100 days under the king-maker

By ALE-Xpressed • Jul 8th, 2008 • Category: Politics • (3,463 views) • One Response

The direction less PPP government seems to be dropping in darkness. The 100 days treated as a litmus test for a nascent government to prove its willingness and capacity to perform have been wasted. The regime seems to be treading the same path of preserving the status quo. The president is as dummy as was Shaukat Aziz and the powers now rest with the king-maker Zard-Aari. The government has remained hostage to the problems that it has inherited but has not shown any will to resolve them. I doubt if any government has lost its image and trust so early before the ‘change-loving’ people of Pakistan.

The performance of the PPP led government can be faulted on three major points. One, price hike – the exponential rise in the prices of commodities has burdened the nation on the whole. Two, the law-and-order situation in the country is the same and is unfortunately expected to worsen for the continuation of the military crackdown in the FATA. The state of affairs in Baluchistan is same as it was in the cursed regime of Musharraf. Three, they have failed to fulfill the promises as per Charter of Democracy and Murree Declaration, which is leading to political and leadership crisis in the country which is alarming for the growth of democratic values in the country.

The “roti, kapra aur makaan” dream seems to be an illusion for the people of Pakistan, once again. The doubling of the wheat prices, 25% increase in the cement prices and the food-inflation rising from 11 to 30 percent will not let the ‘roti’ dream or the ‘makaan’ dream come true. For ‘kapra’, thanks to the energy crisis, the textile industry is going through a turmoil leading to sharp increase in the prices of textile products. The government has done nothing at all to solve the energy crisis. Neither the short term promised plans like the early closure of markets for energy saving or the exemption of textile industry from load-shedding have been implemented nor the long-term plans like extra brick lining, dams or rental power plants have been given a serious thought. Interesting mention is the increase in CNG prices by 35% which the government announced to be a result of miscommunication between ministries 20 hours after the stupid announcement. 62 million rupees were looted in a single day.

The promises to bring peace into the country do not seem to be fulfilled any sooner, thus increasing insecurity and deteriorating the law-and-order situation. I feel insulted, affronted and snubbed when someone like Karzai, whose area of rule does not extend beyond 10KMs of Kabul threats Pakistan of a military assault. The new folks in the parliament seem to have learnt no lesson from the previous regime when the FATA and Baluchistan are concerned. The policies adopted by the PPP haven’t changed a bit from what they were in case of PMLQ. The attempts to bring in peace through violence will do no good. It’s ironical that the PM proudly announces ‘dehshat gardo se koi baat cheet nahe ki jayegi. Un sab ka mukabla kia jayega” – doesn’t this sound like Musharraf ? The Baluchistan issue is probably the most important one of our times. We are on the verge of another division of this land of the pure but the government is fooling the people with ‘look-busy, do-nothing ‘attitude.

The worst thing is the Constitutional Package suggested by the PPP which is going to indemnify the illegal and anti-constitutional November 3 actions of the cursed dictator Musharraf. How easily the people of Pakistan have been fooled by Zard-aari on the issue of restoration of Judiciary. The Murree declaration promised to restore the judges as the position of November 2nd within 30 days of the formation of the government but the leaders didn’t hesitate to break the promise. Even the 12 day grace period expired and the nation was betrayed - double standards or no standards ?

The people of Pakistan have turned against the United States for multiple reasons. The issue of restoration of Judiciary, the involvement of US in the domestic affairs of Pakistan, the attacks in FATA and the support to Musharraf are a few of the issues for this hatred. In such times, the representatives of the people of Pakistan are busy inviting Boucher and fellows to come and decide the fate of Pakistanis. There seems no willingness to clean the dirt produced by the previous regime. Everyone swearing allegiance to President Pervez Musharraf has remained well entrenched in their high places. Tensions have been creeping up between the coalition partners on issues like the attacks on FATA where they were not taken into confidence.

One understands that it is not possible to completely change the state of affairs in just a period 3 months but 100 days are enough to judge the willingness, capacity, capability, maturity, integrity and the senses of the rulers. The government lacks a direction and has suffered with not only remaining bogged down in lingering issues but has showed no seriousness to do something for the people. Promises, one after another have been made but none fulfilled.

Here is the performance report of the baby-government after the first quarter:

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has not been setup. NRO has been considered enough.
Press freedom laws are still in the (non-working?)committee with no visible results. Freedom of speech still seems to be a problem to the government.
NAB continues to exist and cases have not been transferred to the normal courts.
FCR laws, which the prime minister had promised to abolish, remain.
Though there has been partial withdrawal of khakis from the civil institutions but not all have been sent back.
The PM continues to waste the public money on luxuries. Rerortedly, he used 2 helicopters on a personal visit to Jehanian to address election campaign rally of brother of Shah Mahmid Qureshi. Did he forgot ‘hakumat ne VIP culture ko khair ba-ad keh dia hay’ which he said during his first address to the parliament.
The issue of restoration of Judiciary has not been resolved despite documented promises.
The annual budget for the education sector has been cut down.
A so-called task force has been established to resolve the unemployment issue but it seems busy in accommodating the PPP jiyalas.
The government has broken the peace deal in the FATA and has started using force to bring in peace. Similar is the situation in Baluchistan. Nothing has been done for them other than ‘hum balochistan ki awam se maafi mangtay hain’
The issues of price-hike, energy crisis, unemployment and insecurity have not caught the attention of the government for serious actions towards the resolution of these issues.
The government seems unconcerned about the upcoming global food crisis.
No serious attempts have been made to solve the issue of missing persons.

Apart, all this stuff which the PPP government was expected to do for the people of Pakistan, they have not even yet resolved their very own matters like the issue of having the UN probe into the assassination of Mohtarma BB Shaheed. What the hell are the rulers are doing then?

Last 5 posts by ALE-Xpressed

10 reasons to hate WaridTel - August 19th, 2008
Dine-out in the red-light area of Lahore - July 14th, 2008
The Kalabagh and the PTI - June 1st, 2008
No Mercy for Musharraf ! - May 30th, 2008
Nuclear Power : The Baloch Perspective - May 29th, 2008

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Tagged as: Asif Ali Zardari, nawaz sharif, pervez musharraf, pml-n, PPP, punjab, Salman Taseer, shahbaz sharif, shaukat aziz

ALE-Xpressed An IT Professional with a BS degree in Computer Sciences from FAST-NUCES. Have been actively involved in the movement for restoration of Judiciary and the resistance against the emergency rule in 2007.
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One Response to “100 days under the king-maker”

1
Aashique of Musharraf Says:
July 8th, 2008
SHAME ON ZARDARI, NAWAZ SHARIF, SHAHBAZ SHARIF, ISHAQ DAR, NAVEED QAMAR AND THE PEOPLE OF PAKISTAN WHO SUPPORTED AND VOTED SUCH AN INCOMPETENT PEOPLE

THIS IS BANGLADESH (ONCE EAST PAKISTAN)

Bangladeshis abroad boost economy by $7.9bn: officials

Tuesday, July 08, 2008
DHAKA: Overseas Bangladeshis have pumped a record $7.9 billion back into their home economy in the past financial year, thanks to an increase in expatriate workers, officials said on Monday.

The amount, to the year ended June 30, 2008, grew by two billion dollars on the previous year, pushing the foreign exchange reserve to a comfortable six billion dollars, central bank governor Salehuddin Ahmed said.

“We’ve received a record $7.939 billion remittance in the outgoing fiscal year, which is up by more than 33 per cent on the previous fiscal year,” Bangladesh Bank general manager Nabagopal Bhowmik told AFP. “It’s the biggest increase we have ever seen since our people started going abroad with jobs.

If the trend continues, we will receive around $10 billion of remittance in the 2008-09 fiscal year,” he said. Bhowmik said that as well as a rise in the number of people working abroad, the introduction of strict anti-money laundering laws had also boosted the inflow of money through legitimate banking channels. The country’s overseas employment ministry said nearly 832,000 people got jobs abroad in 2007, almost double the number the previous year, mainly in oil-rich Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia, and Southeast Asia. In the first six months of 2008, a record 489,312 people, up 43 per cent on the same period last year, got jobs abroad. Many of those were now working in new European destinations such as Romania, Poland and Russia, which were increasingly employing Bangladeshi workers, ministry director Salim Reza said. Officials count the number of Bangladeshis working and living abroad at five million, but unofficially the number is estimated to be eight million if those who have left through illegal channels are included.

Bangladesh, one of the poorest countries in the world with a population of 144 million, counts on the inflow of foreign exchange to fund its imports. The Bangladeshi economy grew by a healthy 6.2 per cent to the year ended June 30, 2008, despite a sluggish investment climate due to a state of emergency, severe flooding and a devastating cyclone.

THIS IS PAKISTAN

Economy nose-dives in 100 days

Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Public debt swells by Rs373.5bn, foreign reserves dwindle by Rs2.1bn; inflation jumps to 19.2 pc

By Khalid Mustafa

ISLAMABAD: In the first 100 days of the coalition government, Pakistan’s economy nose-dived with massive fall in foreign reserves by $2.1 billion (15.8 per cent), huge downgrading of rupee by Rs8.3 against US dollar, which is deprecating currency in the world at the moment.

Owing to the enormous meltdown of rupee during the first 100 days of the new government, the public debt of the country has swelled by Rs373.5 billion, meaning that country’s debt has increased by Rs3.70 billion per day. These shocking disclosures based on hard facts were gathered after deep investigation by The News.

The external debt of the country stood at $45 billion on March 31, 2008, but rupee during March 31- July 7 of current year period depreciated by 11.7 per cent, which caused the massive increase in public debt by Rs373.5 billion.

According to the top official at Ministry of Finance, with depreciation of Pakistan currency by one rupee the public debt increases by Rs45 billion. Since the Pak currency melted down by Rs8.30 against one US dollar during the time under review, so the country would have to face extra financial burden of Rs373.5 billion in its debt regime.

The market capitalisation situation has also massively deteriorated during the said period showing that the country received financial jerk of Rs933 billion. The market capitalisation was at Rs4,623 billion by March 31, 2008, but it went down by Rs3,690 billion revealing that the country received a financial setback of Rs933 billion ($20.7 billion).

The stock exchange also went down by 3,248 points (21.5%), which stood at 15,126 points by March 31, but shed to 11,878 points just because of the non-availability of required political stability which guarantees economic activities in the country.

Food inflation has also massively increased up to 19.7 per cent, which was 14.1 per cent before the installation of the coalition government. In spite of many attempts The News failed to make contacts with Finance Minister Naveed Qamar and Secretary Finance Furrukh Qayyum to know their side of the story, as both the top men of the ministry did not respond to the calls of this correspondent.

However, the fast deteriorating economic indicators show that the economy is not on the radar screen of the government. This is quite evident from the fact that there is no resolve in corridors of power to provide stable, cohesive political environment to handle the current economic challenges the country is facing. Furthermore, there is total lack of desire from political leadership of coalition parties enjoying power in the country to face the challenges.

SHAME ON ZARDARI, NAWAZ SHARIF, SHAHBAZ SHARIF, ISHAQ DAR, NAVEED QAMAR AND THE PEOPLE OF PAKISTAN WHO SUPPORTED SUCH AN INCOMPETENT PEOPLE

I wish I was a Bangladeshi

The Pakistani Spectator