Economic stability in perspective Voice of the People Tariq Saeed Khan
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he economic stability of any country depends on the integ rity, credibility and character of the people who are at the helm of affairs of the state. If the people who are meant to safeguard the very existence of the economic development of any nation are playing a negative role, no guarantee can be given to make the economy of that country in progress. Unfortunately in Pakistan we are facing the same dilemma. Degeneration of economy due to these factors in Pakistan has two perspectives; firstly at the level of law enforcement and secondly the observance of law. As far as the law enforcement is concerned many the people of society are given extra ordinary and profligate relaxation in payment of taxes. Tax is a tower of strength for any country’s economy. While in Pakistan Tax laws are enforced with discrimination and this financial bigotry increases when the target of tax laws are powerful and effective part of the society. These people consider law a spoke in their wheel. The major role played in this phenomenon is by parliamentarians themselves. First and foremost it is the duty of the Parliamentarians to formulate such laws and policies
which may ensure maximum tax collection. But besides other factors one of the major factor which plays key role in the Deterioration of tax collection process is the role of parliamentarians. Their dastardly performance not only degenerates the pace of economy of the country but it also results into bad governance. The facts show that all this state of affairs is not a supposition. This narration appears as a fact to us when we determine the real reasons of the crippling economy of the country. The ratio of taxes in GDP in many developing countries is more than that of Pakistan. In India it is 15%, in Sri Lanka, 13% and in Indonesia it is 14% while in Pakistan this ratio is much low than these countries. This ratio has been from 8.5 to 9 percent through last years. According to the quarterly review of FBR which was published in September 2012, this ratio was 9.2% during 2011-12 and 8.6% during 2010-11. Due to low ratio of taxes in GDP our national budget has been facing deficit and crises like foreign loans due to which the state has neither performed nor delivered. There is another tragedy in this respect that political parties who are supposed to play a key role of reformation are safe houses for such elements now. President of Tehreek-eInsaf Makhdoom Javed Hashmi has
said with his observations that Muslim League N is a safe house for the tax evaders, drug mafia and other corrupt politicians. He said this when he was addressing a public gathering in London. A review of the nomination papers of national and provincial assembly members, which was given in 2010 shows that 61% of the parliament members did not pay any tax during the year when they were contesting election. The more tragic aspect of this phenomenon is that Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani and his 25 cabinet members have not paid even one penny in these years. Finance Minister Mr. Hafeez Sheikh was also one of them who did not pay any tax. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani applied for NTN during July 2010 i.e. after two years he took the charge of his office. According to record of FBR the most worsening situation regarding the tax payment comes to us from amongst the parliamentarians. Among 104 Senators only 49 senators paid tax during 2011. Newly elected 11 senators are also included in it who did not submitted their tax returns. In these circumstances it was necessary for Pakistani government to tailor the situation wisely to meet the challenges. But their reaction was a turn up for the books. Instead taking some effective measures member
of the parliament criticized all this harshly. It was more reactionary when the chairman NAB pointed out the level of the corruption in the country. This was not taken seriously by the parliamentarians. Presidential Spokesman and senator of PPP Farahatullah Babar said that the report of chairman NAB was against the contrary to the facts and lamentable. Fulminating it, he declared the statement of the chairman contradictory when that the volume of daily corruption in Pakistan is 7 billion rupees. He said that due to such reports the institution of NAB and the chairman were disappointing. They were expecting from the chairman NAB some concrete proposals to eradicate the corruption from the society. If we want to safe our economy from decimating, we must not ignore these facts but keep in view our responsibilities. We must go for transparency without which it will be pie in the sky for us. The primary and pivotal factor will be those who are sitting in parliament because they had to make the process of legislation and law enforcement honest and transparent and this is the key for solution of this entire dilemma. —The writer is Secretary General Institute of Research & Development
Consumer discipline Aurangzeb Tanvir
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onsumer is the king’. This credo has brought a consid erable paradigm shift in the contemporary business world regarding manufacturing of products and provision of services. With this, the concept of Consumerism has grown up fast about which most historians point to 1880 as the start of the American consumerist movement. Industrial centers supported agricultural regions; agricultural regions fed industrial centers. People in both consume what the other produce. Service industries sprang up around both. And in the middle, rapid communication and transportation linked the two. The shift form a producer-oriented culture to consumerism in the nineteenth century was gradual. With the marked exception of the depression and World War II, consumerism in the twentieth century became a way of life for Americans. Organized-efforts by individuals, groups, and governments to help protect consumers from policies and practices that infringe consumer rights to fair business practices. As per Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: The movement seeking to protect and inform consumers by
requiring such practices as honest packaging and advertising, product guarantees, and improved safety standards. Public concern over the rights of consumers, the quality of consumer goods, and the honesty of advertising. The ideology came into full focus in the 1960s after President John F. Kennedy introduced the consumer bill of rights, which stated the consuming public has a right to be safe, to be informed, to choose, and to be heard. Anti-consumerism is the socio-political movement against consumerism. In Pakistan, consumerism has got a considerable recognition and a lot of work is being done in this regard. Many organizations and legislatives are in place in Pakistan too, like natural gas regulatory authority, Pakistan telecommunication Authority. National Electric Power Regulatory Authority, Wafaqi Mohtasib (Ombudsman) Order- 19831, Pakistan Standards And Quality control Authority Act, 1996, West Pakistan Pure Food Ordinance-1960, Cantonments Pure Food Act – 1966, Pakistan Hotels And Restaurants Act- 1976, Pakistan Penal Code- 1860, Drugs Act1940, Drugs Act- 1976, Pakistan Penal code- 1860, Islamabad Consumer Protection Act-1995, North West Frontier Province and consumer Protection Act- 1997. consumer Rights
commission of Pakistan , established in 1998, is an independent, nonprofit, non-political and nongovernmental organization, which is also working for consumer’s rights and awareness. Establishment and active role of consumer courts has also facilitated the process of providing relief to consumers. Various consumer advocacy groups are playing an active role in the society. Many positive business responses have emerged as a result of consumerism such as concern about total quality management, voluntary industry codes of conduct, establishment of consumer affairs departments and encouragement of product recalls. All the organizations in Pakistan are now relatively more conscious about the concept of customer satisfaction and are serious in formulating. Consumer friendly policies. One of these organizations is PEPCO, which is providing electricity supply to total 18674114 consumers all over Pakistan except Karachi, where this responsibility is rested on the shoulders of KESCO. PEPCO, having a huge consumer base, is also customer-oriented company, which has the philosophy of facilitating consumers. Electricity theft is one of the rise and PEPCO has to suffer heavy losses in this regard. Practices of kunda system, meter tempering, Use
of electrical switches are rampant and due to this misuse and theft of such a precious resource of electricity is casting a daunting effect. Huge number of mega watts of electricity is wasted and goes unaccounted. Maximum electricity theft is committed by domestic and commercial consumers, for which PEPCO has launched a massive campaign against electricity thieves. Normally a consumer hesitate to report electricity theft. PEPCO has declared the passing year as “year of electricity theft prevention” and established a theft reporting centre, along with constituting a special task force. Although gov t, at the federal and provincial levels is making all possible efforts to maximize electricity generation, how ever without consumer discipline nothing can make these efforts more use full. In the absence of consumer’s responsible behavior, the gap between demand and supply will keep on widening, in spite of abundant resources, with quality deterioration. Consumerism must also ensure consumer education and discipline along with protecting their rights and providing them relief. A professional and competitive business scenario can only prevail if the producer and the customer play their active and responsible roles.
Views From Abroad
Keep drones out of courts James Robertson
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n the wake of the recent confir mation hearing on John Brennan ’s nomination as CIA director, and the probably related “ leak ” of a Justice Department white paper on targeted killings, some politicians, pundits and professors have suggested that “kill lists,” drone strikes and targeting protocols be submitted for “independent judicial review” — essentially, that federal judges ought to be assigned the task of monitoring, mediating and approving the killer instincts of our government. This is a very bad idea. U.S. judges have been hardwired against rendering “advisory opinions” since 1793, when the first chief justice, John Jay, declined to answer George Washington’s legal questions about the status of a Brit-
ish ship that had been captured by the French and brought to an American port. To answer the president’s questions, Jay wrote, would violate “the lines of separation drawn by the Constitution between the three departments of the government.” Jay’s letter referred to Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution, which provides that the president “may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices” — a provision, Jay wrote, that “seems to have been purposely as well as expressly united to the executive departments.” From that letter — itself an advisory opinion — has grown a complex but well-established and understood set of constraints on the federal courts: They are to decide only “cases” or “controversies” that are
“justiciable” and “ripe” for decision. Federal courts rule on specific disputes between adversary parties. They do not make or approve policy; that job is reserved to Congress and the executive. Nor do federal courts act ex parte — hearing one side only — or sit in a Star Chamber, like the co-opted judges of 16th-century England. The targets of a drone strike make no appearance before a judge; they have no notice of the charges against them; no lawyer; no chance to call witnesses or confront the evidence against them; no due process rights. Their case is necessarily considered in absentia and in secret. An American judge cannot do American justice in such a case. If he did, his independence would be severely compromised. But — say the politicians, pundits and professors — courts routinely rule on government requests for
search warrants and, in the national security context, on requests for foreign intelligence surveillance. Why not requests for drone strikes? The answer is simple: A search warrant is not a death warrant. If the US judiciary is asked to pre approve a targeted killing, its answer should be the answer that John Jay gave to George Washington: “We exceedingly regret every event that may cause embarrassment to your administration; but we derive consolation from the reflection that your judgment will discern what is right, and that your usual prudence, decision, and firmness will surmount every obstacle to the preservation of the rights, peace, and dignity of the United States.” The writer, a retired federal judge, served on the US District Court for the District of Columbia from 1994 to 2010. — Courtesy: The Washington Post
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t was a week after the funeral. She had buried her hard work ing accountant husband, who had painstakingly worked from morn till sundown, risen from clerk to bank manager, sent two children to college and jobs abroad with the income, and given her a comfortable life style. It was a week after the funeral, as she rummaged in his cupboard, looking for documents and files he had meticulously kept, and it was then that she saw the secret compartment. She opened it trembling, she did not want to know
holiday that comes after that!”She wept as she felt the crisp paper. She wept as the kites spoke a dream of a dead man, who’d wanted the simple pleasure of flying them, up in the sky.Her sons came home the next day. They saw the kites fixed on the sitting room wall, “Ma,” they protested, “This is not the time to celebrate, this is a time of mourning!” “Yes,” she said, “I know it is, and that is why I’ve put them there!” They felt the paper, they stared at the lovely designs and they listened to their mother as she told them where she’d found them. They had tears in their eyes, as they thought of their dad, and the kites he’d never flown. “Ma, I’d like to take one home!” said her eldest. “And I want one for my home too,” exclaimed the second. She gave the kites to them, and her
WAQAS IMAM
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ere denunciation for the Quetta bomb blast by all political segments of society in which eighty people had been assassinated is not sufficient. It has become a custom or an official state practice in Pakistan to give a condemnation message as a fulfillment of responsibility. Similarly the silence of government for two persons that were thrashed on Thursday night in Islamabad by a car belonging to US embassy is not required, people want serious actions. Additionally we must not undermine the Bara massacre as well which is at present in the state of national ignorance which is quite unfair. Pakistan is such in a state of turmoil for more than of a decade that it was never before. Therefore we need to think that Governor Raj in Baluchistan was no solution, neither a new demand for military takeover is! As proved in the case of Swat military operation. We must think analytically that what is the point of inflection for such chaos in Pakistan’s geo-political timeline? Such chaos never accused in Pakistan before the American War. American political and military manifestation in the region is the biggest threat to Pakistan’s stability. Since American presence encourages Indian supremacy in the region which can be only accomplished by weakening Pakistan through internal chaos & engagements within. —Via email
Drug mafia in Karachi MUHAMMAD SHADMAN Through the columns of your esteemed paper, I wish to draw attention of the authorities and the public to the evils of Drugs Mafia. In Karachi, some 2 million youth and children are at the risk of drug addiction, as prevalence of drug addiction is very high in this mega city. A Karachi-based NGO working on the issues of street children and youth reported to a reputable news agency that in Karachi over two million youth are addicted, and rest of the youth and children are also at a high risk of drug addiction, as drug trafficking is prevailing in every part of the city. The main addiction is of hashish, because this drug is easily available at every nook and corner of the city. The main trafficking areas of hashish are Sohrab Goth, Banaras, Pahar Ganj, Azam Basti, Frontier Colony, QaidaBad, Chanessar Goth, Dhobi Ghat and Massan near Keamaari, Umer Farooq Colony, Mango Per, SITE, Muzafarbad Colony, Bilal Colony, Pehlwan Goth, Nata Khan Goth and Bhitai Colony. Drug mafia also seems to be operating with a political backing and law enforcement agencies have failed to stop the rapid growth of the drug trafficking in city. Drug mafia also has taken the ethnic cover and under the ethnic cover their drug business is flourishing with the backing of some personals of law enforcement agency and some prominent political figures. —Karachi
Stop burdening students MUHAMMAD SHADMAN Dear Editor allow me to express my views on Students, who are the builders of a nation, should be provided extremely positive and helpful guidance, the kind that can play a vital role in strengthening their confidence, encouraging them to compete in any field. However, currently they are not taught and motivated the way they really deserve. A student enters an educational institute with big expectations and many hopes but he/ she just gains 30 to 35 percent knowledge from his/her teacher; the remaining 65 to 70 percent of the burden is on the student’s shoulders, which gradually only ends up in confusing the student and making him/her uninterested in the study subjects. If a student, who has only one brain, has to deal with so many unnecessary facets of the local learning process then the degree he/ she gets does nothing to educate him/her. To have a love for books is considered to be the ladder towards prosperity for any nation. This can only be achieved through proper guidance and a standardised education system for the student. —Karachi
Hurt & ignored Sindhis HASHIM ABRO
Go fly a kite..! any secret about her husband, she did not want to find anything that would disturb memories of the solid, dependable, hardworking man he’d been. But she opened the compartment. She felt something light and papery to the touch, then slowly, carefully pulled out, not one, not two but a dozen kites. They were fresh as if just bought from the kite shop down the road, and she wept as she saw them. “One day,” he’d told her, “I’ll have time to fly kites on the terrace!”“You seem to have flown them before?” she’d said. “I loved them when little,” he’d said, “I loved the feel of the kite in the heavens rising up and reigning like a king!” “Why don’t you do so this Sunday?” she’d asked. “Overtime!” he’d said, “But maybe next Sunday or the
Stop rhetorics & act
heart gladdened as they called her the next week, “We’re picking you up mother, we’re going to spend the weekend camping!” “Camping?” she asked, “I’ve never camped before!” “Nor have we, but that’s the kite we want to fly mother. Come along!” She smiled as they drove down the mountain track, she looked at the car of her second son behind, and as she looked out of the window, she felt she could see her husband, laughing as he flew a kite, higher and higher into the wind, reigning like a king. His sad kites in the cupboard had made his son’s fly theirs. What about you my friend, are your kites going to be found in your cupboard, or do they fly in the sky? Go fly a kite..! —Email: bobsbanter@gmail.com
Indeed, some people hurt by words and some by actions but the biggest hurt I believe is that of someone ignoring you when you value more than anything else. Sadly, all this has happened and is still happening with simple and straightforward Sindhi voters in Sindh province. Provincial rules have done every wrong with the people who valued them and voted them. It is really very simple to understand the state of affairs in Sindh. People are hungry, they are dying. The present rulers have never helped Sindhi voters to repair their future but they have done everything to subjugate and suppress them. There has been no productive and pragmatic legislation in the Sindh Assembly but fun and frolic and pandemonium. Is democracy only for election, for politics, for politicking and reconciliation in and over crime?
Time goes by fast, and people go in and out of our life so quicklyas our rulers are only about for a month or so- they have missed the opportunity to tell the Sindhi voters how much they mean to them and also they have missed a golden opportunity to deliver to the Sindhi voters. That’s why, the present provincial rulers are hated by many, loved by few and known by all and sundry because of their people –allergic attitude and education enemy role. The ruling elite in Sindh and the PPP top leadership must bear in mind, noble words of Anatole France, who once said: “ It is by acts and not by ideas that people live.” So spare Sindhis of your politics and tell me what you have done for their welfare and development? – instead of non-stop advertisements. —Islamabad
India and Pakistan is no answer to the fluid situation. Fluff and mythomania of Indian media vitiates the atmosphere of cordiality. Who will chasten it? Is Salman Khursheed, the foreign minister of India, really serious when he says, “It is not advisable that the two nuclear powers, India and Pakistan, bequeath the legacy of wars to coming generations as shabby bequest”? A pertinent question haunts the mind of every pacifist. Who will solve the Kashmir problem which has already bedeviled and embittered the relations of the two neighbouring countries of South Asia? Indian and Pakistani rulers, while trying to understand the dynamics of resistance in Kashmir, Palestine and Afghanistan with meticulous care and objectivity, should develop, through chemistry of sustained interaction and discourse, a viable system of compulsive political codependency. That is how trends of war can be checkmated and thwarted. And that is a way to fortify mutual trust and understanding which is indispensably paramount as AQEELA ASIF SHAHMADI prerequisite for peaceful settlement Collaboration is defined as a coor- of Kashmir issue. dinated and well demarcated activ- — Via email ity that is the result of a continued effort to paradigm and maintains a shared conception of a problem. There are many forms of collaboration that support communities, countries, and regions in exposure of deM FAZAL ELAHI velopment. Among these are collaborative initiatives associated with Corruption is a menace that has been higher education and industry. devouring Pakistan’s ability to stand COMSATS Institute of Information on its own feet and deprive its people Technology (CIIT) will organize 2nd the opportunity to relish the fruits Pak-China Business Forum, from of progress and prosperity that they March 23-26, 2013. so genuinely deserve. This menace The event will comprise project has burgeoned into the roots of alexhibition, seminars, workshops and most every strata of our society like industrial academic exhibition of cancer. If immediate and stringent different products of different sec- measures are not taken to uproot it tors. Major Chinese and Pakistani from every level of the Pakistani companies, small and medium en- society it might put the very existterprises, entrepreneurs, universities, ence of the country at stake. and research & development orgaIt is an undeniable fact that hunnizations will attend the forum ac- dreds of billions of dollars have tivities. The forum will provide an come into the country as grant-inopportunity for commercialization aid since the past over six and a half of products and processes of the par- decades. It is also true that equally ticipating organizations and it will large amounts were taken as loans enhance universities research activi- (at exorbitant interest rates) from the ties in education sector and collabo- developed world by successive govration in industrial sector. ernments during this period. Had this COMSATS Institute of Informa- money been honestly and judition Technology (CIIT) had intro- ciously utilized for the purpose it duced an academia driven model of was taken, Pakistan and the PakiBusiness cooperation by conducting stani nation would, perhaps, have Pak-China Business Forum from stood out conspicuously in the map April 15-18, last year. The forums’ of the developed societies of the main objective included to promote world. It would also have enjoyed academia-industry collaboration in the fruits of progress and prosperity business and economic sectors for which the developed societies of the mutual benefit of Pakistan and world are enjoying today. Since this China. Major Chinese and Pakistani has not happened, the situation tocompanies, small and medium en- day is contrary to what it actually terprises, entrepreneurs, universities, should have been. and research & development orgaUndoubtedly, steering Pakistan nizations attended the forum activi- out of the deep morass that it is in ties. The forum provided an open- today should be a top priority ing for commercialization of re- agenda for every concerned citizen search based products and processes of this country. That corruption of the participating organizations. should be impudently eliminated —Via email from every segment of the society is the burning desire of this nation. That this country should become the bastion of progress and prosperity is a dream that the masses of Pakistan have been dreaming since AZAM INQILABI its very creation. Will their aspirations to see their Devotional affinity, proclivity and propensity for a cause - personal, so- country prosper ever be fulfilled? cial or political -forms the corner- Will they ever be able to enjoy the stone of all the factors which moti- benefits of prosperity that they have vate and inspire a man to scramble been longing for since the creation for the accomplishment of a cher- of this country? No, not until the ished objective with enthusiasm and menace of corruption is completely fervour. So devout adherent of a rooted out from this society. The cause is, in fact, a repository of an most effective way to deal with the indwelt intuitional urge to remain menace of corruption is to immediwedded and committed to his sac- ately table and pass legislation rosanct objective with unshakeable against corruption in the parliament and ensure its stringent implemenresolve and determination. In a situation when political es- tation by the rejuvenated Judiciary capades, reveries and eccentricities of Pakistan. This may seem to be a of hawks in Indian system are stok- far cry, but indisputably this is what ing the flames of belligerency, ani- the salvation of this country and this mosity and antagonism between In- nation strongly depends on. dia and Pakistan, Delhi rulers can- —Via email not disavow and disclaim the onus of accountability in the comity of nations. And culpability becomes an EADERS issue here. Remember that nuclear are requested to type weapons and missiles of India and Pakistan cannot intimidate, browtheir letters legibly with beat and cow down the freedom lovdouble spacing and only on ing people of Kashmir. And ultras one side of the paper. would want to add to the vulnerabil—Editor ity of India and Pakistan. Indolence, ineptitude, dereliction, imprudence, Email:editorial@pakobserver.net vapidity and passivity of rulers of
2nd Pak-China Business Forum
Corruption & progress
Kashmiri resistance
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