of the Urdu Translation of
‘The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible: A Free Market Odyssey’
0 A Letter to FreePakistan: Trade Routing Asian American Development Enterprises
0 Letters from the Press
0 FreePakistan News Briefs
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Take the Quiz now and find out where you fit on the political map!
http://www.theadvocates.org/quiz.html
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ALTERNATE SOLUTIONS INSTITUTE PUBLISHES ITS 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.
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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 purchase all the copies of the book from Aslam Effendi to make it available to the right persons and to compensate the author as well.
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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SUPPORTING THIRD-WORLD POVERTY
By Nizam Ahmad
[This article first appeared in Foundation for Economic Education http://www.fee.org (July 9, 2004) and is reproduced here with due permission from the author. Nizam Ahmad founded MOER (Making Our Economy Right), a Bangladeshi free-market organization, in 1991 and is now a research fellow with the UK’s International Policy Network. In this article, in place of Bangladesh, we can read Pakistan, because whether it’s Pakistan or Bangladesh, it’s not much different!]
Bangladeshi youths are today found all over the world—from Taiwan to Venezuela, from Europe to the Americas and Africa. They are not there to enjoy adventure or tourism, but to look for work. Without higher education or skills, these young people have overcome language barriers, cultural differences, and immigration rules to find jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities in foreign lands.
This exodus tells only one thing: there is no work or private enterprise in Bangladesh, despite the abundance of potential opportunities. Like all countries, Bangladesh stands to gain from free trade. However, free trade will create competition, which in turn will shut down government-protected and -favored industries, which usually produce low-quality but high-priced goods in insufficient quantity. Furthermore, these protected entities do not provide good wages and employment terms. But because free trade will harm domestic industrialists who pretend to uphold the national economic interest, the government and the intelligentsia will not consider removing trade barriers.
The Bangladesh government’s development expenditures, the capital outlay of the protected industries, the nongovernmental organizations’ (NGO) foreign money, and the World Bank’s dollars have created neither suitable, well-paying jobs nor space for entrepreneurship, and they never will do so. The problem is not corruption or lack of good intentions, poor education of our workforce, or high interest rates. It is the mistaken notion that a sovereign government, with its power to create and print money, can make a country wealthy by astute policies designed by the state officials and technocrats from the World Bank (WB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF). The IMF and WB advise our government routinely and produce loads of studies, but has Bangladesh made the economic progress necessary to satisfy people’s basic needs?
Socialists once believed that planned development and distribution would erase poverty. They did not. We are done with those collectivist intellectuals, although socialism has resurfaced in ideological environmentalism through opposition to industrialization, free trade, and genetically modified seeds that feed growing populations. The leftwing environmentalists are deeply worried that the planet would not be able to sustain overpopulation with depleted resources, environmental damage, and climate change.
In Bangladesh, through resourceful NGOs, such ideas are widespread. We often hear intellectuals and development experts opposing genetically modified food under their “precautionary principle” or opposing oil exports, presumably for a fear of pollution.
Genetically modified seeds could be used in the mongia regions of Rangpur to stave off famines, but our hands are tied. These seeds grow in adverse and dry conditions, as in Rangpur, but we cannot disappoint the NGO wallahs or their international donors by using the seeds to meet hunger. Nor can DDT be used to eradicate mosquitoes and save lives from encephalitis, malaria, and dengue.
This international assortment of mathematical and macro economists, Malthusian doomsday environmentalists, nervous climatologists, UN officials, and consultants to governments would not tolerate free markets or reduced economic interventions by the government. To them, more freedom would mean a rapid acceleration of the economy and industrialization, or simply more motor cars on the road that may add to global warming.
These unfounded fears by environmentalists, who wish to decide how the Third World should be run, add to the tremendous pressure on the Bangladeshi government to remain the sole leader and arbiter of the economy. The government is surrounded and influenced by pressure groups to enact policies that are obliquely anti-free trade, anti-globalization, anti-“sweatshop,” anti-genetically modified crops, and so on.
In his book Eco-Imperialism: Green Power, Black Death, Paul Driessen writes, “The environmentalists certainly began with legitimate grievances about serious threats to the natural world. But over the years, the movement’s more radical elements have become more dominant, more intolerant in their views, more insatiable in their demands, and more disingenuous in their claims about hypothetical risks from chemicals, pesticides, fossil fuels, biotechnology and other manifestations of modern society.”
At first, the developed world exploited natural resources and polluted its environment. Economic freedom then helped achieve economic abundance. With wealth thus created, people developed technology to manage and treat pollution. Technology can sustain the earth—unlike restrictive policies that kill people prematurely or starve them.
Having improved its living standards, the West does not want us in the Third World to use enterprise and technology to improve ours—lest we pollute and burden Mother Nature. In their eco-vision, we must be in “perfect balance with Nature, as epitomized by primitive Amazonians” (Driessen).
Bangladesh’s economy is also largely under the influence of development economists who are anti-enterprise. They too see a lead role for government in lifting the economy. They loathe individual freedom and entrepreneurship unless it is agreeable with their authority—but it never is. They subscribe to the idea of lowering or eliminating tariff walls and other barriers—but only if others do. This kind of trade position holds back enterprise and criminalizes trade, resulting in a massive black-market.
Our economy fails to grow. A poor economy burns less fossil fuel, and there is no capital inflow to exploit natural resources. This pleases the ideological environmentalists. But what does it do for the world’s poor?
SOME GET RICH
The policies endorsed by our intelligentsia have made a small number of people rich and few black-market entrepreneurs even richer. These spectacularly rich are proprietors of Bangladesh’s main businesses. They fund politicians and organizations. Many NGOs are also on the fortunate list of Bangladesh’s rich, sponsoring the elite thinkers and academics.
Bangladesh’s fortune for the modest few has indeed changed, but the country remains largely impoverished. However, to deal with the overall poor conditions, donor funds are always available, and the dignitaries always promise to eradicate poverty, generate electricity, and achieve mass literacy and good governance.
Instead, throughout Bangladesh small traders are harassed and their goods are seized. The poor traders are condemned as evil hoarders when market prices increase, even though economics teaches us that when demand surpasses supply, prices tend to rise. In reality, the supply channels are clogged by regulations, restrictions, faulty policies, and lack of property rights—not by the evil designs of traders.
Since socialism fails, as we have seen, and if government intervention fails too, as we are now seeing, what is left for us who wish to change our fate? Can the politicians answer? They will continue to promise the moon to woo voters instead of rethinking their economics. And prominent thinkers, hyped by the media, will persist in promising vigorous growth—in eye-catching graphs only.
But there is an answer: The private sector must be freed of all government control and subject only to the basic laws of the country. These laws must reflect personal freedom, property rights, and limited government. Let the people freely choose their service providers and allow job seekers to choose their employers.
However, such a scenario would be a major setback for the NGOs. They will wrestle to save Mother Earth by arguing that market freedom is dangerous and must be regulated and controlled. Political dictators, authorities, and colonial settlers have always believed freedom is dangerous, and we now see the economic authorities deny freedom for the same unfounded reason. Poverty in Bangladesh persists because of the wrong ideology. The government alone is not to be blamed. It is the prevailing intellectual climate.
Until this climate is corrected our young people will continue to flock overseas in search of work.
REVIEWS OF THE URDU TRANSLATION OF ‘THE ADVENTURES OF JONATHAN GULLIBLE:
A FREE MARKET ODYSSEY’
[One of the two top national English dailies, The News International ran a review of the Urdu translation of “The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible: A Free Market Odyssey” in its Sunday Edition on August 8, 2004.]
A NOVEL METHOD TO TEACH ECONOMICS
Awami Flahi Riasat ki Kahani
Becharay Jonathan ki Zubani
A novel by Ken Schoolland
Translated into Urdu by Dr Khalil Ahmad
Published by Alternate Solutions Institute, Lahore
Pages 162
Price: Rs 100
By Kazy Javed
The novel with the longest title has hit the stands in our part of the world. Titled Awami Flahi Riaasat ki Kahani... it is the Urdu translation of Ken Schoolland's famous book The Adventures of Jonathan Gulible: A Free Market Odyssey that was first published in the United States in 1989. The book has won many awards including a Read Book Award from the Foundation for Economic Education, and has been translated into over 35 languages, extending its reach through Europe, Africa, the Middle East, the Pacific and Asia.
The novel has been written with the specific aim of highlighting the 'positive aspects' of societies based on free market economy. It emphasises individual freedom which, it claims, cannot be achieved and protected without economic, political, intellectual and religious freedom. The hero of the novel is a simple village fellow who, one fine morning, finds himself on an island where a welfare society has been established. Therein, he comes across many people and encounters many situations and learns that free market economy would have made those people free, happy and successful.
Ken Schoolland, the author of the novel under review, presently teaches economics and political science at Hawaii Pacific University. Earlier, he was associated with the Chaminade University of Honolulu. Following his graduate studies at Georgetown University, he worked with International Trade Commission. He also taught at Hakodate University in Japan and wrote Shogun's Ghost: The Dark Side of Japanese Education.
Ken Schoolland says his novel -- The Adventures of Jonathan Gulible -- has flowered out of a radio programme. Back in the 1980s, he was asked to do some radio commentaries on a weekly basis, which were 90 second radio spots, so he had to be very concise. He says: "I did research and tried to relate it to local, national and international issues. But no one responded to the straight commentaries. So then I thought, gee, I had just read Gulliver's Travels (by Jonathan Swift, 1667-1745) and the Little Prince (by Antoine de Saint Exupery, 1900-1944) and I thought, 'Why does my stuff have to be dry and boring? Why couldn't it be kind of fun?' So I started writing in that style, and the station had no objection to it. My girlfriend at the time did the dialogue with me, and instantly the response picked up. People liked it. It was fun. they could apply it to the local issues. Just the way satire has always worked. I didn't have to bat them over the head with it."
I do hope that the Urdu translation of Schoolland's novel is liked by people. It is fun. But I am afraid that most of the readers of the Urdu translation will not be able to 'apply it' to local, national or international issues. The message of the novel will remain beyond their reach. It will be read simply as a novel, a piece of fiction.
A number of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in many countries are using this novel for promoting free market ideas. The Urdu translation has been arranged and publish by one such NGO, Alternate Solutions Institute of Lahore. It is a not-for-profit organisation that seeks solutions for challenges especially in the area of economy, law, education and health in accordance with, what it calls, the principles of classical liberalism. After the solutions are found, the organisation works for their implementation.
As a well-wisher of the Institute, one hopes that it selects better books for promoting the principles of 'classical liberalism' in future. [Courtesy The News]
A LEFTY MAGAZINE REVIEWS THE BOOK
[A monthly Urdu magazine of the Left, Naya Zamana (New Age) published a short review of the translation in June 2004.]
THE STORY OF A PEOPLES REPUBLIC
This book has been written by Ken Schoolland, and Dr. Khalil Ahmad has translated it into Urdu. In its Introduction, Dr. Khalil Ahmad explains that what kind of a state a collective or a welfare state is; what type of system of government it establishes; how does it work; what are the consequences of such a state. This book “The Story of a Peoples Welfare Republic as narrated by Jonathan Gullible” presents before us the picture of such a state. We can see the like of such a state in our society too. In this novel, with a reference to Socialism, the disadvantages of the system of a Peoples Welfare republic have been highlighted. Establishing a society on the basis of Socialism or free market economy is a serious debate with which Dr. Khalil Ahmad is probably not familiar. He has counted the disadvantages of a Socialist society; but Mr. Khalil has overlooked the disadvantages of a free market economy which whole of the world and especially the Third World countries are facing. He admits that in a welfare state, power comes to be concentrated in a few hands and which is misused, but in a free market economy, too, with the help of money certain institutions come into being which starts exploiting. The translator is silent on this aspect. The way Khalil Ahmad has criticized a welfare state suggest that the translator is but confused and his arguments are devoid of any logic. [Translated from Urdu into English by Khalil Ahmad.]
‘LIBERAL PAKISTAN’ REVIEWS THE BOOK
Perhaps the only magazine sympathetic to free market ideas, ‘Liberal Pakistan’ published by Liberal Forum Pakistan http://www.liberalpakistan.org under New Books introduced the book in its issue of April 2004.
Letters to FreePakistan
FROM: Brock d'Avignon
ISIL (International Society for Individual Liberty http://www.isil.org ) founding member 1985-, SIL (Society for Individual Liberty) member 1973-
ddavignon@dschs.org
I like what I saw on FreedomNet. I am a high school teacher who has for years run an interdisciplinary project with my students in economics, physical science, industrial & technological education, and computer aided design. I call it T.R.A.A.D.E. for Trade Routing Asian American Development Enterprises. The basic idea is to create three north-south trade routes. Freedom Road would run along the old 30-ton capable "Soviet friendship" road on the border of Iran from Gwadur Harbor due north with oil/water/gas pipelines, rail, highways, and lead into the two largest oilfields of Kazakhstan. Peace Road would cross northwest into Iran and run north through Georgia. Prosperity Road would run northeast through the Khyber Pass and onto Siberia. All could connect onto the east west transit structure built during the 20th century. The lack of north-south infrastructure is an opportunity to create free-market commons and tool-provider stockholder type companies. Reason Foundation's original set of magazines in which I read of the Pathan people also emphasized ways to privatize or coopt governments by actually solving the problem as an entrepreneur or entrepreneusse sees it. A dozen classes of students have studied water, coal, electricity trades using the BISNIS data leads on world free trade. ARCO, now BP thought the idea was great when one of my students found a US State Department diagram of a Georgia Oil Pipeline that is no where near Georgia but is essential a straightline along Freedom Road and hundreds of miles shorter than the westward oil routes now. I am well aware of the 3-million Pathans that have strategically placed themselves in Baluchistan anticipating a Russian trade drive to the south without Antonov helicopters this time. Yes, I imagine these roads will have a toll built into them that would be the equivalent of reparations from northbound traffic, and that that could be worked out. The pathan people are not really interested in a government after 4,000 years with or without the Islamic overlay on such a great culture of a functional anarchy. I know an honest world-class merchant banker who is respected by the Russians precisely because he was such an effective enemy of theirs. He was the first one to handle and transport collateral for major bank loans them after their revolt. He likes the TRAADE route concept and has helped my students evolve some of their ideas. His name is Stephen Cervantes stephencervantes@att.net Tell him I referred you.
I know of only one Pakistani leader who respects Pathanistan who does not call it "the Northwest Frontier", oddly, that is Benazir Bhutto. I met her when she was 17 and sold my Toyota to her with her brothers as refugees running an ARCO am/pm gas station. They admired my admiration of a part of their country and I thought that American justice could learn much from the Pathans. We then discussed the creation of a "Republican International" to create an alliance of free world nations to solve problems without taxation and seeking permission to use property. She is in Qatar these days raising her children. I would expect that she could be a great service to Pakistan if she could be convinced that governing people is a bad idea. It shouldn't take much to convince her that Alternate Solutions hold great promise for world leadership, Pakistan being the host to trying new ideas. You may think either ill or well of her, but she certainly tried a non-military path. Ask her. Ask her to be true to the beliefs of a 17-year old girl that dictators should be given a hard time by free peoples. When she got up in front of Harvard's graduation ceremony, raised her fist and declared, "Democracies of the world unite!" I conclude she can't be all bad. Her family paid a price for silly avarice, and yet I always thought she would make a great world leader. I think you could make her rise to such a goal; she is much too good to just be a politician.
Years ago, I was a penpal of Aslam Effendi who interested me in the legal codes without laws cultures of the tribes of Pathanistan. Just yesterday, I offered some of his wisdom on crimes against individuals and not against the state, and suggested to Condi Rice, National Security Advisor to President Bush, that she suggest to victims of the attacks on the World Trade Centers to put into a Pathan court a set of reasons to ask the tribes military council to find him to bring him to trial. See whitehouse.gov "Ask the White House" 28 June 04 or see a transcript later for her possible answer. I understand Asim Effendi is the ISIL rep for Pakistan, is his father still around? I would like to thank him for his influence on my thought over my early years as a libertarian. If you know, clue me in as to his address.
I am also a satellite television producer who has worked with US presidential candidates before I got into teaching. These days I deal in creating marketplaces and exchangeplaces for Human Investments. See myrichuncle.com for one example of a Pakistnai and Indian fellow in America doing something similar for college tuition investment. I call it Percentage As You Earn (PAYE) Finance and is good for offering Higher Education Underwriting Contracts (EDUC)s in a Career Futures Exchange (CAFEX). PAYE "Finansurance" can be used to provide universal comprehensive health/medical care in the free market. Try crop finansurance and a few other uses and you have the vehicle to ask young people to mortgage their futures for the education, health, and tools to start a new life. Milton Friedman asked me to write a book on it, and I have done extensive historical precedent research and how to apply it to other modern applications. Three billion young people on Earth have only one asset, and that is their only real asset to trade. The number of young people on Earth has never been this high before, and if organizations like yours do not provide the alternate solutions in freedom, then we will watch the world descend into another round of dictatorships quickly. I think this income-contingent idea, in addition to De Soto's property title and bureaucratic bottleneck-breaking ideas, is a prescription for prosperity that a place like Pakistan could adopt with vigor while building trade routes between California and Kazakhstan.
You seem to be shopping for good ideas. I'm selling. If any of these ideas are of interest to you, let me know.
Brock d'Avignon
FROM: Brock d'Avignon
In decades past, I was cautioned regarding the safety of locals and even the use of the name Pathanistan, although current events have put it on the daily American evening news. . . I also understand from one of my students that there is a Gwadur Develoment Council that appeared briefly on a student's web search and then could not relocate it. One effort concerned a road to Lahore from Gwadur, and pleading for government funds for same. Oh well, at least they are talking roads, but the future is in linking up the south to the north. If you can locate them, they might be open to free-market initiatives.
Good Health and Happiness to you in Freedom,
Brock d'Avignon
Letters from the Press
PRIVATISATION PROCESS
[Editorial The News]
The Minister for Privatisation, Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, has rightly pointed out that disinvestment of state-owned enterprises needs to be accelerated in order to reduce the financial burden they had been causing to the national exchequer. Ever since their nationalisation in the seventies, the inflow of investment was badly affected, as investors were shocked and usually shied away from taking investment initiatives. It also left an adverse impact on the country’s industrial progress. As most of the units brought under state control started running into losses, they placed a huge financial burden on the treasury as their losses had to be subsidised. These losses are being gradually reduced as the privatisation process goes apace. It is for this reason that privatisation of state-owned enterprises is one of the key objectives of the government’s economic policy agenda.
It has been recently reported that privatisation process had generated Rs86 billion over the last four years. In the decade of the nineties, a sum of Rs 60 billion was generated as a result of privatisation. Under the privatisation for people policy, the government had also been offering the shares of big entities at the stock market where they received an encouraging response. However, it is felt that the privatisation process is still somewhat slow and must be speeded up. The fact remains that disinvestment of enterprises incurring losses is not an easy task. But the need to abridge the role of the government in business and industry is also equally compelling.
While going ahead with the privatisation process, it needs to be ensured that the jobs of the privatised units are protected and the existing staff does not go out of employment. As doubts had been expressed over the privatisation of some units in the past, the government should also ensure greater transparency throughout the whole process of disinvestment. The realisation on the part of the government to further accelerate the privatisation process is encouraging because it would reduce the burden on the exchequer. Privatisation proceeds would also help in reducing the country’s debt burden.
IMPORT OF RECONDITIONED CARS
[Editorial The News]
Aprominent Pakistani businessman, currently staying in Japan, has demanded that the import of reconditioned cars be allowed by the government. He is of the view that despite some positive indications given in the budget with regard to the import of reconditioned cars, the policy that has been continued has been putting the car dealers to considerable disadvantage. The permission to allow the import of reconditioned cars will not only enable the middle class to maintain a transport of their own, but the buyers will also have larger choice of selecting their vehicle. In the wake of the ensuing market competition, the prices of locally assembled cars will also come down.
Over the last couple of decades, the prices of locally assembled cars had escalated to a point where people belonging to the middle class have been finding it difficult to purchase their own cars. It is now for quite sometime that the issue had been under consideration of the government and the former Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali had given a nod to the import of reconditioned cars. But even before the echo of this announcement could fade away, the whole situation changed and this could not be converted into the official policy.
There is no denying the fact that the government should not merely watch the interest of the local car manufacturers but should also ensure that the prices of their cars do not go beyond a reasonable limit. It had already been indicated that in so far as the import of reconditioned cars is concerned, the government would adopt a people-friendly policy. It is necessary that the government reviewed the issue of the import of reconditioned cars with sympathy so that it could be possible for the people to travel easily and comfortably.
IMPORT OF USED CARS
[Nasim Ahmad, Karachi]
The government has still not followed up on allowing the import of used cars, as promised in the budget by finance minister Shaukat Aziz. It is believed that the car assemblers in Pakistan have exerted pressure on the government to rescind their earlier decision which is unfair.
To understand this issue, one must understand the context of the problem. First of all, the new car market has been overtaken by speculators who ensure that the genuine customers have to wait for several months before taking delivery of their car or pay an extra premium to get immediate delivery.
Under this system, it is only the customer who is the victim. The car makers are happy because they get the car money well in advance and the car dealers, who are part of the speculators mafia, end up making an extra buck.
The government, when needed, ensures that it gets delivery of its orders on time and bureaucrats that have the necessary powers are also obliged, and they in turn use this power to oblige others.
The boost in demand for locally assembled cars has come from a flood of cheap credit in the form of low interest bearing car loans. The increase does not have to do anything with the better quality of locally made cars or the increase in the standard of living of people in the country. Its only that the same people have got access to cheap credit.
On the same note, it may be noted that the quality of locally made cars has deteriorated considerably owing to the sudden surge in demand. Car makers cannot cope with the rush and they are compromising on quality in a big way. One visit to any authorized service center for locally made cars will show that most of the cars being repaired are almost brand new.
Despite all this, the availability of credit ensures that the demand will continue for the foreseeable future. It is a misreading of the car makers that the import of second hand cars would result in a drop in this demand. People who can afford it, will still go for new cars.
However, what the import of second hand cars will do is that it will help deflate the unusually inflated second hand car market. This market has also been inflated by cheap credit and makes it almost impossible for people with lower incomes to purchase a second hand car.
Given this scenario, it is hoped that the government opens the import of second hand cars since this will not affect the soaring fortunes of our local car makers. [Dawn]
ELECTROCUTION
[Rafi Adamjee, Karachi]
The power companies are throttling consumers by extracting billions through over billing, unjust so-called 'detection' bills and the recently-introduced super fast meters. For new connections, citizens have to pay hefty security deposits and separate payments for meters and even the cables.
The bills include all kinds of levies such as adjustment charge and additional surcharge and now people are being forced to pay the PTV licence fee. Nepra's announced reduction of a few paisas per unit is too little. The consumers deserve a better deal, especially since the cost of electricity generation has gone down with the use of natural gas instead of imported furnace oil. [Dawn]
TV FEE
[Syed Irfan, Karachi]
One would like to earnestly thank PTV for forcing all households in Pakistan to pay Rs 25 every month. [Dawn]
FREE CALLS FOR WHOSE BENEFIT?
[Muhammad Mahtab Bashir, Islamabad]
PTCL has recently announced that all local calls from midnight until 6am will be free of charge. And while customers are always happy to reduce their expenditure on such services, I, for one, do not really understand the logic behind this move.
Surely most people would be sleeping or relaxing during these hours. So is anyone really going to benefit from the deal? This also makes me wonder which age bracket the company is targeting. Perhaps those who have a penchant for making crank calls?
It would be in the customers’ interest if they could make free local calls at more reasonable hours. That is, when it would be of some real benefit. But obviously, this would cut into PTCL’s profits. So the company prefers to offer what looks like a generous deal, while maintaining its profit margin.
Nevertheless, I would still humbly request the PTCL Chairman and the Federal Minister for Information, Broadcasting and Telecommunication, to think about the real needs of phone users and offer us a better deal. [Daily Times]
WORKING OUT SALES TAX
[Khan A. Shamshad, Karachi]
The Ptcl and the gas company provide certain facilities in the shape of telephone line, CLI (caller's identification) and meter, which are rented out to consumers who are required to pay a fixed monthly rent.
As far as I can understand it, sales tax is levied on the items purchased by the customer. It is, therefore, not understood as to why the PTCL and the gas company include rent while working out the sales tax. By the same token, those who have rented properties should also be paying sales tax on the rent they give to the owner. The CBR and both the agencies should clarify and refund/ adjust the overcharged amount. [Dawn]
NOT FROM OUR POCKET
[Afzal Rahim, Islamabad]
Sir: It has been recently announced that Rs1.5-billion is to be earmarked for ensuring the safety of our country’s dignitaries. I find this shocking. And to think, I believed Pakistan to be a poor country.
Well, it seems that when it comes to funding adequate healthcare and education for our nation’s poor, we simply do not have the financial resources. Yet when it comes to wanting to thwart terror attacks on our leaders at home, or when it comes to fighting alongside the Americans in their ‘war on terror’, we have a bottomless pit of resources. But what I want to know is, from where exactly will the Rs 1.5 billion come? From whose pocket?
I don’t wish to sound mean spirited. I do realise that strict measures need to be taken to prevent attempts on the lives our leaders and I also realise that beefing up security costs money. But if we, the poor citizens of Pakistan are expected to pay from our own pockets, then I really must protest. We pay taxes so that the revenue generated from them may be used for the public good.
And I would also like to take this opportunity to our leaders of Jinnah’s words when asked if he required increased personal security: “Jab mai nay kissi kay sath koi ziyadati nahi ki, tu koi mujhay kyoon nuksaan pohanchay ga?” (When I have not wronged, why would anyone wrong me?) Yes, our leaders may want to increase security for themselves, but what of increased security for the common man? Aren’t we too equally the victims of terrorist threats? [Daily Times]
LACK OF RESPONSE
[M. K. Usman, Karachi]
Last month the CBR proudly released an advertisement in major newspapers all over the country highlighting their e-mail address helpline@cbr.gov.pk for questions and queries from tax-payers. I used that opportunity and sent them a query regarding the procedure for issuance of duplicate NTN card, and as expected didn't receive any reply. Since then I have e-mailed them around five times and am still waiting for their reply. [Dawn]
AILING LOCAL GOV SYSTEM
[Javed Akhter Mahmood, Multan]
The local government system under the 'Local Government Ordinance 2000' is a system of governance consisting of many parts and functionaries - Government and elected. There are news and discussions on media (print and electronic) as well as seminars, public debates etc regarding the worthlessness, weakness, impracticality and failure of this system.
But it seems that the National Reconstruction Bureau and President Musharraf still do not admit or perceive these facts. It is perhaps due to the reason that they were the architect of this system.
Many writers are very vocal and severely criticize the system to the extent that if this system is not scrapped and the old system revived, it will become a risk to the already deliberately weakened administrative structure leading to functional anarchy and total haphazardness.
They argue that the superficial working of the districts (a system within the administrative body) is due to the momentum of the old system, which was at quite resonance with our socio-cultural conditions and well organized having potential to handle the crisis.
The common man had always looked forward SDM and DC for the redressal of his grievances mainly against police, qabza groups, officials, hoarders, price hikers, black mailers, exploiters etc, but now there is no focal person in the districts. These officials, at least, were supposed to be impartial and representatives of the state.
In my view, the critics of the new system are wasting their energies because the NRB and President Musharraf themselves want the present rollback. They do not intend to cure the disease making the body weaker over the period. What happens if the disease or syndrome is not cured? Surely the answer would be death.
The various parts (offices and officials), functions (rules of business) and all other structures are so haphazardly placed that the system cannot work. It cannot give unity out of diversity.
It is badly ill. It is an example of height of mismanagement and disorder. It is heading towards its natural death, if not cured; and this will not be due to any 'external' factor but because of its internal weakness and immune deficiency. [Dawn]
BANKING SECTOR PERFORMANCE
[Farooq Ahmed Shaikh, Shikarpur]
Banking is considered to be the backbone of any country's financial sector. In Pakistan, the financial sector generally and the banking sector particularly have experienced many unwelcome events, the freezing of foreign currency accounts being a case in point.
In 2003-04, Rs 250 billion credit was disbursed by the private sector for agriculture, SMEs (small and medium enterprises), consumer finance, personal loans and corporate finance.
However, this also means that the system is now greatly exposed to risk, perhaps more so than at any other time in Pakistan's history. The ratio of non-performing loans is on the rise and currently stands at around 30 per cent of the overall loan portfolio of banks. Also, low interest rates have hit the banking industry hard.
The primary reason for the massive amount of non-performing loans is that many of the borrowers make up their financial statements to strengthen their case for a loan.
Second, mortgage deeds, mutations and other similar essential documents (especially in reference to collateral) prove to be wrong when any suit is filed in a court of law leaving the bank with no choice but to bear the loss on its own.
To make matters worse, the banking courts are quite slow in disposing of cases, so much so that banks seeking recovery of loans prefer instead to settle out of court or to write off the debt altogether rather than pay the legal fees.
Therefore, the government of Pakistan and the State Bank should make improvements to the financial system to reduce its exposure to undue risk and to lower the ratio of non-performing loans. [Dawn]
JUDICIAL POVERTY
[Javed Iqbal]
According to one estimate around 40 percent people in the country are living below the poverty line. The percentage is even high if one goes beyond the pseudo limit of one dollar a day. According to the latest viewpoint of economists, poverty is a state of helplessness. Viewed in this context, even a very rich person having no access to justice is a poor man. It tells how broken justice adds up to the stock of poverty.
‘Broken justice’ is ‘just ice’. When the ice melts down with ever-rising temperature it melts someone’s heart too, and he starts taking suo moto actions till justice ice is decomposed into justice’. Keep up justice and keep down poverty is a crux of judicial economics. [The News]
NO TO SEDUCTIVE DANCERS
[Riaz Khan, Texas, US]
I recently read a news item published in your paper with the headline: “District government recommends taking action against seductive dancers”.
My first reaction to the headline was laughter. But then, having read the piece, I felt like crying with frustration. The law and order situation in the country is rapidly deteriorating, yet the district officials prefer to spend their time pondering different notions of vulgarity.
Even here in the US, the definition of vulgarity has not been clearly defined. What is vulgar for you might not be vulgar for me. Kissing one’s daughter on the cheeks or on her forehead is a form of expressing parental love. Yet, to think, this may be deemed as an overt show of vulgarity by the Punjab district governments.
I am sure we all know the motives behind official raids, usually undertaken in the name of stopping the spread of vulgar activities. I would not be surprised that if, after the ‘show’, these same officials reached for the rewind button in order to fully ascertain the nature of these allegedly vulgar scenes. [Daily Times]
HEALTHY COMPETITION
[Azlan Sikandar, Karachi]
The screening of Indian movies in Pakistani cinemas will create competitive environment in the sub-continent. Healthy competition between the film industries of the two countries will bring the best out of us. We shouldn’t be afraid of it. [The News]
EDUCATION SANS CHARACTER
[B. A. Malik Shah, Islamabad]
An educational system that promotes a slavish mentality, hypocrisy, turncoatism, lotacracy, intolerance, obscurantism, dogmatism, and hatred for fellow human beings is not worth the piece of paper on which it is written. Visions and mission statements touted by most of our seats of learning have lost meaning. If words lose their substance their frequent use in flowery speeches becomes a joke and a futile pastime.
Our teachers and students must rise above popular clichés and bridge the yawning gap between what we say and what we do. There is still hope, if all of us put our shoulders to the heavy wheels of truth, character, tolerance, pluralism, consistency and principles that are the distinguishing hallmarks of a genuinely progressive Islamic, democratic welfare state.
If on the other hand our education system is not reconstructed to meet the formidable challenges of modern times we should hang our heads in collective shame on our way to national suicide and ignominious oblivion. History of the last 5000 plus years does not permit me to draw any other conclusion. [The News]
FreePakistan News-Briefs
WTO BOLSTERS FREE TRADE
World Trade Organization members have approved a plan to end export subsidies on farm products and cut import duties around the globe, a key step toward a comprehensive accord contemplated since 2001. The deal was approved by a consensus of the 147-nation body, opening the way for full negotiations to start in September.
PAKISTAN RAILWAYS SUFFER A HUGE DEFICIT
Pakistan Railway, a state monopoly, is suffering a huge deficit of Rs.2 billion in an annual operational account and may meet this target by the end of the current fiscal year; the main element of this loss is the liability of pension to its employees which is approximately Rs.3.6 billion annually.
NON-ENCASHMENT OF STATE CHEQUE
Director General Sindh Judicial Academy and a former judge of Sindh High Court, Justice (Retd.) Dr. Ghous Muhammad has said: “Non-encashment of state cheque is a custom or practice adopted by bankers and not covered by any law or legal provision.”
INDIA READY TO GIVE MFN STATUS TO PAKISTN
The Indian Commerce Secretary has reiterated the stance of his country of extending Most Favorite Nation status to Pakistan if these measures are reciprocated from this side of the borders.
PTA MAY CONSIDER INDIAN COMPANY’S PLEA
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) may agree to reconsider an Indian company’s application for Long Distance International (LDI) calls license to start fixed phones operations in the country provided it gets security clearance.
CELL PHONE FIRMS FREE TO FIX CHARGES
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority would not play the role of regulatory authority as all mobile phone companies are free to fix their airtime charges.
PTA MAY PENALIZE MOBILE PHONE COMPANIES
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority is likely to take action against cellular phone companies involved in irregularities and over-charging from the subscribers.
BODY TO REGULATE PRIVATE HOSPITALS
The Federal Minister for Health has said that the government will form a regulatory authority to monitor the functioning of private hospitals in order to check exploitation of poor patients.
TALKS ON FILMS EXCHANGE
The culture ministers of India and Pakistan will meet in September in New Delhi for talks on exchange of films.
NO PERMISSION TO RELYING INDIAN SONGS
The spokesman for the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) has clarified that no permission has been granted to FM Radio channels for airing Indian songs.
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Edited and prepared by
Khalil Ahmad
Email: khalil =at= asinstitute.org
khalilkf =at= yahoo.com
[No opinion expressed here should necessarily be taken as reflecting the view of FreePakistan Newsletter.]
