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DAWN WIRE SERVICE
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Week Ending : 17 October 1996 Issue : 02/42
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NA to start 4th year next month
Law being drafted to fight corruption
Financial deals of 18 MNAs under watch
Gang busted for making fake PM directives
Issue of nuclear furnace sale to Pakistan resolved
South Asia is home to half of worlds poor: UN
---------------------------------
Cabinet accedes to IMF demands
50 years of swindling brings economy to ruin
Inflexibility of IMF terms causing economic crisis
Why foreign investment hurts
The quagmire of corruption
Consensus on Rs50bn farm tax
CPI edges up to 9.89% in September
Moodys team to assess economic situation
Stock prices ease modestly: no hasty selling
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The partys over Ardeshir Cowasjee
The self-respect of a bankrupt country Ayaz Amir
An earthquake of rumours Omar Kureishi
India, Pakistan: a comparison Dr Ishrat Husain
Wanted: a pair of clean hands Mohammad Malick
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How much cricket should we really play?
Kenya trophy missed despite Afridis splendid show
Zimbabwe want backing from ICC for cricket uplift
Nawaz Tiwana back as hockey president
Show cause notice to Rashid Latif
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961012
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NA to start 4th year next month
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M. Ziauddin
ISLAMABAD, Oct. 11: The current National Assembly will commence its fourth
parliamentary year with the president addressing a joint sitting of the two
houses on a mutually agreed date in the first week of November.
The fourth National Assembly of Pakistan since the lifting of Zias martial
law has already achieved the unique distinction of completing the mandatory
130-day sitting of its third parliamentary year. The current session which
has been requisitioned by the opposition to discuss corruption is regarded
as an extra sitting and not an obligatory session.
Of the three earlier assemblies since the lifting of Martial Law in
December 1985, the first (Junejo) and the third (Nawaz Sharif) could only
complete two parliamentary years while the second (Benazirs first) could
not even complete its second year.
Late General Zia addressed three joint sessions ( not counting the
inaugural 1985 session which he did while the country was still under
martial law) of Junejo parliament. Ghulam Ishaq Khan addressed two of Ms
Bhuttos ( the first) and three of Nawaz Sharifs.
So, if no slip occurs between the cup and the lip between now and the first
week of November President Leghari will achieve the unique distinction of
inaugurating the fourth parliamentary year of a National Assembly elected
since 1985.
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961013
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Law being drafted to fight corruption
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Faraz Hashmi
ISLAMABAD, Oct 12: The government on Saturday decided to introduce a
constitutional amendment in the light of the presidents letters about an
across-the-board accountability, sent to the NA speaker and Senate
chairman, Dawn has learnt from authentic sources.
The decision was taken at a top-level meeting of the Peoples Democratic
Front, presided over by Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. The meeting
discussed the existing anti-corruption laws as well as a draft bill
presented by the leader of the opposition, Mian Nawaz Sharif, a source
said.
The law ministry has been directed to prepare a draft of the constitutional
amendment within a couple of days. Source said: For initiating an across-
the-board accountability, a new chapter will have to be added to the
Constitution.
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961014
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Financial deals of 18 MNAs under watch
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Mohammad Malick
ISLAMABAD, Oct 13: The government has decided to keep a close watch on the
activities and financial dealings of a select group of 18 legislators,
comprising 10 minority MNAs and 8 elected in the FATA quota, reliable
sources told Dawn.
The source revealed that the decision was taken after the witnessing of the
strange disappearance of FATA MNAs from the house during the voting on the
issue of the referral of the opposition moved bill on accountability
commission to the select committee. According to government sources, some
of the FATA MNAs who had been present in the house during the debate were
missing at voting time while a similar report has been furnished about FATA
senators in the same issue.
Although the situation did not come to a similar head in the Senate but
according to governments own reports, the FATA senators too had done a
similar disappearing act in the upper house as well.
The decision to keep a close watch on the 18, taken in a top level strategy
session of the ruling party, according to the source would be conveyed
only verbally, to the bosses of relevant departments like income tax, CBR
etc. within the next 24 hours.
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961016
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Gang busted for making fake PM directives
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Bureau Report
ISLAMABAD, Oct 15: A gang, comprising two retired army officers and three
government servants, allegedly issuing fake directives from the Prime
Ministers Secretariat for the last one and a half years, has been busted
by the Federal Investigation Agency.
The gang, headed by a retired major, in connivance with a clerk of the
secretariat, was allegedly fabricating the directives to get favours,
permits and jobs ,the Director- General , FIA, Rehman Malik, told a press
conference here on Tuesday.
The gang, though active for the last one and a half years, was unearthed
when, through a forged directive from the secretariat , issued under the
fake signature of Ms Naheed Khan, it tried to obtain a contract from the
Utility Stores Corporation. In the directive it had asked the USC to
purchase certain items at high prices from M/s Irfan Ashfaq & Company.
The managing director, USC, Islamabad, considering the letter to be
genuine, got it processed and came to the conclusion that it would not be
possible to purchase the given items at the quoted high prices and informed
the secretariat accordingly, Mr Malik added.
The secretariat referred the case to FIA, which conducted a raid in Haripur
and arrested Zahid Mian Bhutto and recovered from his possession blank
letterheads of the secretariat and some fake letters.
Mr Malik disclosed that the gang had rented a house in Islamabad where a
12- year- old computer operator was employed to prepare letters.
The FIA, in the wake of the incident, had set up a permanent anti- fraud
unit, Mr Malik said and added that it had been suggested that the
secretariat should ask all the government departments, agencies and
divisions to verify directives sent to them by the secretariat or
ministries.
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961011
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Issue of nuclear furnace sale to Pakistan resolved
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Shaheen Sehbai
WASHINGTON, Oct 10: China and the US had resolved the nuclear furnace sale
issue to Pakistan before some CIA insiders and a section of the Washington
media tried to blow it up into another ring magnet type crisis that could
have invoked US sanctions against Beijing.
Evidence was available here on Thursday that the US was not concerned about
the new sale as the Washington Times had put it in its lead story on
Wednesday.
State Department spokesman Nick Burns rejected the report on Wednesday
saying Beijing had honoured its commitment to Washington not to make such
sales to nuclear facilities which lack proper safeguards.
The Washington Post on Thursday provided further evidence. It said in an
exclusive report the Chinese government had recently admitted to Washington
that it sold Pakistan some sensitive nuclear-related equipment going beyond
the ring magnets but Washington has concluded that the sale occurred
before China promised to halt such sales last May.
Quoting US officials, the Post report said China made the private admission
last month, after the State Department sent a demarche, or diplomatic
notice, to Beijing raising concerns about the transfer.
At the time the demarche was sent, US officials believed that the transfer
likely constituted a violation of Chinas pledge last May. But after
conducting an internal probe of the deal, the Chinese government informed
Washington that the transfer occurred in late 1995 and early 1996, well
before its pledge. The US intelligence community subsequently confirmed
this account independently, according to four US officials familiar with
the matter, the Post said.
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961016
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South Asia is home to half of worlds poor: UN
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Humair Ishtiaq
KARACHI, Oct 15: The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty is
being observed tomorrow, October 17, with the aim of promoting awareness of
the need to root out poverty and destitution across the globe, particularly
in developing countries.
Figures released on the occasion by the United Nations Information Centre
in Islamabad show that of the 5.7 billion people on the planet, an
estimated 1.5 billion live in poverty, with income and consumption levels
below nationally defined parameters. In fact, the number is increasing by
approximately 25 million every year and is expected to quadruple in a
single lifetime if the current economic and demographic trends are not
arrested.
The biggest concentration of severely impoverished people, about half of
the total, is in South Asia, which is home to about 30 per cent of the
worlds population. Another 25 per cent of the total are in East Asia.
Citing ever-increasing population rates, unemployment and illiteracy, the
UN report says that over one billion of the worlds poorest people subsist
on less than $1 each day, and the picture gets even more gloomy with the
fact that in the worlds 48 least developed countries with 10 per cent of
the world population, but only one per cent of the world income both
economic growth and trade continue to decline in a trend which began in the
1980s.
The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty is observed on a
global scale on October 17 since 1993, with 1996 being the International
Year on the matter. The United Nations is actively considering to launch a
Decade for the Eradication of Poverty soon.
After all, as the UN report rightly points out, the struggle against
poverty is simultaneously a struggle for human dignity, sustainable
development and peace.
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961011
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Cabinet accedes to IMF demands
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Bureau Report
ISLAMABAD, October 10: The Federal Cabinet on Thursday gave mandate to the
economic team of the prime minister to take measures in the light of
conditionalities imposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and enter
into an arrangement with the Fund for the release of third tranche of 80
million dollars out of the total 600 million Standby Agreement.
Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto who chaired the meeting apprised her cabinet
colleagues about the talks with the officials of International Monetary
Fund in the US and placed before them the set of conditions imposed by the
IMF for the release of funds.
The cabinet after discussing the conditions attached to the aid and
economic fall out of the cessation of aid by the IMF gave full powers to
the prime ministers economic team to hold another round of talks with the
international agency, a source told Dawn.
The cabinet reviewed the countrys economic situation and was briefed about
the damage done to the economy by the strikes in various sectors of the
economy for about two-and-a-half months following announcement of the
budget. The cabinet felt that in order to offset the negative impact of
those strikes and other negative factors, bold and difficult decisions were
needed to consolidate sustained economic growth and quickening the
countrys march towards meaningful progress, said a press release issued
later.
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961012
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50 years of swindling brings economy to ruin
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M. Ziauddin
The successive governments in Pakistan, whatever may be their hue,
military, civilian or political, have shown an exceptional propensity for
living beyond the countrys means.
And since most had been thrust into power without the peoples mandate or
with fractured mandate, they could do, or did, little to improve the lot of
the national economy.
Instead, they chose the easier way out . They extorted the needed resources
from the voice-less and clout-less poor and the middle classes through ever
increasing prices and tariffs and let the powerful and the rich, the
feudals as well as the industrial barons which constitute the ruling elite,
go on amassing their ill-gotten rentals without having to pay their tax
dues in full.
And every time they needed more than what they could extract from the
countrys poor to sustain their profligacy, they went begging to
multilateral donor agencies which would usually have , by proxy, passing
strategic interests in Pakistans short term well being or they went to
rich countries having immediate commercial interests in the Pakistani
markets to recoup the outgoing concessional capital flows by selling
useless military and civilian toys.
Faces have changed over the years. But the story has remained more or less
the same throughout these last 50 years. From Ghulam Mohammad, Chaudhry
Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Shoib, Ghulam Ishaq Khan, Mahbubul Haq, Sartaj Aziz,
and VA Jaffarey to the Lilliputians like Shahid Hasan Khan, all have played
the same fraud with the people of this country. Every one wrote his own
version of the same swindle of how to fool them to rule them.
These people and the governments they served never felt any qualms while
going begging to the multilateral or bilateral donors for a few crumbs.
They would increase the prices and tariffs of the essentials rendering the
poor poorer even before going to these donors for aid in order to convince
the latter of their good financial sense and management skills.
But as soon as these donors would, in return for their aid, ask for even a
symbolic curtailment in the unearned incomes of the rich and the ruling
elite or if these governments would receive even a hint that as a result
the life styles of the countrys rich and the powerful would have to be
scaled down to an extent, these governments and their minions would start
invoking the long forgotten national pride.
They would put to use every kind of propaganda vehicle in spreading the
falsehood that the donors were asking the country to give up its national
pride and its very sovereignty for a paltry sum of aid.
Then through the same vehicles they would make the heart warming and soul
lifting announcement that the government has for the sake of national pride
and in order to protect the countrys sovereignty, refused to accept the
insulting conditions of the donors which in actual fact would have caused
the rich to suffer some slight hardships.
This has been repeated so many times in the last 50 years that you just
have to sing the first two or three notes and the nation comes to know the
song that would follow. Tightening of the belt further and more price
increases and no more multilateral programmes of economic stability for the
time being.
The same notes were repeated by the prime minister first in her interview
with the CNN in New York and then with the Financial Times in London last
week. And this was immediately followed up by increases in petroleum
prices.
You simply cannot blame the economic mismanagement and corruption indulged
in by you on multilateral donors. They give their opinion only when you go
to them in desperation and ask for their advice. And they put their
conditionalities not because they enjoy doing it but because you have
requested them for assistance. And if their conditionalities are becoming
ever tougher with every new arrangement, it is not them who are to be
blamed but you yourself have lost your credibility by trying to take
liberties with earlier conditionalities.
Yes of course, the country would not go bankrupt if the IMF did not release
the last two tranches of the Standby arrangement. Neither would it default
on its foreign loans. But it would surely lose its international risk
rating if a new arrangement is not agreed upon quickly. And as a
consequence it would lose the private capital inflows and commercial loans
needed to sustain a modicum of economic growth.
In the good old bipolar world, the donors rated a country not on the basis
of good governance or efficient financial management and less corruption,
but on the basis of its ideological distance from Washington and Moscow. So
even the most inefficient, the most corrupt and the most ruthless
governments in the context of their human right record would be assured of
a fat and continuous flow of concessional capital if that government was a
camp follower of the so-called free world.
Things have undergone a sea change since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Now you are on your own. Most of the concessional aid is going to Eastern
Europe. There is not much left of such aid for the obscure and precarious
democracies of South Asia. But if you manage your economy properly, if the
level of corruption is no more than what is considered normal and if your
human right record is not bad, then you get substantial flows of foreign
private investment on the back of commercial loans on reasonable rates.
Such investment and commercial loan flows are also guaranteed if you are
implementing one or the other economic stabilisation programmes of the
multilateral donors.
However, if you mismanage your economy, indulge in corruption, and violate
human rights and also do not want any economic stabilisation arrangement
with the IMF( which impinges on the financial interests of your countrys
rich, the powerful and the ruling elite), then you can hardly hope to get
any foreign private capital inflows and neither can you hope to obtain
commercial loans at reasonable rates.
Faced with such possibilities governments of the day in Pakistan have
tended to appeal to the sense of patriotism of the gullible and have tried
to create the impression that since the donors were asking for reduction in
defence expenditure (there is nothing wrong with rationalising this out of
control expenditure) and also want further increases in taxes( what taxes,
they would never state), it was thought prudent and in the national
interest to reject the conditionalities and refuse to succumb to the
pressure of these Jewish organisations.
Very conveniently, they would ignore to mention in their sales pitch the
fact that if a country whose population is growing at the rate of 3.5 per
cent does not get enough foreign inflows in the face of its abysmally low
savings rates of 14 per cent, it would not be able to enhance its
investment rate to about 20 per cent to achieve a growth rate of over six
per cent needed to generate barely enough resources to feed, cloth and
provide shelter its ever expanding teeming millions.
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961012
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Inflexibility of IMF terms causing economic crisis
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Aftab Ahmad Khan
The INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND (IMF) has reportedly requested the
Government of Pakistan to prepare a new package of economic reforms
designed to achieve: (i) a cut in the budget deficit in relation to Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) through revenue and expenditure measures while
protecting a core set of investment expenditures and raising outlays under
the Social Action Programme (SAP); (ii) balance of payments viability in a
milieu of trade liberalisation meaning, that at the conclusion of the
programme there will be no further need for extra-ordinary external
financing; (iii) price stability; and (iv) sustainable growth at a
respectable rate.
In this regard, it may be relevant to mention here that a 15-month Stand-by
Arrangement for SDR 401.85 million was approved by the IMF on December 13,
1995, after cancellation of the existing Enhanced Structural Adjustment
Facility (ESAF) and extended arrangements agreed to on 22 February, 1994.
The balance of the present stand-by at April 30, 1996 which was not
disbursed was SDR 214 million.
What is disturbing is that Pakistan will not be able to get this
undisbursed balance of SDR 214 million without convincing the IMF about its
ability to implement a programme of economic stabilisation and structural
reforms.
Faltering efforts
The IMF somehow feels that Pakistans adjustment and reform efforts have
faltered and as such a new economic programme should be rigorously
implemented to achieve its objectives and rapidly re-establish confidence
in the economy. Fiscal consolidation should be a cornerstone of the
adjustment programme. The other key element, according to the IMF, should
be the removal of the regulatory duty and a further reduction in tariff
rates.
In recent years, the conditionalities attached by the IMF to Stand-By
Arrangements, Extended Fund Facility (EFF), Structural Adjustment Facility
(SAF) and Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility (ESAF) have provoked
considerable criticism in many countries of the developing world primarily
on account of de-stabilising social and political implications.
Consequently, the Funds image in the Third World is an ugly one and it is
seen as the champion and protector of the existing inequitable
international economic order wherein poor nations are being exploited by
unfair global market structures.
There are five basic components of the typical IMF conditionality attached
to Structural Adjustment Programmes: (1) abolition or liberalisation of
foreign exchange and import controls as well as reduction in tariff rates;
(2) devaluation of the currency and flexible management of the exchange
rate; (3) a stringent anti-inflation programme comprising (a) control of
bank credit and elimination of concessional credit programmes for priority
sectors, (b) reduction in fiscal deficit through curbs on expenditure,
especially in the area of subsidies, along with increases in taxes and in
public utility charges, (c) control of wage and salary increases, in
particular ensuring that such increases are at rates lower than inflation
rates; and (d) dismantling of various forms of price control; (4) greater
opening of the economy to international investment; and (5) privatisation
of public sector enterprises to the maximum feasible extent.
While such polices may be successful in improving less developed countries
(LDCs) balance of payments, they can be politically very unpopular because
they result in aggravation of inequalities in society, enhance unemployment
and disproportionately hurt the lower and middle income groups. Some Third
World economists have argued that the IMF functions within a First World
dominated global economic system as the chosen instrument for imposing
imperialist financial discipline upon poor countries.
It has also been argued that the IMF adjustment and stabilisation policies
disregard one of the basic insights of the early development period of the
1950s. Much thinking prevalent then had been based on a view of development
and growth as a process of cumulative causation or a system of
beneficial/ vicious circles or spirals.
The vicious circle of poverty, for example, was well-established: poor
countries are poor because they have low savings and investment and they
have low savings and investment because they are poor.
In the Stages of Growth paradigm developed by Prof. Rostow, this took the
form of saying that the earlier stages of assembling the pre-conditions of
growth are very difficult but once the various elements have been assembled
and can complement each other everything will fall into place and the
economy will take-off.
The present IMF doctrine of adjustment is in danger of disregarding all
this. It holds that one can temporarily deflate, arrest growth, reduce
expenditures on physical and human investments while at the same time
gathering strength for a new and hopefully more sustainable period of
growth and development. This disregards the likely possibility that each
cut-back may make it more difficult to resume growth from such a weakened
base.
Steep price
Again, the neo-liberal ideology of development, which is the guiding
philosophy of the Fund, places a high priority on using the price mechanism
to allocate the resources efficiently. Under ideal conditions of full
employment and perfect competition, these could result in optimal factor
combinations in production, and the most efficient composition of output.
However, the ideal circumstances required for the neo-liberal approach to
work properly are non-existent in real life, especially in the developing
world.
Many developing countries have discovered that the price of following IMF
advice is very steep indeed. Countries as far flung as Egypt, Jordan,
Jamaica, Brazil, Philippines, Morocco and Zimbabwe have gone through
traumatic politico-economic shocks on account of IMF-imposed changes.
For understandable reasons, the IMF adjustment programmes for developing
debtor countries emphasise rectification of macro-economic imbalances.
There, are however, many debtor countries in the Third World where macro-
economic equilibrium cannot be attained unless the out-flow of resources is
first reduced. It is accordingly important to ensure that countries are not
denied debt relief when good performance is unattainable in the absence of
such relief. Breaking the vicious circle of domestic economic disorder and
external resource shortage requires conditionality to fully take into
account the complex linkages among external payments constraint, macro-
economic imbalances, growth performance and policy effort.
Not-withstanding the fact that the Fund has introduced greater flexibility
in its programmes in recent years, the main thrust of its policies is on
demand management and an analysis of the social and political impact of its
programmes has yet to be formally incorporated in the framework of its
operations.
The desirability of conditionalities is not generally questioned. It is,
however, the nature of these conditionalities and the manner these are
administered that is objectionable.
In a poor developing country with a large segment of the population living
below the poverty line, shock treatment, in the form of a sharp and sudden
reduction in domestic absorption, may be successful in achieving fiscal
improvement and sustainable balance of payments, but it could be at the
cost of distress for weaker sections of the population and de-stabilising
social and political tensions.
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961012
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Why foreign investment hurts
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Dr Bharat Jhunjhunwala
THE ASEAN economic ministers are exceedingly concerned about increasing
competition from China and India for attracting foreign investment. They
have mooted the idea of establishing an ASEAN Investment Area to maintain
these inflows of capital. Why is it, though, that they need to attract
foreign investment continually? Will they never break out of such
dependence of foreign capital inflows? Has foreign investment proven to be
a short run boon but a long run curse for them?
There indeed may be a reason why they are worried. Economic theory tells us
that foreign investment leads to increased investment only as long as it
continues to flow in. Once the inflow ceases, the investment thereafter is
reduced. In the long run, therefore, foreign investment hurts.
The reason is that the pie that is available in the long term actually
shrinks in the period of foreign inflows.
Let us think of the total investment in terms of two pies - those of the
foreign and domestic investors. The foreign investors may decide to shift
from reinvestment to repatriation any day. This is the short run pie. The
domestic investors pie, on the other hand, goes on ever increasing.
Restrictions on capital convertibility or preferences of domicile ensure
that their profits continue to be reinvested in the domestic economy. This
is the long term pie.
As foreign investment flows in, the total availability of capital in the
host economy increases. The law of diminishing returns tells us that the
rate of return on capital would decline correspondingly. Thus, the domestic
pie grows at a slower pace than it would have grown without foreign
investment.
Once the foreign investors start repatriating their profits, the investment
comes only from the domestic pie. This pie is now smaller than it could
have been. So is the long term investment. Foreign capital flows did lead
to a short run gain but caused loss of investment and growth in the long
run.
This is not a hypothetical scenario. As of now, there is not one major
country in the world which has been able to maintain its growth rates after
foreign investors have withdrawn.
The experience of countries that had attracted high foreign investment in
the seventies shows exactly this. Colombia, Guatemala, Ecuador and Mexico
are four countries which had received foreign investment in excess of 1% of
their GDP in the seventies but failed to attract more of the same in the
eighties. The growth rates of all four were negative in the eighties -
between (-)3.3% and (-)4.3%.
Even among the countries which continued to attract high levels of foreign
investment in the eighties, Sri Lanka, Argentina and Brazil had negligible
or negative growth rates at 0.2, (-)2.4 and (-)4.8% respectively. The
increase in the investment pie due to foreign investment inflows was more
than wiped out by the contraction of the domestic pie.
Only Chile, Thailand and Malaysia continued to attract high levels of
foreign investment and were able to maintain positive growth rates. The
real test for these countries too is yet to come. We have to wait an watch
what happens after the foreign investors withdraw.
The ASEAN countries would do well to learn the lesson early. By continually
running after foreign investment they may be impairing their chances of
maintaining high growth rates in the long run. Proposals such as the ASEAN
Investment Area are only a short run palliative which may only worsen their
situation in the long run. They should, instead, examine ways of further
enlarging their domestic investment pie.
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961012
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The quagmire of corruption
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R.M.U. Suleman
CORRUPTION in Pakistan has now become the most contentious politics-
economic issue at home as well as abroad. Internally, a serious contention
is going on between the head of the state, the head of the government, both
houses of parliament, the judiciary, the leader of the opposition and the
numerous interests standing to gain from it. Externally, too Pakistans
scores on the game of corruption are among the highest.
Taking up the external appreciations first, the Berlin-based Transparency
International had given Pakistan the third rank in corruption in 1994 and
second rank in 1995. It will be interesting to see whether this upward
climb in the global rogues gallery continues in 1996.
Early this month, the World Bank listed Pakistan among the three most
corrupt borrowing countries and has ordered surprise raids by special
squads to audit projects funded by the Bank in these countries. Pakistan
has recently been added to the list which consists of Kenya and Poland. The
Banks President, James Wolfensohn, has hired the independent Swiss
accounting firm Societe Generate de Surveillance (SGS). In Pakistan we are
quite familiar with this firm.
The audit squads will visit countries where the World Bank has a portfolio
of at least one billion dollars, and 20 on-going projects in these three
countries have been targeted, including the Hub Power project in Pakistan.
Mr Wolfensohn, who called on Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto at New York
after the cancellation of his visit to Pakistan during his forthcoming
South Asian tour, ordered the creation of special squads after he learned
that billions of dollars were being lost through corruption and negligent
or non-existent supervision of projects. We want to put the fear of God in
them (Pakistan, Kenya and Poland), the World Banks Chief Procurement
Officer, Raghavan Srinavasan, was quoted as saying.
Judicial commission
Internally the most powerful group interested in turning a specific, proven
and large-scale case of corruption into a general and nebulous issue of
corruption was that of 500 top defaulters of the banking system. These
defaulters owe close to Rs 100 billion to indigenous creditors and
represent nearly 70 per cent of the defaulted amount.
The Opposition in parliament wanted the setting up of a judicial commission
to consider the issue of corruption including the cases of bank defaults.
The government wanted the issue to be tackled by the Standing Committee on
Law and Parliamentary Affairs, which has a government majority and thus is
unacceptable to the Opposition.
Earlier, the Federal Anti-Corruption Committee (FACC) was appointed to
unearth and process serious cases of corruption. This committee recommended
a number of well-proven cases for government action, but no action was
taken and the files of such cases were put in cold storage for use in
special contingencies. Such an approach of selective justice has inspired
little confidence.
This is the background that has brought intervention from the judiciary as
well as the President. The Lahore High Court has recently restrained the
Government of Punjab from filling government jobs on the basis of quotas
fixed for MPAs and other political functionaries. One can only hope that
the vacancies are filled on merit.
Presidents action
President Leghari has invoked Article 56(2) of the Constitution to send
direct messages to the National Assembly and the Senate to appoint a Select
Committee and re-draw the laws to deal with the issue of corruption.
He has proposed the formation of special courts for adjudicating corruption
cases involving holders of public offices and government servants of Grade
22, in consultation with the Leader of Opposition and the Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court of Pakistan, besides the Prime Minister.
The Presidents proposals envisage that the special court consisting of
three permanent high court judges, will decide cases within 90 days of
their filling. It was also proposed that the Wafaqi Mohtasib be empowered
to investigate, refer and prosecute all cases before the special courts
without the approval of the government as is obligatory under the existing
laws. Moreover, it was suggested that the Wafaqi Mohtasib also be appointed
by the President in consultation with the Prime Minister, the Leader of
Opposition and the Chief Justice of Pakistan. The President also proposed
that any person found guilty by the special court should be debarred from
holding public office for seven years.
The Minister for Interior while expounding the governments views has
called for an across-the-board accountability, including the President. He
has also raised some technical points e.g. right of appeal in a high court
against the decision of special courts and fixation of time period from
when the process of accountability should begin.
Some would like accountability to start from 1947, a logical suggestion,
but one that would deprive the exercise of all focus that needs to be
concentrated on cases where the required evidence is still available. There
are others who are calling for accountability before the next elections.
Essential conditions
Without proper laws and appropriate machinery of the courts, prosecution
and the like to enforce them, there can be no hope of eradicating or even
reducing corruption. But laws and legal machinery are only the essential
condition for mitigating corruption.
The sufficient conditions lie deep in our socio-economic conditions,
starting from the grass-roots level and going right up to the top. In
general, corruption is used to obtain two types of benefits from the
government speeding up of bureaucratic procedures and recognition or
protection of transgressions into the doubtful or grey area of legality.
Informal business is the richest hunting ground for grass-roots level
bribery, the proceeds of which reach right up to the highest bureaucratic
and political levels. Such businesses are known to pay out between 10 to 15
per cent of their gross income in bribes and commissions. The owners of
formal small businesses, on the other hand, are known to pay no more than 1
to 5 per cent.
Non-business bribery is far more pernicious and hard to quantify. The
families of the youth put behind the bars on trumped-up charges bring
tremendous returns to the police as well as magistracy.
The state legislates almost exclusively to distribute unearned income and
has transformed us into a democracy of pressure groups. Businesses channel
their natural competitive real into establishing close ties with the
political and bureaucratic authorities instead of into a contest to serve
consumers better.
Established business owners fight to maintain the privileged situation they
have managed to achieve over the years, while new owners, who also want a
slice of the pie, fight to win partial advantages through political
participation. A legal system whose sole purpose is redistribution thus
benefits only those best organised to establish close ties with the people
in power. It ensures that the businesses that remain in the market are
those which are most efficient politically, not economically.
The legal system changes as the relative position of those who manage to
influence the government changes. This is why we often hear that our legal
system lacks uniformity and stability, our laws are negotiable, there is
legal anarchy, and what matters is not what you do or want but which
politician or bureaucrat you know.
Characteristic results
Nor should it be surprising that bribery and corruption are characteristic
results of a legal system in which complex controls have made competing for
unearned income the predominant form of lawmaking. Almost 99 per cent of
the governments rules, which are the means by which wealth is
redistributed or opportunity for bribery provided, emanate from the
executive branch, which adopts them without democratic consultation or
control.
It is the executives ability to legislate redistribution without any debate
in parliament or elsewhere that enables redistributive combines to
interfere in law-making. This also explains why, in countries like ours,
property rights are not protected against the political powers-that-be.
A careful study of Islamabad Residential Sectors Zoning (Building Control)
Regulations, 1993 will make this point clear.
Our legal system is such that aristocratic families or large commercial
associations are its main beneficiaries. In the absence of political
decentralisation, the elected politicians no longer make decisions about
many issues.
As regulations and controls proliferate and grow increasingly complex, the
responsibility for them and the actual power to make decisions about
redistributive mechanisms gradually descend through the civil service maze
until they reach lower bureaucratic levels. Since the bureaucrats who deal
directly with the combines are some of the countrys lowest-paid employees,
it is almost inevitable that they will sell themselves to the highest
bidder. There is some truth in the trite saying that there are no dishonest
persons, only dishonest situations.
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961014
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Consensus on Rs50bn farm tax
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Ihtashamul Haque
ISLAMABAD, Oct 13: The two high-level meetings held here on Sunday and
attended by President Farooq Leghari, Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, the
four chief ministers and other high officials of the federal and provincial
governments decided to impose tax on agriculture income to meet the demands
of the World Bank and the IMF.
Informed sources told Dawn that there were two sessions during which the
levy of tax on agriculture income was discussed in details and a decision
was taken that the government must strive to increase its revenue base by
recovering additional Rs.50 billion taxes annually so that Pakistan could
be pulled out of the current economic crisis.
The officials of the ministry of finance and the Central Board of Revenue
presented their assessment of the situation by claiming that the
agriculturist lobby could easily pay about Rs. 50 billion every year on
their annual income estimated at Rs. 550 billion. During both the meetings,
sources said, the participants agreed with the presentation of the ministry
of finance and the CBR and called for making urgent efforts to recover the
new tax.
Except for Punjab, three other provinces have already adopted a legislation
to impose tax on agriculture income.
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961014
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CPI edges up to 9.89% in September
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Our Correspondent
ISLAMABAD, Oct 13: The rate of inflation increased by 9.83 per cent during
September 1996, as compared to corresponding month of last year, according
to a Federal Bureau of Statistics press release on consumer price index
here on Sunday. During the first quarter of 1996-97, the CPI index, which
is the measure of inflation rate, also edged up slightly to 9.89 per cent
against the official estimate of 9.77% increase for the whole of last year,
according to the Federal Bureau of Statistics press release here on Sunday.
The rising trend is also reflected by 9.83 per cent during September when
compared with the corresponding month of last year, while in August 1996,
CPI had risen by 9.54% over the August of 1995.
Using 1990-91 as the base, the FBS has estimated that the CPI for September
1996 stood at 181.99, showing an increase of 1.16% over the Index of August
1996 when it was 179.9.
All the group indices have shown an increasing trend, according to FBS
press release.
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961014
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Moodys team to assess economic situation
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Omar R. Quraishi
KARACHI, Oct 13: A delegation of two to three senior analysts of the US
Credit Rating Agency, Moodys Investors Service is arriving here on Oct 21
for about a week visit to hold meetings with the officials of the State
Bank of Pakistan and Finance Ministry to take a decision on Pakistans
investment and credit rating.
Reliable sources in banking and financial sectors believe that Karachi is
included in the itinerary of the Moodys analysts who would take into
account whole picture of economy before taking any decision on assigning
any credit rating.
Moodys had announced towards the end of September that it was putting
Pakistan under review.
Pakistans current B1 long-term foreign currency rating, its B2 sovereign
ceiling for foreign currency deposits, and its B1 rating for foreign
currency bonds and notes have all been placed for a review.
If the downgrade goes through, the B1 rating for Pakistans long-term
foreign currency debt and foreign currency bonds and notes would be lowered
to B2, the sources in financial circles said.
Similarly, the B2 rating for the sovereign ceiling for currency deposits
would be lowered to B3, they said.
The ratings system for both Moodys and Standard & Poors the other major
US credit rating agency begins with an Aaa rating, which is the highest
possible rating most suitable for investors and lenders, and goes down
gradually to D. The B1 rating, according to Moodys system of judgement is
reserved for high risk obligations.
The rating lower than B2 is B3, according to Moodys ratings chart, after
which comes Caa. This Caa rating is given when a national economy is in
default. (The Standard and Poors equivalent for this is the CCC+ rating.)
As for the repercussions of possible downgrading of Pakistans credit
rating, the sources believe the first negative impact would be on the
governments plan to float a bond in the US market next December to raise
foreign currency.
Senior analysts in financial and banking circles told Dawn the downgrade,
if it came, would increase the interest rate the Pakistan government would
have to pay for taking foreign currency loans by between 0.5 and 0.8
percentage points.
They said Pakistan, for an 18-month loan, already pays around 3.4
percentage points more than the international benchmark London Interbank
Offer (LIBOR) Rate of around 6.5%.
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961016
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Stock prices ease modestly: no hasty selling
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Oct 15: Stock prices on Tuesday eased modestly as investors took
profits at the available margin aided chiefly by technical factors but
there was no hasty selling.
The KSE 100-share index fell 7.35 points to 1,379.60 as compared to
1,386.95 a day earlier, reflecting the weakness of some of the leading base
shares.
But unlike previous sessions, there were buyers at each dip apparently on
the perception that the market has already touched the bottom and there
could be strong technical rebound at any time.
The lead, of course, is provided by some of the leading foreign funds who
are in the rings in a big way and promptly picked up by the locals, there
are reasons to believe that a sustained run-up might now be overdue, said a
leading member of the KSE.
Broadly speaking investors are now divided in two major groups. Those who
are the exponent of long-term buying strategy are in the rings and making
up short positions at the current lower level irrespective of the political
background news.
A vast majority of investors, however, is inclined to swim or sink along
with foreign funds. They buy when they and they sell when they foreign
funds sell, they added.
They said foreign support could hardly prove a market factor as it is not
more than peanuts but what it does is that it restore investor confidence
in the market.
According to official figure available from the KSE, foreign fund buying
seldom exceed the figure of about Rs 800 million in a month.
Floor brokers said it were the local financial traders who set the
direction for the market but sometime they too are out-manoeuvred by some
of the local depressing news.
The signals from the political front might now remain disturbing owing to
a combination of negative factors and investors have to choose from the
equally difficult options, they added.
The bulk of alternate bouts of buying and selling, therefore, remained
confined to half a dozen most active scrips, notably Hub-Power after the
news that it is expected to be fully operational by the next year followed
by PTC vouchers, which also moved both ways.
Others to follow them were Dewan Salman, ICI Pakistan, notably its right
shares, Fauji Fertilisers, FFC-Jordan Fertiliser and NDLC as foreign buying
remained centred around these scrips.
Among the top gainers, Dadabhoy Insurance was leading, which rose sharply
partly because of shortage of the floating stock. Some of the textile and
cement shares followed it on short-covering at the lower levels and so did
some IGI Insurance.
But energy shares did not react favourably to some positive developments
and fell further under the lead of PSO, Attock Refinery and some other and
so did most of the pharma MNCs including Parke-Davis, Knoll, Glaxo and
Cyanamid Pakistan.
Auto shares were, however, an exception, which rose under the lead of
Hinopak Motors and Atlas Honda after the announcement good dividend at the
rate of 50 per cent plus 20 per cent bonus shares and 15 per cent cash and
10 per cent bonus respectively.
Other good gainers were led by Brooke Bond, Engro Chemicals, BOC Pakistan,
Pak-Suzuki Motors, and Grays of Cambridge.
The most active list was topped by Hub-Power and PTC vouchers, lower 10 and
55 paisa respectively on 7.669m shares each, followed by ICI Pakistan (r),
off 55 paisa on 2.210m, ICI Pakistan, lower 85 paisa on 1,150m, Dewan
Salman, easy five paisa on 0.965m, Fauji fertiliser, lower 25 paisa on
0.703m and FFC-Jordan fertiliser, down 10 paisa on 0.225m shares. There
were some other notable deals also.
Trading volume rose to 23.195m shares from the previous 22.870m shares,
while losers led gainers by 139 to 74, with 77 shares holding on to the
last levels.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
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961011
-------------------------------------------------------------------
The partys over
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Ardeshir Cowasjee
WHEN our government says it will not devalue the rupee, it does so the next
day. When it proclaims that the executive and the judiciary are the best of
friends, we know they are not. When it declares that the army is not
concerned with the health and welfare of the people, the army indeed is.
When it maintains there is no rift between prime minister and president, it
means there is a raging conflict.
So, when it tells us that the President has no intention of dissolving the
assemblies, it may well be that the man is contemplating doing just that.
The robbed, depressed people of Pakistan do not deserve the government they
have, voted in through a pre-planned free and fair election. In no way do
they deserve headlines over editorials in the foreign Press such as:
Pitiable Pakistan (The Wall Street Journal); Her own worst enemy The
Bhutto clan has mortgaged Pakistans future (The Times). Nor the contents:
* If these trends [seemingly unstoppable descent into political and
cultural bankruptcy] cannot be reversed soon all Pakistan may have left is
its own fate as a grim warning to others.
* In Benazirs case, arrogance of pharaonic proportions is leading her to
political doom. Faced with a temporarily united opposition, reluctant IMF
lenders and assessments at home and abroad putting Pakistan at the top of
the worlds most corrupt nations lists, any other leader would be trying to
mend her ways. Instead, Ms Bhutto continues to blame everyone but herself
for Pakistans woes.
* Miss Bhutto blames everyone but herself... President Farooq Leghari has
finally lost patience above all with the corruption that underpins feudal
privileges. He demands the creation of a special judicial panel to
investigate corruption charges against politicians and officials. Miss
Bhutto who recently appointed her much-suspected husband Investment
Minister a job which is singularly open to corrupt inducements retorts
that nothing of the kind is needed.
When she was in the US, we were overshadowed. Top-most in the minds at
Washington and at New York were events in the Middle East. During her
visit, 190 finance ministers and governors of central banks, and some
10,000 bankers had gathered in Washington for the annual meeting of the
World Bank and IMF. Pakistan, when spoken of, was bracketed with Nigeria,
Kenya and Zaire the four most corrupt countries of the world. What was
said, Benazir could not have heard.
The lenders say that Pakistan needs a full-time finance minister, an able
man of finance capable of enforcing his will on the spendings of president,
prime minister, government, parliament and administration. Those advising
are unaware that no man of finance worth his salt in this country would
dream of taking the job, as he knows he could make no headway in dealing
with a government totally lacking credibility, moral authority, and the
will to reform.
The most important issue talked about in Washington was our rampant
corruption. Those that know Pakistan know well that it is cronies,
manipulators, money-makers, the shameless and the spineless, who are hand-
picked to head the state financial institutions, banks, corporations and
trusts.
They know that nepotism and cronyism have reached Marcosian levels, that
the Prime Ministers bonzes selected and assigned an individual with faked
academic qualifications to head perhaps the largest state-owned enterprise.
This was done after establishing that the man would deliver and on the
basis of an annual confidential report (ACR) written by the chairman (an
honourable civil servant) of a corporation from which he had been moved for
inefficiency. He was rated below average in leadership quality,
intellectual integrity and sense of responsibility in financial matters.
Mentioned specifically was the fact that the man and his performance must
be watched closely as he gives preference to personal benefit rather than
to the interest of the organisation, and that he does not hesitate to make
incorrect statements for his own furtherance.
The men in America also know that units of the National Investment Trust
(the largest and only open-ended mutual fund of the country) worth billions
of rupees, held by foreign banks, financial institutions and pension funds,
were recently liquidated. On one day alone, in one go, almost Rs 1
billions worth went. Thereafter, NITs government-appointed chairman and
managing director, Asadullah Shaikh, a former home secretary of Sindh and
not a finance man, was removed and replaced. By advertising on September 25
in Dawn that it is now under professional management, NIT has tacitly
admitted that prior thereto the organisation was being run by non-
professionals. The gate was closed after the horse had bolted. This
naturally raised a laugh in international finance circles.
In my open letter to Imran Khan (column of September 22) I advocated that
Imran concentrate on trying to lessen governmental robbing and on
encouraging transparency. That large bleeding sore, Pakistan Steel Mill,
was cited as a good spot from where to take off.
On October 7 in the letters columns of this newspaper, Advocates Dastgir &
Co, responded on behalf of the mill and its Chairman, Usman Farooqui with
particular reference to a letter written this July 17 to the Minister of
Industries and Production by the Prime Ministers adviser Vasim Jafarey to
which I had referred. Vasim had covered the financial deterioration of the
mill over the past year, the last seven months of which it had been under
Farooquis charge.
Dastgir & Co denied nothing cited by Vasim, i.e. declining production,
massive build-up of stocks, declining sales, dwindling of cash balances,
concealment of the grim state of affairs by a false and frivolous
advertising campaign (costing Rs 3 crores), demand by the mill of a subsidy
of Rs 1 billion to keep going. This was the first time that a subsidy had
been asked for. The advocates say that Farooqui spent Rs 6.264 billion (Rs
626.4 crores) in seven months on renovations and repairs. Nobody disputes
anybodys ability to fritter away public funds. We just question who or
what benefited?
On May 11, 1996, two months before Vasim wrote, five senior directors of
the Mill Baqar Rizvi, Raza Ali, G.H. Memon, Azizullah Khan, and Haroon
Khan wrote to K.B. Rind, Joint Secretary of the Ministry, referring to
their meeting with the minister and sending therewith a 130-page indictment
of the rampant and galloping corruption let loose and the myriad
irregularities, both financial and administrative, being perpetrated by
Usman Farooqui. They implored the minister to immediately intervene and
save the mill from an impending disastrous end. They knew that they were
attacking a protected species, but apparently were so desperate that they
risked writing what they did. Result: they were OSDeed; Farooqui stays to
spend, and, following the example of his patron, challenges anyone to come
forward in the court of law...
Now for the title of this column. We go back to 1977. At the very beginning
of July, the American ambassador in Islamabad rang his consul-general at
Karachi: Relax, he said, the partys over.
The bugged message was repeated to Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who
in those frenetic days was wont to make almost daily boastful speeches. He
told the people. There are some who say the partys over. Well its not.
Its just beginning. I will rule for a hundred years.
At the American celebrations on the 4th of July, Bhutto, surrounded by a
group of acolytes, repeated his words, and laughed. They laughed with him,
unctuously assuring him, Bilkool, bilkool. One of them was army chief,
General Zia-ul-Haq, hands decorously folded over his lower belly, bowing
respectfully. Later that night, Zia deposed Bhutto, arrested him, and took
over what was left of Pakistan.
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961014
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The self-respect of a bankrupt country
-------------------------------------------------------------------
By Ayaz Amir
OF all the wonders in this star-struck land of ours none is greater than
the skill with which we have placed our fortunes at the altar of the
International Monetary Fund. If you think closely about the matter, it
boggles the mind. For a paltry 80 million dollars which is what, with
longing eyes, we now expect from the coffers of the Fund we have bound
ourselves into a servitude against which a colony would rebel.
The blame for this state of affairs does not rest on the shoulders of the
IMF. Since beggars cannot be choosers, and since economic decision-making
in the Republic has been reduced to currying favour with the IMF, we are
forced to accept its conditions, however harsh or unconscionable they may
be. But these conditions are humiliating all the same.
That budgetary guidelines should be set in accordance with the wishes of
the IMF is bad enough. But that it should take the strictures of the Fund
to tell us about the necessity of a tax on agriculture reveals the depths
to which we as a putatively self- respecting nation have sunk. The essence
of sovereignty does not consist in beating the drums of Islamic rhetoric.
Nor in settling the fate of Afghanistan. It lies in making economic
decisions subservient to our own requirements. But if it is the Fund which
has to admonish us about our prodigal ways and thrust bitter medicine down
our throats, what will we be celebrating when the 50th anniversary of our
independence rolls around? Will the conference centre being raised in
Islamabad by the government (at what criminal expense we all know) be a
monument to our pride or our shame?
Whether IMF guidelines are good or bad is not at issue. In some countries
their adoption has led to economic recovery. In others it has caused
widespread social dislocation. The point is that through neglect and short-
sightedness we have allowed the imposition of an economic dictatorship
whose consequences, good or bad, is not in our power to control. If the
prescriptions of the IMF lead to further inflation, a fall in the value of
our currency or the starving of the social sectors we have no one to blame
except ourselves because it is we who have abdicated our economic
sovereignty. Every cash-strapped government goes to the IMF with a begging
bowl in its hands, gets a few crumbs and returns with crippling conditions
which add to the woes of the Pakistani people. The pains of the moment are
eased while the future is further mortgaged.
The wisdom to be seen in this course is not much different from the plight
of a cash-starved individual like myself. When I use my credit card it is
great fun getting money from the bank just like that. But when at the end
of the month I receive my statement of account I feel like kicking myself
in the shins. Loans make sense for enterprising individuals who can turn a
profit on the money they get. Not for individuals like me or entities like
the Pakistani state which finance their lifestyles through extravagant
borrowing. I have decided not to use my credit card except for the direst
emergencies as, for example, a trip to Bangkok. The predicament of the
Pakistani state is infinitely more serious. It would not survive were it
not to use its credit card. The problem is that after years of rich living
its credit card is no longer being honoured. Hence the grave warnings of
impending economic doom.
While all governments have contributed to this mess, the great contribution
of the Bhutto government is that it has brought the day of reckoning
closer. It has not brought speed to the process of development but injected
velocity into the slide towards bankruptcy. What other governments could
not achieve in ten years, it has done so in three. The positive side of its
contribution lies in the fact that it has finally made the nation, or at
least its masters, sit up and take note of the trail of wreckage which
defines our path to the sun.
Through its inadequacies and its almost surreal capacity to mismanage
everything, the government is also presiding over a subtle but sure shift
in the equilibrium of the Constitution, with power slowly moving in the
direction of the presidency. The President is getting involved in decisions
that a competent executive would never have surrendered. What has the
President to do with an inter-governmental conference called to look into
the merits of an agricultural tax? But with her position weakened by
quixotic adventures, the Prime Minister has left herself with no choice
except to go along with a more assertive Presidency, a process that can
only gather strength as the shadows lengthen over what arguably is the most
grimly incompetent government in the nations history.
And yet despite the clear dangers it faces, the government is still going
to be around to amuse and torment the Pakistani people. It may have lost
the ability to govern but it is not going anywhere in a hurry. The
overriding lesson of the last ten years of political turbulence is clear:
it is easy to break a government (after all, it takes but a short
proclamation to bring this about) but it is less easy to manage the
consequences.
The irony of this situation is worth noting. Time was when the Pakistani
nation invested its faith in the holding of elections, firm in the belief
that more democracy was a cure for the ills of democracy. Today the same
prospect causes nightmares because of the fear that an election would
return the same class if not the same faces to power. More than anything
else this wary mood is proving Benazir Bhuttos best defence against the
threat of an immediate dismissal.
But by the same token Pakistan has been left prematurely with a lame-duck
administration, unable to govern effectively and helpless before the sharp
winds that have begun to blow from the presidency. Theoretically speaking,
the government can still take matters into its own hands but only if it
were to begin cleaning its own stables. How is that possible? If the Prime
Minister were to begin purging the corrupt, her government and secretariat
would be littered with corpses. The problem with this dispensation is not
where to end the accountability of the corrupt but from where to begin.
Even if Hercules is willing, where does he begin his labours?
The tragedy is that all of this could so easily have been foretold. When
Benazir Bhutto swept into the Prime Ministers house in 1993 she was not an
unknown commodity, having amply displayed her talents during her first
term. All that she has done since is to prove true to herself and to
demonstrate that she is incapable of learning anything. Even the President
who is now blowing hot and cold and turning himself into a reforming angel
cannot plead ignorance because if anyone had a chance to watch Ms Bhuttos
progress first when she led the PPP, later as head of government it was
him. Can he honestly bring himself to say that Benazirs handling of party
affairs or her first stint as prime minister inspired him with any
confidence about her abilities? It is not only that she is reaping what she
had sowed. The nation too is reaping what it had sowed because Benazir
Bhutto was not imposed upon it but placed in her present position by a
combination of three factors: her vote bank, the alliance with the PML-J
and the solo flight of Qazi Hussain Ahmed who is now thundering the most
against something in whose creation he had an indirect hand. If the right-
wing remains intact, the PPP can never come to power. It is the splintering
of the right which has always paved the way for the PPPs victories.
This nations special tragedy is that it is always trying to undo the
consequences of past disasters. Heaven alone knows when this process will
end but only when it does will Pakistan have a chance to free itself from
the clammy touch of distant gods and take its future into its own hands.
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961013
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An earthquake of rumours
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Omar Kureishi
I must return to my favourite story of the Irishman who came upon two
brawling groups. He watched for a while and then, unwilling to be an idle
spectator, inquired: Is this a private fight or can anyone join in? In
the present political free-for- all, apparently, anyone can join in.
Having been struck by an earthquake of rumours that had the government
packed off, the assemblies dissolved, an in-house change, imported
caretaker prime minister appointed, an interim government of technocrats
installed, to list only a few of the rumours, the reality that none of
these happened should have restored an ante-bellum status quo. But tremors
continue to be felt and newspapers continue to convey the uncertainty borne
of the something-is-about-to-happen fixation. Its like watching a washing
machine churning up the dirty linen.
In all this frenetic political exercise, it is to be noted that the people
of this country have no role to play, there is no reference to them, to
those who cast their votes and who, in theory, should have a decisive say.
After all those who sit in assemblies do so as representatives of these
people and, again in theory, are answerable to them. Thus we extol the
virtues of democracy while uprooting its source, not too dissimilar to the
US Commander in Vietnam who said that he had to destroy a town in order to
save it.
Refusal to learn from experience is a part of our national character
because we continue to make the same mistakes over and over again. This is
what I wrote in early 1988 and who can say that it does not apply to the
present day: Over the years, the country has been conditioned to expect
the worst. We have been told of anti-state elements, of hidden hands, of
internal enemies, of foreign plots. Every vested-interest group, for its
own aggrandisement, has propagated a conspiracy theory. So much that we
have felt ourselves to be under siege, we have become paranoic and have
started believing every doomsday scenario.
Let us take the worst case scenario for this government. That it is sent
packing. Why should the succeeding government assume that it too wont be
sent packing? Its happened in the past. It will happen in the future. The
same sound and fury with which the present government is being denounced
will be there for the next one. Is this to be a pattern of our national
lives? Thats what I mean by our refusal to learn from experience. Both
this government and the opposition are products of a democratic political
system.
They owe their existence to this dispensation. One would have thought that
it would have been in their own highest interests to safeguard and
strengthen the system.
Processions, rallies, public meetings are a part and parcel of the
democratic order, at least, in our part of the world. So too is criticism.
But street agitation that turns violent, an attempt to topple a government
through this method sets unhealthy precedents. We must stay within the
rules and the real battle- field should be the National Assembly. That is
where a government should be confronted and thats where a government must
defend itself.
The pity has been that it is the very members of these assemblies who have
devalued them. That the conduct of these elected representatives leaves a
good deal to be desired is another matter though in the perception of the
public, it does nothing to enhance the prestige of these assemblies.
If there has to be a change of government it must be peaceful and
constitutional and this ideally means that a government should be allowed
to complete its mandated term and then must go back to the people to be re-
appointed or rejected. That would be setting a healthy precedent.
And there is a second matter where we have not learnt from experience. When
in June 1988, the National Assembly was dissolved and the cabinet sacked,
this is what I wrote: There is a tendency to gloat over the predicament
(and embarrassment) of fallen heroes. There is something perverse in
human nature that the very people who basked in reflected glory and
wallowed in shameless adulation, who were the main beneficiaries of favour
and privileges are the first to ridicule and mock the changed status of
their former lords and masters. About the MNAs and MPAs I wrote that
except for the most personal reasons, not a tear has been shed by the
people. Why? Because these MNAs and MPAs (partyless as they were in the
beginning) were seen as rank opportunists by the people with whom they had
no rapport or dialogue. They seemed to represent themselves and nobody
else. In other democracies you can look to your member of parliament to
help with your problems.
At least, you can hold him accountable because he is supposed to be your
representative. And for good measure, I added that to be a representative
of the people, you have to be one of them. Not above them.
I mention this because it has been this cavalier attitude that has actually
weakened the assemblies for its members have lost the support of those who
elected them. I was discussing the present political scene with a friend
and he is not half as cynical as I am. He was of the opinion that when the
chips were down, neither side could count on the loyalty of their MNAs or
MPAs. I told him that a 17th century jurist John Seldom had put it thus:
Take a straw and throw it up into the air, you shall see by that which way
the wind. He thought that a bit too intellectual but said that was more or
less what he meant.
The real tragedy is that this seemingly permanent political confrontation
has not allowed the real agenda to be addressed. Which is why, after nearly
50 years, half our population does not have access to safe drinking water
and the literacy rate, instead of going up, has actually declined. When we
complain about the apathy of the people, we fail to take into consideration
that politics is seen to be irrelevant in the lives of most people.
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961012
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India, Pakistan: a comparison
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Dr Ishrat Husain
INDIA and Pakistan are completing five decades of their independence. Since
the partition, the relationship between the two countries has been uneasy
and characterised by a set of paradoxes. There is a mixture of love and
hate, a tinge of envy and admiration, bouts of paranoia and longing for co-
operation, and a fierce rivalry but a sense of proximity, too.
The heavy emotional overtones have made it difficult to sift facts from
myths and make an objective assessment. There are in fact only two extreme
types of reactions on each side. Either there are those who always find
that the grass is greener on the other side of the pasture or those who are
totally dismissive of the accomplishments of the other side.
This article attempts to present an objective, empirically- based and
balanced view of the economic achievements and failures of both the
countries during the span of the last five decades. The strict comparison
becomes somewhat problematic because of the separation of East from West
Pakistan in 1971 but, the analysis and conclusions drawn by and large
remain valid.
First, the common successes shared by both the countries: Despite the
prophets of gloom and doom on both sides of the fence, both India and
Pakistan have succeeded in more than doubling their per capita incomes.
This is a remarkable feat considering that the population has increased
fourfold in case of Pakistan and threefold in India. Leaving aside the
countries in East Asia and China, very few large countries have been able
to reach this milestone.
The incidence of poverty (defined as $1 per day) has also been reduced
significantly although the number of absolute poor remains astoundingly
high. However, the level of poverty is lower in Pakistan.
Food production has not only kept pace with the rise in population but has
surpassed it. Both countries, leaving aside annual fluctuations due to
weather conditions, are self- sufficient in food. (Pakistan exports its
surplus rice but imports small volumes of wheat).
Food self-sufficiency has been accompanied by improved nutritional status.
Daily caloric and protein intake per capita has risen by almost one-third
but malnourishment among children is still high.
The cracks in the dualistic nature of the economy a well- developed
modern sector and a backward traditional sector are appearing fast in
both the countries. A buoyant middle class is emerging. The use of modern
inputs and mechanisation of agriculture has been a levelling influence in
this direction. But public policies have not always been consistent or
supportive.
Second, the common failures of the two countries: The relatively inward-
looking economic policies and high protection to domestic industry did not
allow them to reap the benefits of integration with the fast-expanding and
much larger world economy. This has changed particularly since 1991 but the
control mind-set of the politicians and the bureaucrats has not changed.
The centrally planned allocation of resources and licence raj has given
rise to an inefficient private sector that thrives more on contracts,
bribes, loans from public financial institutions, lobbying, tax evasion and
rent-seeking rather than on competitive behaviour. Unless both the control
mind-set of the government and the parasitic behaviour of the private
industrial entrepreneurs do not change drastically, the potential of an
efficient economy would he hard to achieve. This can be accomplished by
promoting domestic and international competition, reducing tariff and non-
tariff barriers and removing constraints to entry for newcomers.
The weaknesses in governance in the legal and judicial system, poor
enforcement of private property rights and contracts, preponderance of
discretionary government rules and regulations and lack of transparency in
decision making act as brakes on broad-based participation and sharing of
benefits by the majority of the population.
In terms of fiscal management, the record of both the countries is less
than stellar. Higher fiscal deficits averaging 7-8 per cent of GDP have
persisted for fairly long periods of time and crowded out private capital
formation through large domestic borrowing. Defence expenditures and
internal debt servicing continue to pre-empt large proportion of tax
revenues with adverse consequences for maintenance and expansion of
physical infrastructure, basic social services and other essential services
that only the government can provide. The congested urban services such as
water, electricity, transport in both countries are a potential source of
social upheaval.
The state of financial sector in both countries is plagued with serious
ills. The nationalisation of commercial banking services, the neglect of
credit quality in allocation decisions, lack of competition and inadequate
prudential regulations and supervision have put the system under severe
pressure and increased the share of non-performing assets in the banks
portfolio. The financial intermediation role in mobilising and efficiently
allocating domestic savings has been seriously compromised and the banking
system is fragile. Both countries are now taking steps to liberalise the
financial sector and open it up to competition from foreign banks as well
as private banks.
Third, the areas where India has surpassed Pakistan: There is little doubt
that the scientific and technological manpower and research and development
institutions in India are far superior and can match those of the Western
institutions. The real breakthrough in the Indian export of software after
the opening up of the economy in 1991 attests to the validity of the
proposition that human capital formation accompanied by market- friendly
economic policies can lift the developing countries out of low-level
equilibrium trap.
Indian scientists working in India excel in the areas of defence
technology, space research, electronics, genetics, telecommunications, etc.
The number of Ph.Ds produced by India in science and engineering every year
about 5,000 is higher than the entire stock of Ph.Ds in Pakistan. The
premier research institutions in Pakistan started about the same time as
India have become hotbed of internal bickerings and rivalries rather than
generator of ideas, processes and products.
Related to this superior performance in the field of scientific research
and technological development is the better record of investment in
education by India. The adult literacy rate, female literacy rate, gross
enrolment rations at all levels, and education index of India have moved
way ahead of Pakistan. Rapid decline in total fertility rates in India has
reduced population growth rate to 1.8 per cent compared to 3.0 per cent in
Pakistan.
Health access to the population and infant mortality rates are also better
in India and thus the overall picture of social indicators, although not
very impressive by international standards, emerges more favourable. The
two most important determinants of Pakistans dismal performance in social
development are its inability to control population growth and the lack of
willingness to educate girls in the rural areas.
Fourth, the areas where Pakistan has performed better than India: The
economic growth rate of Pakistan has been consistently higher than in
India. Starting from almost the same level or slightly lower level in 1947,
Pakistans per capita income today in US nominal dollar terms is one-third
higher (430 versus 320) and in purchasing parity dollar terms is two-thirds
higher (2,310 versus 1,280). The latter suggests that the average Pakistani
has enjoyed better living standards and consumption levels in the past but
the gap may be narrowing since early 1990s. Had the population growth rate
in Pakistan been slower and equalled that of India, this gap would have
been much wider and the per capita income in Pakistan today would have been
twice as high and the incidence of poverty further down.
Although both India and Pakistan have pursued inward-looking strategies,
the anti-export bias in case of Pakistan has been comparably lower and the
integration with the world market faster. The trade-GDP ratio in PPP terms
is twice that of all South Asian countries. Pakistans export growth has
been stronger and the composition of exports has shifted from primary to
manufactured goods. However, the dominance of cotton-based products has
enhanced its vulnerability.
Domestic investment rates in Pakistan have remained much below those of
India over the entire span primarily because of the relatively higher
domestic savings rates in the latter. But the efficiency of investment as
measured by the aggregate incremental capital-output ratio or total factor
productivity has been higher in case of Pakistan and, to some extent,
compensated the lower quantity of investment.
What is the bottom line then? The overall record looks mixed. Pakistan
scores high on income and consumption growth, poverty reduction and
integration with the world economy. India has done very well in developing
its human resource base and excelled in the field of science and
technology. Both countries face a set of common problems the inherited
legacy of a control mind-set among the government and rent-seeking private
sector, widespread corruption, poor fiscal management, weak financial
system and congested and overcrowded urban services. But there is an
important and perceptible positive shift in most of the indicators of India
since 1991. Export growth rates have almost doubled, GDP growth is
averaging 6 to 7 per cent in recent years, current account deficit is down
and foreign capital flows for investment have risen several fold. The edge
that Pakistan had gained over India in most of these indicators until 1990
is fast eroding. Pakistan, on the other had, has made greater progress in
privatisation of state-owned enterprises and in attracting foreign
investors to expand power generating capacity in the country.
How does the future look like? Since 1991, both India and Pakistan have
embarked on a policy of liberalisation, outward orientation and faster
integration with the global economy. The initial responses have been very
positive. As outlined earlier, portfolio and foreign direct investment
flows in the last few years have surpassed the total over the earlier 20-25
years. Indian exports recorded an increase of 50 per cent since 1991 while
Pakistan, despite a setback due to failure of successive cotton crops, have
expanded by two-thirds since 1990. The political uncertainty in India has
been minimised after the elections earlier this year and adoption by the
coalition government of the Congress agenda on economic reforms.
This combination of political stability, economic policy credibility and
well-developed human resource base places India at an advantage today. But
there is no earthly reason why we in Pakistan cannot put our house in
order, strike a consensus among the two major political parties on the
contours of our economic policy direction, stop internal bickering and
turmoil for the sake of the countrys larger interests and avoid promoting
contrived and perceived sense of economic instability.
The imperatives of globalisation and integration with the world economy
dictate that the countries that are not agile and do not seize the
opportunities at the right time are likely to be losers. What is
encouraging is that the economic policy stance of both major parties in
Pakistan is identical, i.e. liberalisation of the economy. We have made a
head start and let us not lose this momentum by narrow-minded and purely
self-serving interests. The destiny of a nation depends upon the hard work,
discipline and internal cohesion of its people and the vision of its
leaders. Let our future generations not blame our leaders for failing to
leave a legacy of prosperity and hope for them.
(The author is the Director, Poverty and Social Policy Department, at the
World Bank. The views expressed in this article are his own and do not
represent the views of the Bank.)
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961013
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Wanted: a pair of clean hands
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Mohammad Malick
ISLAMABAD: The lean and lanky senator-daughter of former prime minister,
late Mohammad Khan Junejo, is not in the habit of shooting off speeches.
But when she did speak on Saturday on the subject of accountability, the
advantage of inheriting a clean legacy could not become more pronounced.
Standing tall in a political arena full of dwarfs, when it comes to
measuring heights with the yardstick of honesty, Fiza Junejo wondered aloud
about the causes preventing the government from expelling the corrupt from
its own ranks and nabbing those outside, if its own hands were clean, as
the government claimed. She reminded the house that her father had sacked
three ministers on the charge of unbecoming conduct, sending a clear
message that the Junejo government would not accept corruption, or the
corrupt.
What Fiza Junejo said made a lot of sense but it was quiet apparent that
she was addressing the wrong audience. She found that out minutes later
when Sen Gulzar lost his cool and let Sen Tariq Chaudry have it when the
latter reminded the chairman about his secretariats slumber over a
reference filed by him. Though he did not name any names at that juncture
but who would know better than Sen Gulzar.
The reference has been moved to seek Gulzars disqualification on the
ground of his alleged bribery attempts during his bid to get elected as the
Senate chairman. Sen Tariq has charged in the reference that the Sen Gulzar
offered as much as Rs10 million each to senators for electing him. Another
senator, Fazal Agha, had also charged on the floor of the house speech that
he had been offered that bribe directly by the senator.
An angry Gulzar shot up from his seat and started abusing the smiling Sen
Tariq, calling him Do takay kaa aadmi among other things and shouting
that he could buy his obedience by just throwing ten thousand rupees at
this man. A visibly angry but cool Tariq Chaudry just kept a smile pasted
to his face and got deeper under the fuming senators skin by adding: I
did not take any names apparently its a case of Chor ki darhi may tinka.
The other event of the day actually happened to be the non-event of the day
when for some strange reason the opposition overtaken by a strange feeling
of harmony and mutual co-operation allowed its tabled bill on the
establishment of an accountability commission to be sent to a committee.
Only two days earlier in the national assembly, the opposition had fought
the government tooth and nail to force the turning of the entire house into
a committee to debate the bill. As expected it lost in the vote count but
it still managed to paint the government as being accountability shy.
Now when it had an opportunity to force an immediate debate in the
opposition dominated house, someone moved the ends. One wonders if either
of the sides is really sincere in its proclaimed desire to curb corruption.
May be Sen Khalil-ur-Rehman had been right in questioning the presence, or
absence, of the required will to eradicate corruption. In an earlier
speech, the senator defined the lack of accountability as the single
biggest contributing factor to the countrys growing social and economic
problems. Accountability, in his view, was the embodiment of a democratic
system.
He made an interesting differentiation when he said, democracy refers to
how power is acquired and retained while the Constitution refers to how
power is granted, dispersed and limited and all governments, therefore,
have constitutions in the sense of agreed upon ways of conducting their
business. The he went on to identify the problem as being a interpretation
of the constitution by the governments. The governments need to be
handcuffed, hemmed in and rendered harmless.
He said: Cant we think for ourselves that we need the president to tell
us what to do, how to think and yet we claim ourselves to be the supreme
sovereign body. Do we deserve this title.
But before he went in for a ruthless self analysis of the political body he
turned his guns on the system that had been corrupted to the point where
the judiciary and parliament had been turned subservient to the executive
by corrupt and colluding politicians and the establishment. He said: This
political Mafia gave us a Constitution which is a monster which creates not
democratic prime ministers but dictators. Where else is a prime minister
elected as in Pakistan, starting horse-trading from the first day of the
parliaments existence. Could the senator be hinting about some basic
changes in the system that may be desired by certain quarters.
===================================================================
961011
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How much cricket should we really play?
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THE former president of the Indian Cricket Board, Mr Inderjit Singh Bindra,
appears to have said farewell to good sense because, as the good old Capt
Saeed used to say, if he (Mr Bindra) knows anything about the game, I am
Charlies aunt.
He told reporters last week: If golfers and tennis stars can play all
through the year, so can our cricketers. Hence the need to plan a non-stop
circuit on the lines of golf and tennis to keep cricketers busy the year
round.
The advantages? More money for the players and the board which can be used
to promote junior cricket in India. It is a concept that is bound to catch
on in the rest of the world, said Mr Bindra. I hope not. Not in Pakistan
at any rate.
The Indian cricket season will begin in September and end in June instead
of May as at present. September, October, April, May and June can be
extremely hot in India as indeed in the rest of the sub-continent. Asking
cricketers to play in these months would amount to cruelty to animals.
Cricket in the sub-continent should be played only during November-March.
Five months in a year should be more than enough. Even these months can be
quite enervating in Karachi, Calcutta, Bombay (I refuse to call it Mumbai)
and Madras. Winter in these port cities is anything but wintry.
Now have a look at the Indian cricketers engagements in the coming months.
The Australians are already in India for a one-off Test match which was due
to begin on Thursday. Then lines got into print South Africa are due to
take part in a triangular one-day tournament which is to last till November
6.
The Australians then go home but South Africa stay on to play a three-Test
match series which ends on December 14. Then the Indians leave for South
Africa to play three more Test matches and take part in yet another
triangular, the third side being Zimbabwe.
This will keep India busy up to mid-February next year when they leave for
the West Indies for a five-Test series. The tour will end on May 3.
The same month, India will organise a one-day tournament as part of the
celebration marking its 50th independence day anniversary. In August-
September, India will visit Sri Lanka to play two Test matches. Towards the
end of September, India will begin a five-match one-day series against
Pakistan in Canada to be followed by the first-ever one-day triangular in
the US. Apart from India and Pakistan, the West Indies will complete the
frame.
This is not all. New Zealand and Sri Lanka visit India from October to
December for Test matches and one-day series and then the Australians will
arrive for a three-Test series. This means 23 Test matches and a minimum of
20 one-days. This is too much. But Mr Bindra dismisses all criticism about
the gruelling schedule which is bound to tell on the players health.
Professional cricketers have to adjust to and pace themselves like other
sportsmen, he says.
I am sure Mr Bindra cannot bowl a single six-ball over at 150 kilometres to
the hour and that he cannot but through the day in a Test match or hit 60-
odd runs in the slog overs of a one-day game. We can all make demands on
the time and health of our cricketers from the comfort of our armchairs
because we do not have to be out there in the middle under a cruel sun.
Yes, the sun can be quite cruel in Lahore even in December, especially
between lunch and tea.
I am of the view that if we continue to play one-day matches at the rate we
are going, even they will lose public interest, especially if the two sides
are not evenly matched.
No disrespect is intended here, but how many people in Pakistan will pay to
watch a one-day game against Kenya, Holland or Zimbabwe?
Again, to compare tennis and golf, especially the latter, with cricket is
insane. Apart from the games which go into four or five sets, how long does
it take for a tennis match to be over? And as for golf, even 70-year olds
can play it comfortably.
Pakistans own schedule has been rather heavy. After an England tour to
Toronto to Nairobi. Look at the vast distances and the amount of travel
involved. And do the cricketers have no families? No parents, no wives, no
children? I think Pakistan at least should ration out the one-days and Test
matches judiciously. There should be a suitable interval between
engagements. We already have two vital members of the side on the injured
list Inzimamul Haq and Mushtaq Ahmed have had knee operations and Aamer
Sohail is also not in the pink of health or the peak of his form. What
happens if, God forbid, one of our key fast bowlers Wasim or Waqar Yunus
breaks down?
I think the ICC should take up the issue. Too many matches will kill the
game and send several star performers into early retirement. The way we are
going, we are bound to kill the goose that lays the golden egg.
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961012
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Kenya trophy missed despite Afridis splendid show
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Lateef Jafri
South Africa displayed their resources in Kenya in a confident vein to
clinch the honours of the four-nation tournament despite facing hurdles
against the world champions, Sri Lanka, always a balanced side, in the
middle of the competition.
Could Pakistan have done better than finishing second in a cricket contest,
organised for the first time by Kenya with three internationally-recognised
contestants, ask the games followers? No, say the keen observers of
cricket. They point to the depletion in the squad due to the withdrawals of
key performers viz Mushtaq Ahmad, Inzamamul Haq, Aamir Sohail and latterly
the return of the leader and guide Wasim Akram, due to unfortunate
injuries, illness and other reasons. However, the selectors too did not
engage themselves in serious paper-work and discovered for the team
replacements who were either out of form or not yet ready for tough
challenges at the international level (leaving aside the young phenomenon,
Shahid Afridi). One may ask the selectorial panel why the demand of coach
and cricket manager, Mushtaq Mohammad, for Rashid Latif and Aqib Javed was
spurned? The gaps in the outfit may have been filled to some extent and at
least Aqib may have adapted to the conditions in Nairobi directing fast-
medium swingers, hardly losing the essential principle of bowling the
length. Zahid, the choice of the officials to appear in place of the
fearsome Wasim, reported unfit on arrival in the Kenyan capital. As coach
Mushtaq said he had shoulder injury and could not have been fielded for the
specific purpose of bowling.
Then cricket followers just regret the overall performance and show of
Ramiz Raja cipher against Kenya, 7 against Sri Lanka and 3 in the final
against South Africa. What was the logic behind the selection of Ramiz and
Zahid?
The chief selector in one of his interviews has tried to defend the last-
minute inclusion of Saeed Azad by saying that he was the highest run-getter
last season. The records, on the contrary, show Sohail Jaffar on top of the
ladder, with Asif Mujtaba, Mohammad Nawaz and Azam Khan taking second,
third and fourth slots in the batting aggregate. His experiment too cannot
be called a success, considering that only in the final he made 31,
otherwise in the two earlier engagements his contributions were 14 and 1.
(The selectors have continued with their experiments and a policy of
encouraging young talent. The team for the Sahiwal side match shows that
the call-up of new faces is in accord with the order of averages or the
haul of wickets and the total collection of runs last year).
(However, the choice of Mohammad Zahid appears risky as it is not known if
he is in a fit condition; Ather Laiq (54 wickets last year) or Ali Gohar
(47 victims) may have been preferred if the reliable and effective pace of
Aqib Javed was still not to the selectors liking).
(The alacrity of Rafaqat Ali after his lapses in the SAARC gold cup in
Dhaka is to be taken as doubtful and again the fans may be surprised at the
passing over of Rashid Latif, an aggressive batsman and a swift stumper).
Coming to the Kenya quadrangular many are of the opinion that despite the
convulsion suffered by the team in the competition opener it could have
bagged the trophy after the blinding hitting displayed by teenager Shahid
Afridi against Sri Lanka. Pakistan were underdogs against the world
champions. Afridi, an unknown quantity as a batsman, cracked 11 sixes and
six fours. He was a ruthless machine and the Sri Lankan bowling was cut to
smithereens. Saeed Anwar, also a centurion in that match, was watchful at
the other end. Afridi, a Karachi Islamia College student, exhibited his
quick-silver footwork for the chivalrous drives that sent the onlookers
crazy. Afridi not only set an individual record of the quickest one-day
century but helped Pakistan pass their highest score of 338 in limited-
overs international against Sri Lanka. Afridi was a real discovery.
Try as they did Sri Lanka could not race to Pakistans huge # total with a
run rate of over 7:00. They lost the match by 82 runs but failed to reach
the final by the proverbial whisker.
Pakistan should have won the final against South Africa, many cricket
enthusiasts thought. Their tails were up. As in the whole tournament
Pakistans form see-sawed, it was an all-round poor show in the final
tussle against South Africa. Afridi could not repeat his batting
performance; he scored only 14. The other batsmen failed to cope with the
variegated attack of the South Africans in an assured way. The bowling was
found wanting as the South Africans went in their confident manner to chase
the modest Pakistan total of 203. Gary Kirsten was missed twice on his way
to the century. Certainly Pakistan had little chance in the match. However,
the bright spot was again the wile and guile in the leg breaks of Afridi,
who just missed the hat-trick by a hairs breadth.
The team missed the chance in Kenya. Another squad has arrived in the
country. The new players, the young blood, are on test and trial. Some may
join the mainstream squad if they excel in the matches against Zimbabwe;
others may form a second line, waiting for future national service.
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Zimbabwe want backing from ICC for cricket uplift
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Special Representative
SAHIWAL, Nov 12: Cricket minnows Zimbabwe urged the International Cricket
Council (ICC) to extend full support to them so that they could come up to
the level of other formidable sides of the world.
I am very disappointed with the ICC because they have not supported the
Zimbabwe cricket board. If they (ICC) had wanted, they could have helped us
in many ways, the Zimbabwe skipper, Alister Campbell, told Dawn.
The 24-year-old Campbell said the least the ICC could have done was to
waive off the annual fee. I dont know what the exact amount is, but it is
in pounds and that too a handsome one. Had the ICC made fee concession, the
Zimbabwe cricket board could have invested that money on the home
infrastructure. A few facilities could have been established.
Campbell stated that in Zimbabwe, there were no good infrastructure as
compared to countries like India, Pakistan, Australia or even England.
There are hardly 25 cricketers in Zimbabwe who have the potential of
making to the Test grade. On the contrary, Pakistan suffer an injury and
they bring in a player like Shahid Khan Afridi who creates a world record.
This shows the talent Pakistan has and it is only because they have a
strong domestic cricket and proper facilities.
If we get good infrastructure back home, cricket will be promoted and in a
quick time, the tally of 25 players can be raised to 125. We have the
talent but no proper facilities, Campbell said.
Campbell was of the view that the ICC could have also helped Zimbabwes
cause by giving them good cricket. Can you imagine, we have been in the
ICC fold for about four years and have not played against Australia,
England and the West Indies in Tests. After this series, we would have
played 16 Tests and out of those 16, eight will be against Pakistan. It
disturbs me as well as the cricket administrators back home, the left-
hander said.
Campbell called on for uniformity from the ICC on the allocation of Test
matches. We want equality. If England plays three Tests against India, we
should also get three Tests. Likewise, if Australia hosts Sri Lanka for
three Tests, they should also invite us for three Tests. Not inviting us
because we are not crowd-puller or our side cannot help the host teams
generate more sponsorships, is injustice to us. Unless we dont get top
grade cricket, how can we improve?
The current team comprises the first generation of Zimbabwe cricketers. At
least, I dont want to retire with only a couple of Test wins against my
name. It is the dream of every cricketer to play at Lords. But we have
been deprived of that honour because we have not been invited by England so
far. David Houghton, our senior-most cricketer, will retire after the end
of this season without playing there. Isnt it sad, Campbell questioned.
Campbell expressed his disappointment when critics say they dont deserve
Test status. It is very sickening when people jump on your back and say
you dont deserve to play Test cricket. What the critics dont analyse is
the difference between Zimbabwe and say Pakistan.
Continuing his complaints against the ICC, Alister Campbell raised a valid
point saying the games body should introduce sponsorships. The ICC should
pick some cricketers from fast emerging countries and sponsor them to
either the Australian Cricket Academy or the Plascon Cricket Academy in
South Africa. This scheme will not only help the cause of countries like
Zimbabwe, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh etc., it will also bring in the
element of competition amongst the teams. If the ICC can get sponsors for
the umpires (National Grid), they can get the sponsors for say 30 teenagers
to be divided into two groups, one going to Australia and the other to
South Africa.
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Nawaz Tiwana back as hockey president
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Ilyas Beg
LAHORE, Oct 12: Mr Muhammad Nawaz Tiwana was formally re-elected as
President of Pakistan Hockey Federation during the 60th council meeting at
the National Hockey Stadium on Saturday.
During a Press briefing shortly after the meeting, the PHF secretary Col.
Mudassar Asghar told newsmen that Mr Tiwana was not new to the game and had
been President of the body for two years in early nineties. He said the
members of the council reposed full confidence in him and hoped that Mr
Tiwana would run the PHF in a professional manner and do everything for the
promotion of the game.
Col. Mudassar said that the 58th PHF council held at Lahore on April 25
this year had elected Mr Tiwana as the new president. However, at the 59th
Council meeting in Karachi on May 18, Air Vice-Marshal Farooq Umar was
asked to continue as president till the Olympic Games at Atlanta. He said
AVM Farooq Umar had tendered his resignation to the PHF Council which was
received a few days ago. After that the Council had to elect the new
president.
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Show cause notice to Rashid Latif
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Special Representative
SAHIWAL, Oct 13: Discarded Test wicketkeeper Rashid Latif has been served
with a show cause notice by the PCB Disciplinary Committee, headed by
Shafqat Rana, well-placed sources said here on Sunday.
Latif has been asked to explain why disciplinary action should not be taken
against him after his latest outburst against Chief Selector, Salim Altaf,
in a recent interview.
Latif, dropped from the Canada and Kenya tours, was quoted by an Urdu daily
as saying that Salim Altaf was taking revenge against him.
It is a personal vendetta against me by Salim Altaf. He (Salim Altaf)
couldnt do anything against me in South Africa in 1994-95 but now as he
heads the Selection Committee, he is settling old scores, Latif was quoted
as saying in the monthly Akhbar-i-Watan.
Latifs attack has also come in the background of selectors refusal to
accept the request of Canada and Kenya teams tour management who had
repeatedly asked for Rashid Latif as one of the replacements.
The Disciplinary Committee has asked Rashid Latif to explain his position
by next week. Sources said if Latif failed to produce a satisfactory reply,
the committee may penalise him in cash for breach of contract.
It may be mentioned here that Salim Altaf was sent as an observer by the Ad
hoc Committee of Javed Burki to South Africa in 1994-95 and was also
assigned to investigate the infighting which was going on in the team.
There, Rashid Latif had refused to talk to Salim Altaf saying since he
(Salim Altaf) had no powers, it was useless to convey his problems to Altaf
who then was a selector. Rashid Latif had demanded to talk only to Javed
Burki (Chairman, Ad hoc Committee) or Arif Abbasi (member, Ad hoc
Committee).
Dawn page