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DAWN WIRE SERVICE
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Week Ending : 06 June 1996 Issue : 02/23
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Missile facility near completion
India to build aircraft carrier
Indonesia to purchase F-16s meant for Pakistan
Hamid Gul sees civil war in country
Azfar, Dehlavi indicate resumption of talks
PPP firm on party-basis LB polls
10% NFC pool for backward regions
Islamabad, Manila fabricated case: Ramzi
Arrears exceeding Rs1000 : Consumers face power cut
PIA offloads student in New York
Seven cops held for selling arms to dacoits
Neighbourhood group makes PECHS area cleaner, safer
---------------------------------
Visa rules to be simplified for foreign investors
Measures yielding Rs18bn tax finalised
PM okays proposal for trade with India
Report sought on rise in landing charges
NBP may launch Rs 1bn bond
Cheque bouncing to become punishable act
Rs12 billion being spent on uplift schemes in the city
KPT, APL sign $80m agreement to set up container terminal
SPI shows increase of 0.34 per cent
Active foreign support sends KSE index up by 26.24
KSE index recovers 27 points amid massive buying
---------------------------------------
Intent Ardeshir
Cowasjee
Voodoo economics Ayaz
Amir
Reduce, Reuse and Recycle Benazir
Bhutto
Should we count the ways? Rifaat Hamid
Ghani
Edhi's passport Omar
Kureishi
Time to put out your cigarette Omar R.
Quraishi
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Olympian Samiullah named hockey manager
Selection of jr team makes Jansher unhappy
Cricketers in the political field
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960606
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Missile facility near completion
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Staff Correspondent
WASHINGTON, June 5: Pakistan is on the verge of completing a modern
domestic installation capable of producing missiles with a 1000 kg payload
and a striking distance of 600 km, the US armed forces Newswire Service
claimed on Wednesday.
In a brief report, it said: "Work on the construction of the facility is
scheduled for completion by August, with Pakistan reportedly having managed
to obtain sufficient quantities of key solid fuel ingredients."
In addition, it claimed, Chinese experts were also working on the guidance
and control system and on domestic production of solid fuel.
The missile is expected to be a close variant of the M-9 type ballistic
missile already developed by the Chinese.
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960605
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India to build aircraft carrier
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Shaheen Sehbai
WASHINGTON, June 4: India is to build its own 20,000-ton aircraft carrier
for its navy in collaboration with Spain after the Russians have refused to
sell second-hand carrier for less than $ 1.4 billion.
Defence sources said here a high level technical team of Spanish experts
has already visited the Cochin shipyard in India where the new $750 million
carrier is to be built.
The Indians call their new project an 'air defence ship' and it will be
able to accommodate 20 combat helicopters. Sources said the Indian navy had
already approved the project and final approval and funding was being
awaited after the elections and the settling down of the new government in
New Delhi.
The Indian navy's aircraft carrier 'Vikrant' has already been
decommissioned and is docked at Bombay since November 1994 after its
excessive corrosion.
Their second carrier, 36-year old 'Viraat' is also due for decommissioning
in the next five years and the authorities have decided that instead of
spending some $250 million on maintenance of these two old aircraft
carriers, they should build a new one.
Sources said India was planning to buy an 18-year old Kiev- class aircraft
carrier from Russia to replace its old ships but differences over the cost
led to a breakdown in negotiations.
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960606
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Indonesia to purchase F-16s meant for Pakistan
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Shaheen Sehbai
WASHINGTON, June 5: The Clinton administration is close to completing a
deal to deliver 11, and possibly all the 28, Pakistani F-16 combat jets to
Indonesia and reimburse Pakistan, the Washington Post said.
"Indonesias initial purchase will be 11 planes," officials said on
Tuesday.
Defence industry sources told Dawn the deal with Indonesia for all the 28
planes had been made possible after Pakistan agreed to make substantial
defence purchases directly from Indonesia, including some old civilian
planes.
Jakarta would also be asking Washington for easy terms of payment for the
F-16s, if all the 28 were to be purchased, the sources said.
"Even if Indonesia eventually decides to buy all 28," a Pakistani
government spokesman told the Post, "their value has diminished since the
original purchase and there probably would still be a shortfall of at least
$150 million."
Pakistan agreed to the transaction on the understanding that it still wants
full reimbursement and expects Washington to make up the difference, the
spokesman said.
The Post quoted administration officials as saying completion of the
transaction would go a long way toward ending a long-standing dispute
between Washington and Islamabad, but it is drawing criticism from human
rights advocates, who oppose military sales to Indonesia because of that
countrys occupation of East Timor.
Pakistan probably will use the proceeds from the sale to Indonesia to buy
reconditioned Mirage combat planes from France, US officials and diplomatic
sources said.
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960603
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Hamid Gul sees civil war in country
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Shaheen Sehbai
WASHINGTON, June 2: Former ISI chief, Gen Hamid Gul, said on Sunday that
Pakistan was heading fast towards a civil war and needed "a strong, honest,
competent and courageous leadership" to check the free fall.
In an interview telecast by the International TV Channel 56, in its
Pakistani programme 'Mehfil, Mehfil', the retired general said weak and
timid leadership would not be able to steer the country out of the present
morass.
The former ISI chief said if democracy could not provide the fruits that it
should to the people, it was useless. "You cannot name a cactus as a mango
tree and claim that it will give you fruit," he remarked.
He said what was now prevalent in Pakistan was not democracy. "There is
practically a situation of apartheid in Pakistan with the Pajero/Paktel
class trying to enter the 21st century and the poor deprived classes
sliding back into the 13th century."
Gen Gul said people in Pakistan had lost their dignity, and respect for
humanity was non-existent. "The state is not under threat but the country
was heading towards a revolution, a civil war, when the people would no
longer be able to tolerate the injustices."
He said Pakistan was fast moving towards becoming another Rwanda or
Burundi. "I don't understand why the ruling classes think we will not meet
the same fate when we are committing the same mistakes?"
Asked how the situation could be remedied, Gen Gul said cosmetic changes
would not make any difference. "Let there be a complete reaction and let
the people rise against this system. They will because political parties
have become personal fiefdoms and jagirs."
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960603
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Azfar, Dehlavi indicate resumption of talks
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Shamim-ur-Rahman
KARACHI, June 2: A breakthrough could take place next week in the context
of the resumption of stalled talks between the government and the MQM if
positive signals emanating from the people who matter in Islamabad are to
be taken seriously.
Indications for the resumption of formal talks were given at a joint press
briefing by the Sindh governor, Kamal Azfar, and the chief MQM negotiator,
Ajmal Dehlavi, at the end of their over 100- minute exchange of views.
During the meeting, which both sides emphasised was informal "talks about
talks", they had a detailed review of the Karachi problem, including the
law and order situation, the MQM's boycott of the assembly and other
political matters.
Talking to newsmen at a joint briefing after the talks, the governor urged
the MQM to resume talks and come to the negotiating table to sort out its
grievances and make the prevailing calm permanent and effective.
Mr Azfar was confident that this time the negotiation would definitely
succeed.
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960605
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PPP firm on party-basis LB polls
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Bureau Report
ISLAMABAD, June 4: The Central Executive Committee (CEC) of the Pakistan
Peoples Party on Tuesday said the local bodies election should be held on
party-basis throughout the country.
Sheikh Rafiq Ahmad while briefing the newsmen after the CEC meeting said
the party discussed at length the local bodies elections in the country. He
said the party is of the considered opinion that local bodies elections
should be held on party-basis throughout the country.
Asked about the reported opposition by PML (J) to this proposal, Sheikh
Rafiq Ahmad said the party would try to convince the PML (J) leadership to
hold elections on party-basis.
He said local bodies elections in the remaining three provinces would be
held on party-basis. We want that they should also be held on party basis
in Punjab.
Sheikh Rafiq Ahmad said the local bodies elections would be held before the
end of 1996.
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960603
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10% NFC pool for backward regions
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M. Ziauddin
ISLAMABAD, June 2: In a last-minute attempt to formulate a consensus
National Finance Commission Award, the federal government has proposed
distribution of 10 per cent of the provincial share of revenues from the
divisible pool on the basis of need and the rest on population principle.
Under the formula, the need of a province/area has been proposed to be
estimated against the scale of national averages of socio-economic
indicators. Provinces / areas with below national average socio-economic
indicators will receive a lumpsum reflecting the difference between the
national socio-economic indicator averages and the averages of that
particular province/area for the same.
Thus the federally administered tribal areas (FATA), Northern Areas and
Balochistan are likely to get the lion's share from the provincial pool's
10 per cent allocated for distribution on need basis.
The Punjab, which would lose the most from this formula, is expected to be
asked to accept it as a trade-off for having obtained an indefinite
postponement of census.
If the house census which has been completed, is taken as an indicator, a
fresh census would have in any case shown that since 1981 the populations
of Sindh and NWFP together have gone up by not such an insignificant extent
while that of the Punjab had declined pro rata.
A consensus Award has not been evolved so far because, the three smaller
provinces would like revenue collection, development level, resource
generation efforts and population control endeavours to be included among
the distribution criteria.
In the 1991 NFC Award, the biggest beneficiary was Punjab while the NWFP
had gained the least.
This anomaly was a consequence of the lack of innovation in the revenue
sharing formula and the exclusion of important considerations like
backwardness, urbanisation and land area, etc.
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960601
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Islamabad, Manila fabricated case: Ramzi
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Masood Haider
NEW YORK, May 31: Ramzi Ahmed Youseff, the main defendant in the terror
trial, spurned the advice of the federal court judge, Kevin Duffy, and said
here on Thursday that he was being tortured in a Pakistani jail at the time
when the US authorities put him in Manila, Philippine, planning to launch
an international campaign of terror.
After Judge Duffy reluctantly allowed him to waive his right to a lawyer,
Ramzi Ahmed Youseff, said the case against him was based on evidence
fabricated by Pakistani and Philippines authorities who were trying to
please the United States government.
Youseff is charged by the US prosecutors for planning to launch an
"international campaign of terror" from Philippine, by blowing up 11 US
jumbo jet airliners, en route to destinations is South Asia, in which as
many as 4,000 people could have been killed.
Youseff, who was coherent and eloquent in his defence contended that he
could not have planted the bomb that exploded on the Philippine airliner on
Dec 11, 1994, in what the US prosecutors say was a rehearsal for a much
broader plan, because he was being held by the Pakistani military police
from late November 1994 until Feb 8, 1995. That was the time he was turned
over to the US federal agents for extradition to the United States.
He said that the evidence would show that he was tortured during that
period of time, he was deprived of food. He was shackled in a very painful
way. He maintained that his blood had stained some objects in Pakistani
jail which would be shown to the jury as evidence.
Speaking in third person while turning towards the jury at the trial which
opened here on Wednesday said that during the course of the trial "you will
learn that defendant Youseff was a victim of two governments that wanted to
please the United States and showing that they were making favour for the
United States by building this case and fabricating most of the evidence."
"So I would like also to ask you to ignore whatever you hear from the media
about the defendant Youseff, and I would also ask you to ignore all the
spectators in this courtroom and just to concentrate on the evidence. And
if you do so, I believe that the only just verdict which you would find
after the end of this trial is 'not guilty'."
However, Youseff did not explain on Thursday as to why the Pakistani
authorities wanted him locked up. He is also to account for his whereabouts
during the World Trade Center bombing for which he faces another trial.
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960601
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Arrears exceeding Rs1000 : Consumers face power cut
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Shamim-ur-Rehman
KARACHI, May 31: The KESC has decided to disconnect connections under a
recovery drive to overcome the liquidity crunch.
The field staff of the KESC has been instructed to snap connection of
consumers whose arrears exceed than Rs 1000.00 irrespective of the due date
mentioned on the bill, said a spokesman of the KESC on Friday.
Admitting paucity of funds, the spokesman said the KESC was in urgent need
of funds to carry out its development projects to overcome the problem of
frequent breakdowns in their areas.
While mentioning paucity of fund as one of the reason for the recovery
drive for financing development projects, the spokesman in another
statement said "sufficient funds and material is available" for
reinforcements of PMTs, laying of additional cables and feeders etc. under
the 11 kV rehabilitation programme.
The electricity company did not explain where all the funds already
procured and released for the distribution system improvement had gone
especially when about 80 per cent of the work had not been carried out as
yet.
The spokesman claimed that final disconnection notices had already been
sent to all defaulters and added that advertisements, which should be
treated as final notice, are also being published in local newspapers on
Saturday for information of defaulters, who might not have received
notices.
Inquiries revealed that about 80 per cent of the KESC's over 1.3 million
consumers had not received the bills. Many of the lucky ones, who have
arranged for courier service, received the bill on Thursday afternoon after
banking hours, in may cases just a day before the due date.
Many of the KESC consumers complained that they have been receiving
inflated bills which were not being rectified while others said they
received disconnection notices even when they had paid the outstanding
dues.
The general consensus was that a majority of the KESC consumers had become
defaulter because the billing department had not properly fed the required
data into the computer.
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960531
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PIA offloads student in New York
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Masood Haider
NEW YORK, May 30: As summer holidays approach, the PIA overbooks to
maximise its payload, and then offloads the passengers, telling them it was
the fault of their travel agents who did not confirm their seats before
issuing the ticket.
In most cases PIA officials allegedly misrepresent the facts. This happened
in one particular case, which is microcosm of the norm existing at the
airlines airport counter. Adnan Ahmed, a student returning to Karachi for
summer holidays, like several hundreds of his counterparts, was offloaded
and the PIA staff told him he had a request seat. They promised him a seat
on the next available flight. However, Adnan was offloaded again last
Friday and asked to stay in the airport lobby for another day. He was
eventually put on a flight on Saturday.
When the PIA staff at the airport was asked about his whereabouts by his
family members here, they were simply told: He was a No-show on the
Thursday flight. We do not know where he is.
When General Manager Salim Jehangir was asked to comment on the incident,
he said these things happen every day.
He put the blame on Pakistani travel agents who he said issued tickets with
OK stickers without confirming the seats.
When he was informed that in this particular case, after being offloaded
the PIA offered Adnan hotel room, but told his relatives they had no idea
about his whereabouts, insisting that he was a No-show in writing, Mr.
Jehangir said: "I will have to look into this particular case."
He accused all travel agents in the United States of having ruined the
image of the national carrier by overbooking.
He, however, conceded that similar incidents had happened in the past
wherein police had to be called in to stop the passengers from physically
manhandling the staff.
"Hundreds of people were issued confirmed seats by these unscrupulous
agents last year during the peak season and the PIA had to take the brunt
of the whole mess."
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960606
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Seven cops held for selling arms to dacoits
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Staff Correspondent
HYDERABAD, June 5: The senior superintendent of police, Hyderabad, has
disclosed that the Hyderabad police have arrested seven policemen, who had
been selling arms and ammunition to dacoits from the police arsenal.
He said stolen arms, which included 10 Kalashnikovs and two repeater guns,
had also been recovered. He said the police had also busted a gang of
motorcycle thieves and recovered 12 bikes from their possession.
He said 30 police picket, including six pickets of rangers, would be
established in a couple of days in Qasimabad and made it clear that no one
whoever may he be, if found involved in any crime would not be spared.
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960601
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Neighbourhood group makes PECHS area cleaner, safer
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Omar R. Quraishi
KARACHI, May 31: Government inaction and the inefficiency of the city's
civic agencies have caused many city neighbourhoods to degenerate. However,
some people decided that they would stand by the wayside and silently watch
the rot. Partially successful in their efforts, they have now been
approached by residents of other areas to expand this community action.
A neighbourhood group of residents in PECHS's Block 6 has stepped in where
the government and its civic agencies seem to have abdicated their
responsibilities.
The Neighbourhood Care-Citizen's Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) project
has done what other Karachiites can only wish for: a secure, safe and a
well-lit neighbourhood; streets that are cleaned regularly and have no open
manholes; garbage and trash that is picked up and disposed off properly and
not thrown indiscriminately outside anyone's house; no overflowing smelly
gutters polluting the area; and a local park that is properly looked after.
Started in March 1995, Neighbourhood Care (NC) runs on the material and
financial donations of local residents.
Close to 80 people give between Rs 1500 to Rs 3000 every month to the NC, a
few have contributed larger sums for a 'capital fund' which is used is set
aside for larger projects or contingencies.
The area the NC tries to look after stretches from the Nursery market in
the south to just before Hill Park in the north, and from where Block 6
starts near Tariq Road to where Sharea Faisal runs.
The NC has an office on Hamid Hussain Road (36/M, Block 6), open 24 hours a
day, seven days a week, and manned by supervisors working in three shifts.
Danial Mehmud is an NC volunteer who spends an hour every morning at the
office, before he goes to work. He told this reporter that several people
in neighbourhoods adjacent to Block 6 Rohelkhand Society, Block 2, the
Hill Park area, the rest of Block 6 on the other side of Sharea Faisal
were interested in copying the NC programme in their areas.
"Many of them have even come to the NC office and seemed quite determined
to do something on the lines the NC is doing in Block," Mr Mehmud said.
Next to the office is a large plot which used to be a rubbish dump but was
actually meant for a park. The NC lobbied the KMC to help to clear the
place and convert the plot for its intended use.
A visit to the site on Friday by this reporter showed that conversion work
was well underway. NC's co-ordinator Sami Nustafa told Dawn that this
refurbishment would cost around Rs 800,000 and the money had been raised by
an NC member and an anonymous donor.
To provide security in the neighbourhood, the NC first bought a Suzuki
Khyber and two motorcycles. The car, used for patrolling the neighbourhood,
has a donated mobile phone (out of use these days because of the
prohibition on mobile phones) and a wireless system connected with the
office.
The CPLC helped facilitate the permanent assignment of twelve policemen to
the NC by the inspector-general of the Sindh police. They work in two
shifts and get a salary from the group in addition to the one they get from
the Sindh government.
The patrol car is on call 24 hours a day and a number " 4528888 " is
advertised throughout the neighbourhood for this purpose.
Ms Farah, one of three NC office managers told this reporter that the
office occasionally gets calls from residents who want the patrol car to
drive by their house because they think a stranger is around.
"Recently, though our office has come in handy for a different reason.
There are a lot of schools in this area. We have got calls several times
from female drivers who are on their way to these schools to pick up their
children, and suspect that some shady people are following their car. These
women have come to our office and we send our patrol car to escort them to
their home. The last incident of this kind happened three or four weeks
ago," she said.
The NC also believes that better lit streets are a deterrent against crime.
Since April 1995, it has spent Rs 75,000 on replacing and repairing street
lights and lighting up previously unlit lanes.
The NC has managed to procure six sweepers courtesy the KMC health
department, and they are assigned with them permanently. They are
responsible for picking up the garbage and trash in the neighbourhood. A
Suzuki pickup was bought for this purpose in August 1995.
All houses within the NC's coverage area it doesn't matter whether they
are members or not get thirty plastic bags every month in which they are
told to put their trash. The pickup goes around six days a week collecting
the trash-bags and takes them to large waste-collection bins provided by
the KMC. The NC van is also made available for a fee to members who want to
use it for disposing garden or plant waste or other cartage purposes.
Since December 1995 the NC has also spent about Rs 95,000 on paying a
private contractor to fix collapsed manholes and damaged water and sewage
lines. It also successfully asked the KWSB to give 65 manhole covers for
the neighbourhood. These were provided at no charge.
Although the NC thinks that electricity breakdowns are too big and
widespread a problem for it to tackle, it did manage to get the KESC " with
much help from the CPLC " to install what are called pole-mounted
transformers (PMTs) ; these reduce voltage fluctuations. The first PMT
began working in November, two more will be installed.
Neighbourhood Care every month spends Rs 125,900 on its programme.
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===================================================================
960601
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Visa rules to be simplified for foreign investors
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M. Ziauddin
ISLAMABAD, May 31: The government is seriously considering a proposal to
simplify visa rules for foreign investors and executives of multinational
corporations visiting Pakistan in connection with investment activities.
The proposal envisages that foreign 'investors' and 'expatriate employees'
from major investing countries like USA, Canada, UK, Germany, Japan, Korea
and Malaysia, and their families should be granted multiple entry visa for
the period they need to stay in Pakistan for purposes of investment or for
a period of three years.
It has also been proposed to exempt foreign investors and expatriate
employees from the above mentioned countries from police registration and
resident permits requirements. For identification purposes company's
appointment letters authenticated by the Board of Investment (BoI) is
proposed to be taken as proof.
It has also been proposed that foreign investors and expatriate employees
from the seven countries mentioned above, who have to often travel on short
notices will be exempted from obtaining exit permits from the police.
And finally it has been proposed that foreign investors and expatriate
employees coming to Pakistan on business visa from countries mentioned
above, who subsequently get employment in Pakistan, may be allowed on
furnishing the proof of employment, conversion of their visa to work visa
so that they may continue to work here.
For investors and expatriate employees from other than the seven countries
mentioned, problems arising may be sorted out on case by case basis by the
interior division but not later than 15 days after referral of the case.
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960605
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Measures yielding Rs18bn tax finalised
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M. Ziauddin
ISLAMABAD, June 4: The four-member special committee constituted in
February, 1996, under the commerce minister to examine the tax regime and
its system of collection has submitted a 17-point strategy to the
government, the implementation of which is estimated to generate additional
revenues amounting to Rs18 billion.
The committee has recommended allocation of Rs100 million in 1996-97 budget
for undertaking nation-wide survey, data-entry of survey information,
printing of income tax stamps and provision of necessary infrastructure
for monitoring the flat tax regime.
The committee proposes that all incomes including agricultural income may
be subjected to income tax; all persons, irrespective of the amount of
their income, may be made liable to income tax and; non-corporate taxpayers
earning their incomes from business, profession and vocations conducted
through shops and small manufacturing units (other than those opting out of
the system or specifically excluded) may be taxed at flat rates. There may
be no requirements for filing of income tax returns.
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960606
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PM okays proposal for trade with India
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Ihtashamul Haque
ISLAMABAD, June 5: Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has finally approved a
proposal for the opening of formal trade with India ruling out the
possibility of any political repercussion as a consequence.
I have submitted a report to the prime minister and she has advised me to
go ahead with the opening of formal trade with India, said the Minister
for Commerce Chauhdry Ahmad Mukhtar.
She has told me that the officials of the commerce ministry should only be
concerned about the economic repercussions of initiating trade with India
and should forget about any political repercussion, Ahmad Mukhtar said
quoting further Ms. Bhutto as having said that Pakistans political
interests would not be compromised over the issue.
However, Pakistans High Commissioner in New Delhi is said to have opposed
the opening of formal trade with India but without offering any plausible
explanation. Few weeks ago some of the officials of the security agencies
were called in the Ministry of Commerce to air their views whether trade
with India would cause any political and economic harm to Pakistan.
However, they too reportedly could not convince the officials over the
issue except repeating that the people of Pakistan would not endorse the
idea. It was in that backdrop the officials of the ministry of commerce
specially the commerce minister and commerce secretary favoured formal
trade with India. They have decided to favour trade with India after having
met the representatives of Pakistan Federation of Chamber of Commerce and
Industry and many other business leaders of Pakistan.
The commerce minister further stated that Pakistan would have an advantage
to start trade with India and that it was wrong to presume that Pakistan
will be a looser in the game.
Mr. Chander Ram, who was earlier the minister of commerce and now the
minister of finance of India has assured me that India would certainly
consider Pakistans demand to offer special incentives on import tariffs,
Ahmad Mukhtar said.
We have received a positive response from India to have both way trade
which I am sure will also lessen political tension between the two
countries, he believed.
He said currently India was ready to start trade through Bombay and Karachi
but, we are sure they would also accept to have this trade from other
channels as well.
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960606
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Report sought on rise in landing charges
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Bureau Report
LAHORE, June 5: Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto on Wednesday cited the
enormous increase by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in landing charges
for aircraft as a major disincentive for foreign investors to come to
Pakistan and directed the authorities concerned to submit to the government
a set of recommendations within two months to solve this problem.
The prime ministers remarks came after she had performed the ground-
breaking ceremony of Lahore airports new $220 million passenger terminal
complex which is scheduled to be completed in 30 months.
Ms Bhutto said it was painful for her to hear that the number of foreign
flights coming to Pakistan had gone down because of a substantial increase
in landing charges.
This is very bad, a disincentive for foreign investors. The policy of the
CAA is based on narrow-mindedness.
The Prime Minister was given a briefing by Defence Secretary Salim Abbas
Jilani and the CAA director general about the salient features of the
project after which she started asking questions.
When she was told that the project would be completed by December 1998, she
said in a lighter vein that it should be made operational in August of that
year, when the constitutional term of the present government would be
coming to an end.
Defence Secretary Salim Abbas Jilani, in his address of welcome, said the
new terminal building would be equipped with all modern facilities. The
existing building, he admitted, did not have enough facilities for
passengers and at time it caused a lot of inconvenience to air travellers.
According to him the CAA had now acquired a radar system which had a wider
coverage.
CAA Director-General Khalil Ahmed, in his briefing to the prime minister,
said the existing terminal building at the Lahore airport was insufficient
to take the increasing load of passengers. The new terminal building would
be able to handle six million passengers a year and the capacity could be
doubled as and when required. The new terminal has been designed by NESPAK.
The terminal will have the capacity to have seven planes on one side and 13
on the other with a parking facility for 800 vehicles.
The economic rate of return of the project would be 18.5 per cent and
Lahore would get benefits worth Rs33 billion over a period of 20 years.
About 3,000 people would work on the project to complete it.
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960603
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NBP may launch Rs 1bn bond
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Mohiuddin Aazim
KARACHI, June 2: After floating a $75 million commercial paper in the US in
April, National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) plans to launch a Rs 1.0 billion
rupee-denominated debt instrument in Pakistan.
A source close to NBP say the proposed instrument possibly a term finance
certificate (TFC) of three years maturity may offer an annual return of
more than 15 per cent. Three-year Federal Investment Bonds (FIBs) offer 13
per cent.
"The proposed debt-instrument may be a bond or a TFC," said the source. He
said in either case the instrument would be of 3-year maturity and traded
across the country through NBP branch network. He said the return would be
paid by way of six-monthly coupons in case the proposed instrument is a
bond.
Overseas Pakistanis and foreigners would also be able to purchase the NBP
debt-instrument going to be the first one of their kind launched by any
Pakistani bank. These are likely to be offered in Rs 5,000 and Rs 100,000
denominations for individual and corporate buyers respectively.
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960602
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Cheque bouncing to become punishable act
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Sabihuddin Ghausi
KARACHI, June 1: The government plans to introduce a budgetary measure from
July next, which will make all business transactions of Rs 0.1 million and
above , compulsorily cheque based, in a bid to move ahead on path of
documentation of the national economy.
Senior bankers and economists, consulted by budget makers in Islamabad
recently, hinted at the possibility of 1996-97 budget incorporating a
measure which would forbid cash transactions of Rs 0.1 million and above.
For this purpose, the government is framing a law to make bouncing of bank
cheques a punishable offence either by way of fine which could be double
the amount of cheque which could not be encashed or in default a maximum
imprisonment of one year.
Draft of the proposed law, which seeks to amend the Negotiable Instrument
Act, 1881, has been finalised after years- long exercise in which the
finance and law ministries and legal departments of the State Bank of
Pakistan and Pakistan Banking Council and nationalised commercial banks
were involved.
Likely to be tabled in the form of a Bill in one of the next sessions of
the National Assembly, the proposed law stipulates that if the amount of
cheque is not honoured within 30 days of the receipt of information of non-
payment of the cheque to the person in whose favour it is drawn, the person
who has drawn the cheque will be liable for punishment.
It lays down three specific conditions which can make the drawer of the
cheque liable for punishment. The first condition is that when a person
draws a cheque knowingly that such a cheque will not be honoured. In the
second condition, when there is no or insufficient funds in the account on
which a cheque is drawn, and the third condition is when a cheque is drawn
on an account which is not in the name of the drawer.
The law holds director, partner or employee of a company, a corporation, a
firm or an institution equally responsible for the offence if it is
established that such a cheque which has been eventually dishonoured by a
bank has been issued with his knowledge.
Bankers expect the bill to be adopted as law by the National Assembly in
the near future as they consider it linked with the budgetary measures for
the next fiscal year.
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960602
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Rs12 billion being spent on uplift schemes in the city
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Staff Reporter
KARACHI, June 1: The Sindh government is taking up 112 development schemes
in Karachi at a total cost of Rs 12.46 billion, Syed Asad Ali Shah, Advisor
to Chief Minister on Finance and Development announced.
Speaking at a Press conference in which he gave an overview of Sindhs
finances and development during 1995-96, as first of the series of such
Press briefings planned for next 12 days every day by the Provincial
Information Department, the Advisor said Karachi development programme
includes 55 water supply schemes, 24 sewerage and 17 communication schemes
in addition to the schemes for storm water drains, solid waste management,
fire fighting equipment, recreational development which, according to him,
are at different stages of execution.
In context of water supply to Karachi, he said another scheme of augmenting
water supply by 42 million gallons a day will be completed by December,
1996, while work on project to further increase the supply by 54 MGD is in
full swing. Yet another mega-project to increase water supply by 100 MGD is
being taken up with foreign assistance for which Rs 720 million has been
provided from local sources.
Despite these schemes, Syed Asad Ali Shah said, Karachi will continue to
suffer water shortage as by the time these projects are completed, the
demand for water increases. At present, he said, there is a gap of 200
million gallons between supply and demand in the city.
Giving an overview of 1995-96 development effort in Sindh, the Advisor said
a gigantic outlay of Rs 15.5 billion was involved. It included Rs 7 billion
ADP, Rs 3.5 billion Tameer-i-Sindh programme and the foreign-aided
programme was raised to Rs 5 billion from original Rs 3.5 billion.
He said that bulk of the Rs 3.5 billion Tameer-e-Sindh programme was for
Karachi amounting to Rs 1.6 billion while the remaining amount is being
invested in all parts of the province.
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960602
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KPT, APL sign $80m agreement to set up container terminal
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Our Reporter
KARACHI, June 1: The Karachi Port Trust (KPT), the American President Lines
(APL) and International Container Terminal Service Inc. of Philippines
(ICTSI) consortium signed an Implementation Agreement for setting up a
container terminal at berth nos. 22-24 at West Wharf at an estimated cost
of $80 million.
Under the agreement $57 million will be spent on the procurement of
equipment and $23 million on civil works. The consortium has been allotted
an area of 136,222 square metre at West Wharf for setting up the terminal.
The KPT apart from charging full wharfage and shipping dues, will receive a
lease rental at the rate of Rs292 per square metre per annum and royalty at
15 per cent on container handling charges that is a total revenue of Rs 123
million for the year 01 increasing to Rs433 million in year 20. An increase
of 15 per cent in the ground rent has been agreed upon by the KPT, APL and
the ICTSI after completion of every three years.
Under the agreement the consortium formed by APL and ICTSI of Philippines
will be given lease right of 20 years renewable at the time of its expiry
at fresh terms and conditions. The terminal will be built on build, operate
and transfer basis.
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960606
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SPI shows increase of 0.34 per cent
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KARACHI, June 5: The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI), with 1990-91 as the
base, for the week ended June 3, 1996, released by the Federal Bureau of
Statistics (FBS), showed an increased of 0.34% over the SPI for the
preceding week.
The SPI showed an increase of 8.92% over the corresponding week of last
year (on June 3, 1996, over June 5, 1995) as against 14.14% in the previous
period (on June 05, 1995, over June 7, 1994).
The increase in SPI during the current week as compared to previous week
was mainly due to rise in the prices of onions (10.8%), tomatoes (8.3%),
milk powdered Nido (3.5%), eggs (3.1%), red chillies (2.8%), potatoes
(2.6%), moong pulse (1.5%), mash pulse (1.2%) and bread plain (1.0%).
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960531
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Active foreign support sends KSE index up by 26.24
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Commerce Reporter
KARACHI, May 30: Leading shares came in for strong short-covering aided by
active foreign and institutional support, pushing the index by over 26
points.
There was a virtual scramble for the blue chips at the current levels on
predictions that the market might witness heavy pre-budget speculative
buying in some pivotals as foreign investors are after them to make up
portfolio shortfall.
The KSE index rose by another 26.24 points at 1,737.25, putting it back in
a relatively safer area as compared to 1,711.01 a day earlier. Fears were
allayed that it could again breach the barrier of 1,700 points by the end
of current week.
Volume was massive around 50m shares, sending signals in the bear quarters
that the market was back on the rails.
Analysts, however, doubted the markets ability to sustain any snap pre-
budget rally as uncertainties associated with the budget could work against
the sentiment.
They said speculative buying might figure prominently on selected counters
but it was uncertain that it could sustain the run-up in the sessions
preceding the budget.
The market advance was led by the energy sector where all the blue chips
recovered smartly on pre-budget buying on predictions of increase in the
petroleum prices in the new budget.
PSO added another Rs 20 to last two sessions gains of Rs 17, which pushed
well above its chart point of Rs 402. The interesting feature was that
54,300 shares changed hands at this higher levels.
Other energy shares, which rose appreciably were led by Ideal Energy, Hub-
Power, and Shell Pakistan including its right share, which spurted by Rs 8.
Some of the MNCs in the chemical and pharma sectors also attracted good
support and ended with smart rallies under the lead of Searle Pakistan,
Fauji Fertiliser, Dawood Hercules and Engro Chemicals, rising by one rupee
to Rs 5.
Other leading shares, which showed good gains were led by 24th ICP, which
rose by Rs 24 followed by 6th ICP, ICP SEMF, MCB and KASB & Co, rising one
rupee to Rs 2.10.
Some of the textiles shares also came in for active short-covering at the
lower rates and rose under the lead of Apex Fabrics, and Friends Spinning.
SK&F led the list of most actives, off Rs 8 followed by Pakistan Refinery,
Mari Gas, Lever Brothers, Brooke Bond, ICI Pakistan and Knoll Pharma,
falling by one rupee to Rs 2.
Despite a higher divided by the Central Insurance, insurance shares
attracted weekend selling and finished lower under the lead of EFU, IGI and
some others.
A cash dividend at the rate of 50 per cent from the Central Insurance and
an interim dividend of five per cent from the directors of Olympia Spinning
were well-received in the rings. But the interim from the Olympia Spinning
presented a pleasant surprise to many brokers.
The most active list was topped by PTC vouchers, up Rs 1.35 on 19.300m,
shares, Hub-Power, higher one rupee on 18.320m, Dewan Salman, firm one
rupee on 1.160m, FFC-Jordan Fertiliser, steady 10 paisa on 0.663m shares,
Lucky Cement, lower five paisa on 0.449m, MCB, up Rs 2.10 on 0.329m, Faysal
Bank, firm 35 paisa on 0.247m and Dhan Fibre, unchanged on 0.274m shares.
Trading volume rose to 49.440m shares from the previous 34.671m shares
thanks to massive activities in PTC and Hub-Power.
There were 352 actives, out of which 155 shares suffered fall, while 119
rose, with 78 holding on to the last levels.
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960606
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KSE index recovers 27 points amid massive buying
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Commerce Reporter
KARACHI, June 5: The Karachi Stock Exchange index of 100 shares staged a
broad rally, recovering 27 points amid massive buying in some of the
leading base shares, notably PSO and Shell Pakistan.
But analysts said the rally could be deceptive as it was not backed by the
broader market and could falter half way any time as the required follow-up
support to sustain it is not there.
A big rise of Rs 26 in PSO after the news of its sale promotion deal with
Coca Cola appears to be the chief inspiring factor behind the snap rally,
said a leading dealer.
What was more important was that the price flare-up in PSO, which is said
to be the largest in a single session in any 10-rupee share in the recent
past was not speculative as it was matched by a big volume of over 0.100m
shares, they said adding which means the rise is genuine and not
speculative, he added.
The notable feature is that it just followed the PSO-Coca Cola deal and
reflected foreign buying for good reasons, analysts said.
The PSO in early 1994 boom had touched the high mark of Rs 450 owing to
massive increase in its sales to Rs 62bn from Rs 42bn but during the 1995
stock market slump it had touched the low level of Rs 275 before recovering
to the current highs.
The market sentiment was influenced favourably after the advent of strong
speculative buying in PTC vouchers, which again broke the Rs 40 barrier and
was last quoted around Rs 42.40 on a massive volume of 25 million shares.
Without PTC, the performance of the market is lacklustre and that was
perhaps why the snap rally could be deceptive as it has more than 30 per
cent weightage in 100-share index owing to its size and the market
capitalisation, analysts said and so is PSO.
Bulk of the support elsewhere remained centred around local blue chips and
most of the MNCs, notably Shell Pakistan, which maintained its upward drive
and has risen well over Rs 30 during the last few weeks on news of a
substantial increase in sales and expectations of higher dividend.
Others followed it included Glaxo Lab, Wyeth Lab and BOC Pakistan, which
also showed good gains. Among the local blue chips, which rose appreciably
ICP SEMF, National Fibre, Al-Abid Silk, Sui Southern and some others were
leading.
But bank, cement, energy and chemical and pharma sectors as a whole gave
mixed performance as dealers played on both sides of the fence, although
their current low levels are attractive enough for any pre-budget
speculative buying.
Some of the leading shares including MNCs, such as Wellcome Pakistan,
Hoechst Pakistan, Reckitt and Colman, Siemens and Dawood Hercules did fall
but fractionally, reflecting the selling was motivated for replacement
buying rather than any other reason.
Owing to good dividend from most of the leading companies, insurance shares
were traded higher and so did synthetic ones on expectations of duty cuts
on the polyester fibre in the new budget.
On the corporate front, the board of directors of Pakistan Guarantee
Insurance Company have announced a cash dividend at the rate of 5.5 per
cent for the year ended Dec 31, 1995, while the directors of Crescent
Spinning have omitted the dividend for the year ended Sept 30, 1995.
The most active list was topped by PTC vouchers, up Rs 2.15 on 24.831m
shares followed by Hub-Power, steady 30 paisa on 5.750m shares, FFC-Jordan
Fertiliser, firm 45 paisa on 0.911m shares, Dewan Salman, up 25 paisa on
0.623m shares and Lucky Cement, steady 15 paisa on 0.502m shares.
Other actives were led by Crescent Bank, lower 40 paisa on 0.247m shares,
Faysal Bank, up 50 paisa on 0.171m shares, Fauji Fertiliser, higher 50
paisa on 0.164m shares and Ansari Sugar, unchanged on 0.229m shares. There
were some other notable deals also.
Trading volume further expanded to 37.835m shares from the overnights 33m
shares thanks to massive activity in PTC vouchers.
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960531
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Intent
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Ardeshir Cowasjee
LETS discard the icing, throw the marzipan to the birds, and get down to
the fruit cake.
Every citizen of this country who can read, write and think, can say
without any fear of contradiction that it is, and always has been, the
intent of all our leaders (barring the first), to enforce their will, to
tailor the constitution and all of the laws of the land and to interpret
them to suit their own special needs so that they may remain in power for
ever. During the early years, the leaders did make some sort of effort to
pretend that they had the interests of the country and its people at heart,
bogus thought it may have been, but since 1971 even pretence has been
discarded. Now, it is total blatant glasnost; machinations, schemes and
scams are publicly, fearlessly and contemptuously aired.
The whole wise world knows that whatsoever be the foundation of a
democratic government, whether it be the Magna Carta, the Declaration of
Independence, Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite, the Objectives Resolution, or
whatever, the democratic grundnorm is firmly based on the belief
expostulated by Jefferson: that all men are created equal and independent,
that from that equal creation they derive rights inherent and inalienable,
among which are the preservation of life and liberty and the pursuit of
happiness.
Now to our much-mutilated 1973 Constitution (its original form now
unrecognisable), to the makers of which and to the intent of these makers
some fifty references have been made by the drafters of the governments
review petition filed in the Supreme Court in the Judges Case. Just what
was the intent of the makers of our Constitution, and just how mangled were
their minds?
Memories are short-lived. In 1972, soon after the worlds first civilian
martial law administrator became our president he appointed a constitution
commission headed by Law Minister Mahmud Ali Kasuri, that good lawyer and
forthright man, to come up with the make or frame a constitution for this
country. That same year, Kasuri resigned as he was unable to agree with
Bhuttos idea of democracy and the form of the constitution he wished the
people to have, with power centralised and personalised, and the federating
provinces not being granted the autonomy fairly due to them.
Our democratic leaders do not take kindly to resignations. Kasuri, still a
member of the National Assembly, suffered reprisals at the hands of his
master. He was framed in murder cases in Kasur, and to ensure his liberty,
Barrister Ijaz Batalvi had to seek bail before arrest. After the exit from
the commission of Kasuri, the task was redelegated to the masters pliable
and servile servants. The intent of the constitution was to make the prime
minister all powerful and keep the president as a non-entity. So, when
Bhutto, in 1973, decided to step down to become prime minister, he looked
around for a suitable person to replace him.
This true story I relate again to exemplify the working of the then
democratic thought. Rumours were rife that Bhutto was considering Sir
Mohammed Shafis daughter, Begum Shahnawaz, a good Punjabi. Was she not
dead? I asked myself, and turned to her autobiography, Father and Daughter.
The fly-leaf bears two inscriptions: To Rahim with sincere good wishes Apa
Jehanara 27 August 1971, and Her brother preferred to give this book to
his pal Ardeshir Cowasjee, Karachi 20.3.1973. Begum Shahnawaz had asked
her brother, Iqi Shafi, to deliver the book to Minister Jalaluddin Abdur
Rahim. He never did. In it read, A new village was built on the Grand
Trunk Road, about one mile from the Shalamar Gardens and became known as
Baghbanpura. It was there, in my grandparents house, that I was born on 7
April 1896.
She was not old by Chinese standards, but I phoned Iqi. Is it true that
your old sister is being seriously considered as a candidate for the
presidency? True, replied Iqi, absolutely true. Is she up to it? I
asked. She qualifies, pal, she qualifies. She cant see, she cant hear,
she can barely talk, and needs assistance to walk. But shes on to a good
thing, so are we. She will have a special train in which she can tour the
country and we can tag along with her. So pack your bags, pal. Shes
confident. She is even furbishing her wardrobe.
A few days later, Iqi rang. Unpack, pal, unpack. Jehanaras chances are
receding. Unfortunately she has regained her hearing, her speech is
becoming clearer. No go, pal, no go, unpack.
It was Fazal Elahi Chaudhary who was finally chosen. He was pliant, and
delivered without demur what was asked of him. Four hours after the
Constitution was promulgated on August 14, 1973, guaranteeing to the people
their fundamental rights, the President was made to put his pen to the
following Order:
The Gazette of Pakistan, Extra, August 15, 1973 Islamabad, the 15th
August 1973 No.F.24 (1)/73-Pub.- The following Order made by the President
on the 14th August 1973, is hereby published for general information:
Order.
Whereas Article 280 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of
Pakistan provides that the Proclamation of Emergency issued on the 23rd day
of November, 1971, shall be deemed to be a Proclamation of Emergency issued
under Article 232 thereof:
And Whereas clause (2) of Article 233 of the said Constitution provides
that while a Proclamation of Emergency is in force, the President may, by
Order, declare that the right to move any court for the enforcement of such
of the Fundamental Rights conferred by Chapter 1 of Part II of the
Constitution as may be specified in the Order, and any proceeding in any
court which is for the enforcement, or involves the determination of any
question as to the infringement, of the Rights so specified shall remain
suspended for the period during which the Proclamation is in force;
And Whereas the aforesaid Proclamation of Emergency is in force;
Now, Therefore, in exercise of the powers conferred by the said clause (2)
of Article 233, the President is pleased to declare that the right to move
any court, including the right to move the Supreme Court, vide clause (3)
of Article 184, for the enforcement of the Fundamental Rights provided for
in Articles 10,15,16,17,18,19,23,24,25 and 27 of the Constitution, and all
proceedings pending in any court which are for the enforcement, or involve
the determination of any question as to the enforcement, of any of the said
Rights shall remain suspended for the period during which the said
Proclamation is in force.
Signed: Fazal Elahi Chaudhary President
Countersigned under Article 48(3) of the Constitution. Shah Nawaz Khan
Joint Secretary, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Prime Minister
Thus were the people deprived of their freedoms, of their constitutionally
guaranteed fundamental rights. The very next day, the dissenters and
opposition leaders were arrested and remained incarcerated until Bhutto
fell four years later. Did the framer-in-chief not know on the morning of
the promulgation that he would take back from the people, that same
afternoon, their inalienable rights given four hours earlier? The intent
was to befool the people for yet another time, all in the name of the law.
Kasuri, still an MNA, was one of the 13 who did not sign the Constitution.
In 1975, when the Rules of Procedure were suspended and the Fourth
Constitution Bill concerning the liberty of the individual was rushed
through, Kasuri and a few others in the opposition opposed it. The Speaker
ordered that the opposers be physically thrown out of the chamber. This was
done.
It is indeed unfortunate that the leaders of this country consider the
thinking of the teeming 130 millions-plus (the majority illiterate and a
very insignificant minority literate) to be as juvenile and delinquent as
their own. Thanks to them and their cringing selfish sycophantic
supporters, backwards is the only direction in which we can progress. Soon
after Jinnah made Pakistan, I remember buying a dollar for Rs. 3.80. The
other day I bought it for Rs 38.00.
This country is being ruled by progressively more and more edicts and
ordinances. The government does not budget the increased charges for
utilities. They merely increase, time and time again, the surcharges. The
prices of bare necessities are increasing by leaps and bounds. The poor and
oppressed are agitated. The executive cannot afford an independent
judiciary.
The judiciary, on the other hand, supported by the people, has asserted
itself. Despite the efforts of the executive to create a rift in its ranks,
it has so far remained united. It owes it to the people to interpret the
Constitution in keeping with the original universal democratic intent: to
uphold the inalienable inherent rights of the people, to preserve their
life and liberty, and to allow them to pursue, as best they may, happiness.
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960603
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Voodoo economics
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Ayaz Amir
THE strength or the spirit to howl with pain the people of Pakistan lost a
long time ago. Like children exhausted by crying they have learnt to mute
their sorrows. Now a revolution is at hand because even this privilege they
may be on the verge of losing. Twelve more months of Ms Bhutto's macro-
management of the economy and they will be deprived of the strength even to
whimper with pain.
This is what the sustained inflationary onslaught of the last three years
has done to the proud people of Pakistan: beaten them into a state of
abject submission and robbed them even of the power of protesting. The
Black Label / Turbo Cooler classes, whose leaping prosperity has been the
most conspicuous achievement of the Islamic Republic during the last
fifteen years, may not be aware of the plight of their less fortunate
countrymen but those who live on a fixed salary or those families whose
grown-up sons have been looking for a proper sifarish so that they may get
a low-paying job have somewhat different experiences to relate. In Mr V.A.
Jafarey's economic hothouse it is becoming increasingly difficult for such
people to survive and at the same time keep the last shreds of their
dignity intact.
It has taken the combined wisdom of Ms Bhutto (who is her own finance
minister), the inevitable Mr V.A. Jafarey, Shahid Hasan Khan (wherever did
he come from?) and the various secretaries of finance to bring not the
country (because who cares about the country?) but the hapless people of
Pakistan to this desperate pass. It is a measure of the economic successes
of the last three years (this inflationary spiral having been started by
that answer to Pakistan's dreams, Mr Moeen Qureshi) that a hundred rupee
note is now treated even by those who have it in their hands like a ten
rupee note of yore. When the present thousand rupee notes were first
introduced some years ago they were considered by ordinary people (that is,
those not belonging to the Black Label classes) to be too big to handle.
Nowadays one of these notes is no sooner encashed than it begins rapidly to
disappear. And Mr Jafarey, our answer to Maynard Keynes, says that the
inflation rate is ten or eleven per cent. If there is a national prize for
keeping a straight face while saying outrageous things, surely he deserves
to get it.
But what, pray, is the essence of bhuttonomics, that which distinguishes it
from other momentous economic doctrines? It consists of a paradox: a
mixture of audacity and stealth. The audacity lies in raising prices that
of utilities, furnace oil, petroleum products, etc. as and when Mr
Jafarey and his advisers see a vision in their dreams. The stealth lies in
not announcing these rises. In Ms Bhutto's Republic you can have one set of
prices when you go to bed at night and an altogether different one by the
time you are reading your newspapers the next morning.
Or take another example. The rupee, that most flexible and gymnastic of
currencies, has been slipping ever since my generation grew to manhood.
Under Ms Bhutto's stewardship this slipping has become a precipitous slide.
But is ever an announcement made of the rupee's devaluation? No, it is just
allowed to happen audaciously and stealthily. Just a few days ago the
dollar was selling at Rs 34/35. Today it is touching 40. But not the
faintest squeak will anyone have heard from Mr Jafarey or the State Bank.
Indeed, under Ms Bhutto budget-making has become a redundant exercise. The
forecasts made in a budget are supposed to have some sanctity. It is a
tribute to the economic management of the past three years that no one
takes the budget seriously any more: not the people of Pakistan, not the
IMF and the World Bank and certainly not those officials directly
responsible for calculating its phantom sums. In other departments of
national life the art of make -believe, of living in a world entirely of
our own invention, has already been taken to lofty heights. Thanks to the
ministrations of Ms Bhutto's economic wizards, it has now been installed as
the ruling deity even in the arid fields of finance.
If this were all, the people of Pakistan would still not complain. They are
inured to hardships. They do not expect much from their rulers. They are
used to the corruption of the administration of the bribes that they have
to pay to the patwari and the thanedar. Anyone who has a doubt about the
patience of the Pakistani people should see one of those queues outside a
bank when people line up to pay their utility bills. In any other country
these queues which are replicated across the length and breadth of the land
would cause a revolutionary upheaval. Or at least they would be the angry
cause of an assault on the banking system. Here people for whom standing in
queues is foreign to their nature squat outside banks with the patience of
the ages.
But as I say even these things would not matter if the people of Pakistan
were left alone in their misery. Why must their intelligence and patience
be insulted all the time by the constant refrain from on high that the
economy is being macro- managed and that things were never better for them?
The non-Black Label classes are finding it difficult to make both ends meet
and here is the Prime Minister telling them (this clip comes on television
every other evening) that her Awami Government has given them cellular
telephones and FM Radio. This is as good a variation on the Marie
Antoinette theme as any. What if the people do not have bread? Let them
listen to FM Radio.
Who are these surreptitious men anyway who get these fat contracts in the
Republic? Makhdoom Sahabuddin may know as much of economics as I do but at
least the people have elected him. Whoever elected Shahid Hasan Khan to
anything? What is his claim to fame? And who is Javed Pasha? For what
services to the country has he been given permission, without public notice
or tender, to open FM Radio, the regime's substitute for bread and
subsistence? He must also be a defence expert (every Johnny in this country
being a defence expert) because even Air Marshal Abbas Khattak's Shaheen
Foundation has teamed up with him to open a cable television service. How
are these deals cobbled together in the dead of night without the people or
our sovereign Parliament being any the wiser about them?
In any case, is it seemly for the PAF leadership to be spending so much
energy in running toyshops like Shaheen Air and going into business with
the likes of Mr Javed Pasha? If hostilities break out, will Air Marshal (or
is it Air Chief Marshal?) Khattak pit cable television against India's air
fleet?
It is just not Bhuttonomics which is a product of audacity and stealthy.
Everything in this country gets done the same way because our rulers are
answerable to no one except their own primitive notions of grandeur,
parliament is an irrelevant talk shop while the people after calculating
the effects of inflation are left with no time to think about anything
else.
Consider the PAF's latest marketing coup: its acquisition of 40 Mirage-111s
from France. These aircraft were commissioned into the French air force in
1962; into the PAF in 1967. Thirty years later they are no better than
junk. And we have paid 120 million dollars for them. In aerial warfare, as
the greenest aviation novice is well aware, bulk does not count, quality
does. What to talk of 40 Mirage-111s, even 400 of these obsolescent birds
are of no use to us. And yet this deal which would not have gone through in
any other country of the world except perhaps Mobutu's Zaire is being
presented as some kind of a master-stroke by our Flying Barons. Is there
never going to be any accountability in our Republic? And will defence
purchases forever remain outside the ambit of public scrutiny?
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960606
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Reduce, Reuse and Recycle
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Benazir Bhutto
TODAY, on the eve of World Environment Day, my thoughts return to my
childhood. I recall walking on the sands of Clifton Beach, watching
fishermen bring in the days catch, picking up sea shells and listening to
the sounds of the ocean.
I remember the serene beauty of a clear star-studded night, the fragrance
of flowers wafting in the air and the silver sheen of a brook tumbling on
its way. All these scenes are the essence of international efforts to
conserve the environment clean air to breathe, pure water to drink and
productive soil.
But will this natural bounty be available for our children? If we dont
mend our ways, the answer is no. Fishermen no longer come to Clifton Beach.
The sea is filled with carelessly discarded garbage. Empty cans and plastic
trash have replaced the shells on the sand. And factories spew out
chemicals and smoke, polluting our cities air.
For centuries, we took nature for granted, expecting it to replenish
itself. But we cannot count on the Earth to heal itself. It is time we woke
up to the reality of our responsibility to preserve the planet for our
children and our childrens children.
One of the consequences of our irresponsible actions is the widening of the
ozone layer, which is leading to the warming of our planet a change that
is melting glaciers and affecting the global climate. This development can
have a devastating effect on crops and lead to famine and starvation. And
some countries in our neighbourhood, like the Maldives and parts of
Bangladesh, face even more serious consequences owing to the rising ocean
level.
In Pakistan, we have made a modest beginning. We have set up the Marine
Pollution Control Board, banned non-biodegradable plastic bags, planted
millions of trees and taken steps to preserve our juniper forests (juniper
trees grow only 1 inch a year).
But we still have a long way to go in explaining to and educating our
people about the importance of protecting our environment and preserving
the beauty of the natural world.
Our people and the people of the world need to realise that the
planets environment is only as strong as its weakest link. Our ecological
chain will snap unless every living organism has the wherewithal to fulfill
its purpose in creation.
Our natural surroundings, from water to air to soil, are in a delicate
balance. We can bring about the apocalypse at any time by neglecting our
responsibility to preserve this order.
Can we rise to the challenge? I believe we have no choice we must.
Large cities today suffer from inadequate infrastructure, poor roads and
communication lines, erratic power supplies and overflowing sewage systems.
More importantly, they suffer from administrative and financial
mismanagement.
It is in the cities that we must begin our battle. We need fresh and
innovative ways of management. We need cogeneration of resources, using the
end-product of one industry, as the raw material of another. We need
integrated treatment plants and more efforts to increase productivity and
reduce costs.
The environment is a concern for us all. Every small effort makes a
difference, and every individual can and should help.
Let us, individually and collectively, popularise the slogan Reduce, Reuse
and Recycle. That is the goal of World Environment Day and that should
be our goal every day of the year.Copyright 1996 Dawn-Creators Syndicate,
Inc.
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960606
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Should we count the ways?
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Rifaat Hamid Ghani
CORRUPT, how? was the rejoinder everyone found memorable for his own
reasons to Riz Khans question on corruption in Pakistan.
The Prime Ministers counter-question is indeed hard to answer. Where to
begin? A Berlin business-researchers publication has come up with a rather
precise answer: Pakistan is number two in their listing of the most corrupt
countries in the world. With a proper respect for exactness, the journal
elaborates that its listing does not include each and every country of the
world. Just the ones the major industrial nations do business with. And the
findings are only valid for one business year. If we stay the course,
surely we can make it to number one in time for the next count. We repose
full faith in our system and those who are presiding.
Corrupt, how? Intoning the phrase variously would be a good exercise for
a lesson in diction at RADA or one of the theatre workshops the Arts
Council ran recently. Consider the possibilities: Instead of the way the PM
intoned it, it could be inflected: Corrupt? How corrupt! Thats the way
the average Pakistani would say it, and does say it in the common course of
conversation several times a day. A Yunus Habib, on the other hand,
wondering whether he should offer wine, women or song or just cash to the
VVIP would ask briskly of himself corrupt, how corrupt?
It is hard to imagine a context in Pakistan which would require thoughtful
musing as to how to set about corrupting the incorruptible, or occasion the
simple note of angry contradiction. But a good drama school would teach
those tones as well, for however unlikely the eventuality, one must be
prepared for the show to go on.
Actually it is not the kind of corruption the journal specifies that
bothers common people. What does it matter to them whether a kickback is
picked up for, lets suppose, an MIG or an F-10? That money would not be
coming to them anyway, or helping improve their own living conditions. What
hurts is the smaller, workday instances of corruption.
Contractors where half the money goes into individual pockets and the road
repair is substandard. KESC wires that snap and fray too soon because
purchase went astray. Telephones that get used by X and billed to Y.
Services that people pay taxes for and dont receive. Government grants and
donor money that gets used the wrong way by the wrong people. Scams.
Joyrides. Rackets. State-paid Umras. Inflated entourages.
Not technically corruption at all, but what else to call it in a situation
where taxes rise because the country is broke and its public
representatives live like kings while the common man is slowly ground to
dust, and the middle class lowers its standards each week? If we produce a
society where only the corrupt can survive, isnt that the ultimate
corruption?
Corrupt, how? Cheating at exams corrupt. Cheating with results. Rigging.
Falsifying. Intimidating. Doling out employment, plots, excessive
facilities at state expense to promote party interests and reward the
faithful. Manipulating tariffs and taxes to make a killing.
What about the erosion of moral values? How insidiously corruption is
projected as incidental to the times. Everyone does it; it happens
everywhere. Look at Italy. Take Japan. What about Bofors, Hawala? So lets
not even try to stop doing it here. Shrug your shoulders and take it for
granted. Thats how corrupt. So corrupt in fact that corruption has lost
its meaning. So corrupt we cannot even recognise corruption anymore.
Corrupt? With the economy booming, IMF smiling, deposits rising, MOUs
mounting? Yes, corrupt. How? Disgustingly.
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960602
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Edhis passport
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Omar Kureishi
WHAT is a passport? It is a travel document. It is no more than that and in
most countries of the world it can be acquired through a post-office by
filling in a simple form. It is no big deal except in Pakistan.
We have this genius for nit-picking and given the choice between a simple
procedure and one that involves stepping through a bureaucratic mine-field,
we will unhesitatingly choose the latter. Are we gluttons for punishment?
One of the reasons for finding problems for every solution is that
government offices are hopelessly overstaffed and there is not enough work
and work has to be created and then sub-divided, the file as such, like the
proverbial hat, has to be passed around and quite often for the same reason
that a hat is passed around!
Whatever bureaucracy does, it does the hard way, by bringing into play the
whole coercive apparatus of the state, in the process reducing an applicant
to a supplicant.
We have these high-sounding human rights organisations and I am surprised
that none of them have turned their attention to the plight of an ordinary
citizen, the confluence of whose unhappy stars, makes it necessary for him
or her to go to a government office, any office to get even the most
elementary form attested. I wont state the obvious. These hindrances,
these obstacles provide an incentive for palm-greasing. But we are
confronted by the age-old question: which came first, the chicken or the
egg? Are government procedures deliberately cumbersome so that they can
facilitate corruption or is corruption inevitable because the procedures
are cumbersome?
I know that it is fashionable to blame the British for babu- bureaucracy
and to some extent we would be right to do so. Thats the way the sahib
dealt with the natives but the British left 50 years ago and one would have
thought that we would have been able to devise some administrative
improvements that were citizen- friendly. Before I get to Maulana Sattar
Edhis difficulties with the passport department (since then resolved
triumphantly) let me recount my own experience when I first applied for a
passport. This was sometime in May 1947, that is to say in British India.
I had got a letter from the University of Southern California informing me
that I had been accepted. The first thing I needed was a passport to get
other formalities started. I was told that it wasnt all that simple and
among other things, a police inquiry would be required. Inter alia, the
same police inquiry that exists to the present day. I knew an Anglo-Indian
Police Sergeant called Brown. His daughter Ninette studied in the same
school as my sister. I went to see Sergeant Brown. He was a cheerful man,
uncomplicated but he cautioned me that a Congress Ministry was in power and
they tended to be self-righteous and very Jai Hind, as he put it in his
Anglo - Indianese.
Sergeant Brown loved his curry and rice but tended to be disparaging about
these freedom-wallas. He said that he would do his best.
The point is that even in those days the shortest distance between two
points was not a straight line. One had to devise artful ways of beating
the system. He got my police clearance but there were other miles to go.
The passport got stuck up in some factotums office. I was 19 years old and
no babu was going to stop me from my tryst with destiny (which was to get a
passport).
Accompanied by my cronies, Jagat Vats and Zavareh Kabraji, we decided to
make a call on the chief minister. I think his name was B.G. Kher. Mainly
through bluff and bluster we managed to meet him. I made a speech, accusing
the Congress government of preventing a Muslim student from getting higher
education. He had absolutely no idea of what I was saying but was
sufficiently flustered to pass orders that I should be given my passport
there and then.
He then gently chided me and hoped that I wouldnt make a fool of myself
when I got to the University as I had done a few minutes earlier.
Maulana Sattar Edhi, arguably one of the great men of our times, not only
found that he was tripped by red-tape but if Press reports are to be
believed, was treated in a somewhat cavalier fashion at the Passport
Office. It is entirely possible that someone failed to recognise him but it
is also possible that some high-minded official decided that rules being
rules, no exceptions could be made. The latter is a bit fanciful but I am
giving a best-case scenario.
If it can be established without any doubt that no exceptions are made, not
even for Maulana Sattar Edhi, then its a good precedent. But we know that
is not so. Or to take a more convoluted view, may be that not even Maulana
Edhi is exempted from the usual terms of business. Maulana Edhis passport
made front-page news but spare a thought for thousands of applicants who
fall upon the barricades of bureaucratic bloody-mindedness.
There is one solution. That is to simplify the rules. A passport should be
available on demand. We must also get into the habit of justifying the
imposition of rules and regulations that so needlessly inconvenience the
general public. For instance, we should be told why it is necessary to have
a police enquiry for getting a passport. What exactly is the police
expected to inquire into?
That a citizen is a fit person to travel abroad? Who decides and what is
the yard-stick? We spend too much time in finding macro solution to macro
problems. We tend not to pay any heed to the availability of justice at the
basement level. That is why as a society, we appear to be standing on our
heads.
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960531
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Time to put out your cigarette
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Omar R. Quraishi
KARACHI, May 30: Put out your cigarettes and cigars, extinguish your pipes,
stop bothering others with your smoke. Friday, May 31, is World No-Tobacco
Day and the World Health Organisation (WHO) wants you to up this harmful
and wasteful habit.
The WHO and its member-nations every year dedicate the Day to what the
WHOs parent body, the United Nations, calls the cause of ensuring a
tobacco-free society.
This year, on the 8th such annual commemoration, the Day is dedicated to
the theme Sport and the Arts without Tobacco and is sponsored by the United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and the
International Olympic Committee (IOC).
The WHO says that the growing tendency of star athletes, sports
personalities and music and cultural celebrities being sponsored by tobacco
organisations has a harmful effect on especially children and the younger
generation.
An impressionable audience that often looks up to these personalities as
excellent role-models, young people need to be shown images of people who
are successful but at the same time lead a healthy smoke-free lifestyle,
the WHO says.
This malleability and the capability of sport and entertainment
personalities to communicate and influence young people is used, the WHO
says, by tobacco companies to build up a positive image in society.
The WHO specifically mentions a government-sponsored initiative in the
state of Victoria in Australia that uses a tax on the use of cigarettes to
counter advertising and art and sport sponsorship by tobacco companies, and
says that other governments should try to follow such examples. It further
quotes a study that shows for every 1 per cent increase in such a tax,
cigarette consumption can be expected to fall by half a percent.
Perhaps closer to home, the WHO gives the example of Nepal saying it is one
of the few countries in the world and a developing one at that that has
introduced a health tax on cigarettes. It has not only made tobacco smoking
costly but also increasingly difficult, banning it in public places,
transport and government offices and introducing health warnings with all
tobacco advertising.
It has estimated that half of the adolescents who start smoking and
continue throughout their lives will eventually die from tobacco-related
diseases.
Recent data have confirmed, the WHO says, that smokers have a death rate 3
times higher than non-smokers at all ages.
===================================================================
960606
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Olympian Samiullah named hockey manager
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A. Majid Khan
KARACHI, June 5: Former Olympian Samiullah, currently managing the juniors
squad competing in the Singapore Junior Asia Cup, was tonight appointed
manager of the Pakistan team for next months Atlanta Olympics while ex-
Olympian Jahangir Butt will be the coach .
The national trials for selection of the 16-member Pakistan squad for the
Atlanta Olympics as well as for the two four-nation tournaments in England
and in the Netherlands, will be held on June 8 (Saturday) at 4.30 p.m. on
the Hockey Club of Pakistan astroturf.
This was announced by Air Vice Marshal (Retd) Farooq Umer, President of the
Pakistan Hockey Federation after a marathon three-hour meeting of the
Executive Board.
The PHF President further said the Executive Board meeting has empowered
him to endorse the selection of Atlanta Olympic squad, to be picked by the
PHF Selection committee on Saturday.
The Executive Board, he said, has made major changes in the team management
under the constitution and ratified the decisions taken at the June 3
meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Sports and Culture at
Islamabad.
The AVM was confident that the players would be happy and would religiously
devote themselves to the rigorous training for winning back the gold medal
in the coming Olympic Games, scheduled in Atlanta from July 19.
To a question about the naming of Pakistan captain for the Olympic Games,
AVM Farooq Umer replied that it is the job of the selection committee.
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960605
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Selection of jr team makes Jansher unhappy
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Samiul Hasan
KARACHI, June 4: Current squash worlds golden boy, Jansher Khan, expressed
his anguish at the games governing body in the country over fielding of
over-aged players in next months World Junior Squash Championship to be
held at Cairo, Egypt.
Talking to Dawn during his brief stay in the city, the maestro termed
Pakistan Squash Racket Federation (PSRF) decisions as unfair.
It is injustice with the deserving players as well as with the
international body as the age limit is 19 whereas the selected boys are in
their early 20s, the legend said.
Jansher, in the light of his experience, had no hesitation in saying that
the selected boys were ordinary players. They were selected for the
previous championship in New Zealand and all of them failed to go beyond
the second round.
If the federation thinks that these boys will deliver the goods, well, I
am sorry to say that they are mistaken because these guys have no talent
which could make them top class players, the seven-time world champion
said.
Jansher emphasised that PSRF was cheating the Professional Squash
Association (PSA). We, the players, have taken the name of Pakistan to the
highest level and the federation is trying to dent the countrys reputation
by using illegal means. What happens if the PSA disqualifies the team and
imposes a ban? Who would be responsible?
Jansher called for an immediate probe into the matter before things were
out of hand.
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960601
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Cricketers in the political field
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Qamar Ahmed
LONDON: Sportsmen, like people in show business or in politics, suffer from
identity crisis when they are out of limelight or start to fade away. A
great majority of them are lost for ever and also without trace. Some are
known to have committed suicide for not being noticed, once out of focus.
Some do make an effort to attract attention and remain active in public
life as sports administrators or politician.
Not many however succeeded though but of course there are a few who reached
the pinnacle of their adopted endeavours. Politics is one of such pursuits.
For Pakistan's former captain Imran Khan who has now stepped into the realm
of politics which he once strongly abhorred, the crisis of identity was
rarely there since he shot into limelight with 12 wickets in a Sydney Test
and then later joined the rebels to play in World Series Cricket for Kerry
Packer.
Somehow or the other he was involved and always in focus because of being a
fine all-rounder of the game and also because of his playboy image.
But he surely is not the first cricketer to aim for high office of his
country in politics. There were many before him in his own country and
overseas. At home late Abdul Hafeez Kardar, Sarfraz Nawaz and opening
batsman Aftab Gul had their own stint with politics. Sarfraz despite losing
his seat in the provincial assembly in Punjab remains a sports adviser in
the present government in Pakistan. Former hockey captain of Pakistan
Akhtar Rasul was once a cabinet minister.
Whether Imran will make it to the top is a question which remains to be
answered and only time will tell whether he makes it or fails to do so.
The only instance of a first class cricketer becoming a prime minister of
his country is that of Sir Alec Douglas-Home who played for Middlesex in
the twenties and for Oxford University.
Sir Edmund Barton of Australia was another, but he had not played first
class cricket, only at club level. He did umpire in first class matches and
achieved the honour of becoming the first prime minister of Australia in
1901.
John Arlott, the famous commentator failed as a liberal candidate as did
the handsome Ted Dexter who stood against James Callaghan, the future
Labour prime minister of England.
C.B. Fry who excelled in Tests for England and was also as good at football
having won a medal in the FA Cup final and a fine athlete and writer also
had his ambitions dashed but he did serve on the League of Nations.
Lord Harris, an England captain became Governor of Bombay. Sir Robert
Menzies, the late Prime Minister of Australia was known for his interest in
cricket and so was Bob Hawke, prime minister in the eighties. He played
grade cricket at Perth, Melbourne and Canberra and like Menzies played for
the Prime Minister XI against visiting teams.
The present Prime Minister of Australia John Howard is another who is
hooked on the game as is John Major of England, a club standard cricketer
who is always seen watching Tests in England.
Ian McLachlan, once a 12th man for Australia in a Ashes Test of 1962/63 is
now a cabinet minister in Australian government, he also gained 'blue' at
Cambridge in 1957-58.
The Indians had their own share of cricketers leaping into the political
arena. The recent being Manoj Prabhakar, Chetan Chauhan and Kirti Azad are
also known to have indulged in it. Sunil Gavaskar is now the Sheriff of
Bombay. Prince Duleepsinhji of Nawanagar who like his uncle Prince
Ranjitsinhji played Test cricket for England was a High Commissioner of
India to Australia in 1950. New Zealand's Sir Edmund Blundell who played
first class cricket was a High Commissioner in England and later became the
Governor General of the New Zealand.
And if we look towards the Caribbean, we would find that there are many
famous names in the game who became prominent figures in the politics of
their country. Their famous all-rounder Learie Constantine of Trinidad and
Tobago first became member of the parliament in the island later a high
commissioner in England. He was knitted and at the time of his death, he
was Lord Constantine.
Fearsome fast bowler Wesley Hall after he left the game entered politics
and was made Sports Minister in Barbados government, so was left-handed Roy
Fredericks in Guyana. Sir Frank Worrell had a stint as a Member of
Parliament in Jamaica.
The list of those who have made it had those who have failed is a long and
interesting one. Now, whether Imran will do any justice to his attempt in
this direction will be watched with guarded interest by many.
Dawn page