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DAWN WIRE SERVICE
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Week Ending : 25 January, 1996 Issue : 02/04
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The DAWN Wire Service (DWS) is a free weekly news-service from
Pakistan's largest English language newspaper, the daily DAWN. DWS
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General
..........Peshawar blast: FIR registered 5 months prior to tragedy
..........Bhandara apprehends arrest, alleges persecution
..........PR privatisation okayed
..........Leghari seeks briefing on privatisation
..........Leghari briefed on privatisation: Naveed
..........Strong govt required to check HR abuses: Asma
..........HRCP seeks probe into extra-judicial killings, torture
..........Definite proof of Afghanistan, India fomenting terrorism
..........Pakistan seeks Delhi guarantee on N-plans
Karachi Carnage
..........Constable among 22 killed in city violence
..........Altaf asks partymen to go into hiding
..........MQM men killed DEA official: DIG
..........Dehlavi asks govt to honour its commitments
Opposition
..........Opposition senators stage walkout
..........Token walkout staged by opposition senators
..........Acerbic exchanges dominates NA proceedings
..........Treasury benches face embarrassment
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IMF tighten control over Pakistan Economy
Criticism of PPL , Hashoo group deal uncalled for
PPL issue: Baluchistan Assembly opposes shares transfer
Only one bidder left: Govt to go ahead with sale of UBL
SBP penalises 3 banks for failure to meet reserve needs
Modest recovery despite inconsistency in trading patterns
KSE 100-share index soars to 1526.12 points
KSE index increases by 36.56 points, signal at 1600 points
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Independence of the Judiciary-IV Ardeshir Cowasjee
Private jails: Why no legal action Ghani Eirabie
The rot of corruption Editorial Column
Strange tidings from across the border Ayaz Amir
Green signal for KMTP Editorial Column
Mounting debt burden Sultan Ahmed
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PIA regain National one-day title after nine years
Australia clinch World series in rain-hit thriller
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960123
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Peshawar blast: FIR registered 5 months prior to tragedy
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Abdul Sami Paracha
PESHAWAR, Jan 22: Reports compiled by leading sensitive state agencies
on the tackling of Peshawar bomb blasts investigation by the NWFP law
enforcement agencies have termed all the arrests made in this
connection as a face saving measure and far from the hard realities
of the case.
Highly placed sources in different agencies confided to Dawn that
hundreds of Afghan suspects rounded up from various areas of the
province were charged under a general FIR dated 03-07-1995 which had
been registered as a precautionary measure to be used against
unidentified terrorists in case of any untoward incident and whenever
necessary.
It was done to avoid future embarrassment as the intelligence agencies
had already conveyed an important message about the serious mishap in
the wake of minor explosions and the entry of foreign terrorists in
the country much before the Peshawar bomb blast in the Cantonment area
in December last.
There are confirmed reports that some of the senior police officials
in the NWFP police have expressed their reservations to carry out the
directives of their IGP regarding the investigation procedures of the
case during high-level meetings.
Commenting on Gen Ghaffars arrest, sources said there were many
instances where the police had released blast suspects without proper
investigation. They said such blunders being committed at high level
have made the investigation very suspicious which now needs to be
handed over to some other agency which could do it independently.
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960123
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Bhandara apprehends arrest, alleges persecution
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Bureau Report
ISLAMABAD, Jan 22: M.P. Bhandara, chief executive of the 135-year-old
Murree Brewery, has expressed the fear of his imminent arrest "as the
logical consequence of my crime of hurting the business interests of
the most powerful and important person of Pakistan".
Talking to Dawn by telephone, he alleged that he was being
"relentlessly persecuted" by the authorities and cited the "totally
illegal" closure of the brewery on Jan 17 as the "latest proof" in
this regard. He plans to take out a public, appeal in the national
press extolling the president to intervene in the name of justice", as
he put it.
Talking of his fears of an imminent arrest, he claimed that he had
already received information that FIR's were being drafted to
implicate in one case or another and now he believed "a case may just
have been found." He said recently , someone had erected a wall within
the premises of the brewery along the railway track leading into the .
brewery, claiming that he had been , allotted the plot in 1993 by an
MNA who happened to be a member of House committee on railway.
The wall was pulled down by, brewery employees on Sunday and the man
lodged a complaint with the authorities. Mr Bhandara said his managers
had been summoned by a magistrate on Tuesday. "They'll definitely be
arrested and probably then it would be my turn to be implicated in the
case," he added.
Mr Bhandara's fears came to the fore when he was contacted to confirm
the contents of a letter supposedly sent to President Leghari, and a
copy of which was faxed to Dawn. He said the fax comprised the
original and a lengthy draft which had, therefore, not been sent to
the president Instead, he said, he would be taking out a public appeal
and read out the contents on phone since, he claimed, his fax which
was sealed along with the brewery, had yet to be restored.
According to the original draft, Mr Bhandara has alleged persecution
at the hands of a "high and mighty personality interested in the
setting up of a brewery distillery in Sindh." He claimed that he had
no objection to the setting up of new breweries but that all he
desired was a "level playing field and, in particular, the permission
to export our huge unutilised plant-capacity and receive non-
discriminatory treatment in sales to Sindh."
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960120
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PR privatisation okayed
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Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Jan 19: The Pakistan Railways has been permitted to go ahead
with the privatisation process of its non-remunerative sections.
Accordingly, the railways has completed the exercise of pre-
qualifying the interested firms for taking up the contracts of sale
and checking of tickets on the proposed sections.
The railways proposes to give out on contracts Hyderabad- Mir-Purkhas;
Hyderabad-Badin; Lahore-Narowal; Quetta-Taftan; Taxila-Havelian; and
Nowshera-Dargai sections. Sources disclosed that presently the railway
headquarters was processing some offers for sale and checking of
tickets on the Lahore-Narowal section.
The railways has fixed a bench-mark of Rs 30.25 million for the
bidders, including the escalation factor.
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960121
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Leghari seeks briefing on privatisation
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ISLAMABAD, Jan 20: President Farooq Ahmed Khan Leghari has invited the
Privatisation Commission (PC) to brief him in detail about its
privatisation programme during the course of the year.
The PC has firmed up plans to privatise during 1996, Pakistan
Telecommunication Corporation, Sui Southern Gas Company, Kot Ado Power
Station, United Bank Limited, Bankers Equity Limited, and Habib Bank
Limited.
In the backdrop of the ongoing media controversy over the pros and
cons of selling UBL to a foreign party and the opposition PMLs total
rejection of the idea, the sudden interest of the President in the
affairs of the PC is being considered highly significant.
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960125
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Leghari briefed on privatisation : Naveed
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Faraz Hashmi
ISLAMABAD, Jan 24: President Farooq Ahmed Khan Leghari was given a
comprehensive presentation on the on-going privatisation process by
Chairman Syed Naveed Qamar and Secretary Abdullah Yousuf of the
Privatisation Commission.
Denying reports that the President was concerned over the
privatisation of United Bank Limited (UBL) and Pakistan
Telecommunication Corporation (PTC) and had called for the
postponement of sale of these units, he said the President had not
asked for the briefing rather it was held on the request of the
commission.
Sources, claiming to be well informed, said that the President had
wanted the Privatisation Commission to explain to him some of the
points raised by a Lahore weekly with regard to the extent of
transparency in the privatisation process.
Regarding the privatisation of PTC and UBL, he said it would be held
as planned. The road shows of the PTC had already been completed and
soon the potential buyers would visit Pakistan to assess the price of
the corporation recently converted into a private limited company, he
added.
Responding to a question whether the Faysal Bank of Bahrain, which
earlier had qualified for the final bidding of UBL, had withdrawn, he
said they had asked the government to deposit Rs 20 billion with the
bank for a period of five years after its privatisation or make
specific commitment for financial support.
The Faysal Bank had indicated that they might withdraw if their
demands were not met, he added. These demands were not acceptable and
we assume that they have withdrawn them, he said.
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960121
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Strong govt required to check HR abuses: Asma
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Bureau Report
PESHAWAR, Jan 20: Ms Asma Jehangir, chairperson of the Human Rights
Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has said that all Pakistan lacked was a
strong government will to check institutionalised human rights abuses
committed by politicians, judges of the respectable courts,
businessmen, landlords and influentials.
She said her organisation cannot set priorities as far as human rights
violations are concerned, in a society where the government as well
the various communities are not used to the norms and principles of
democracy.
Regretting the state of political and social affairs in the country
she informed the participants that the HRCP has recommended to the
government that superior court judges should be appointed with the
joint consent of the Prime Minister, the leader of the opposition and
chief justice of Pakistan, to ensure the effective working of the
judiciary in the country.
To a query she said that politicians are public property and the Press
has the right to expose their wrong doings in the interest of the
public. She suggested that if even if judges are corrupt let the Press
report such matters for the greater national interest. She asked
politicians to refrain from filing defamation suits against the Press
and instead face the charges framed against them.
Ms Asma said that excesses in society by the police have reached an
alarming stage and people were being killed at the behest of the
government and influential people in fake encounters.
A report about such accounts, especially in Karachi, has been prepared
and submitted to the government. She was of the view that the police
cannot be tamed unless it was humanised and other major changes were
made in its set-up and structure.
She elaborated that the investigative section should be separated from
the law and order section and ministers and other dignitaries should
employ their own security guards and not horrify the people by using
officials protocols.
To another query she said that the HRCP cannot afford to expand its
charter to the whole world owing to a shortage of resources and
manpower. However the Commission formally condemns the human rights
abuses committed worldwide, she added.
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960123
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HRCP seeks probe into extra-judicial killings, torture
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Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Jan 22: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan called upon
the government to constitute a commission headed by a judge of the
Supreme Court to thoroughly investigate allegations of custodial
torture and deaths and extra-judicial killings.
In a joint statement issued on Monday, Justice Dorab Patel, chairman
emeritus, and Asma Jehangir, chairperson of the Human Rights
Commission of Pakistan, said they were deeply disturbed by the
increasing number of deaths in custody or in encounters with the law
enforcement agencies in Sindh and particularly in Karachi, as well as
the large number of mutilated bodies found stuffed in sacks.
We are also deeply disturbed by the practice of picking up large
numbers of people without any cases having been registered against
them, and their implication in blind FIRs later on.
The absence of any proper inquiry into these incidents is undermining
law and order. We are also disturbed by allegations of custodial
torture and deaths, they said. Justice Dorab Patel and Asma Jehangir
demanded that commission should take punitive action against all those
found guilty of resorting to extra-legal actions.
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960122
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Definite proof of Afghanistan, India fomenting terrorism
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Bureau Report
ISLAMABAD, Jan 21: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Abdullah Shah said there
was definite proof of India and Afghanistans involvement in terrorism
in Karachi.
The Sindh Chief Minister said Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani had
openly supported MQMs terrorist wing and offered Altaf Hussain to set
up his offices in Kabul. He accused Kabul and New Delhi of arming
terrorists in Pakistan and funding MQM chief Altaf Hussain in London.
Abdullah Shah said India was trying to destabilise Pakistan to avenge
Muslim uprising in occupied Kashmir while Rabbani was hand in gloves
with the Indian government.
Abdullah Shah said he had concrete evidence of Kabul and New Delhis
involvement in incidents of terrorism in Karachi. He said now
terrorism was being spread to other parts of the country to create
chaos and unrest.
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960124
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Pakistan seeks Delhi guarantees on N-plans
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GENEVA, Jan 23: Pakistan said that it expected categorical
assurances that India will not carry out another nuclear test,
warning failure to provide the guarantees would jeopardise conclusion
of a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) in the near future.
We look forward to categorical assurances that such a test is not
being contemplated and will not be conducted, Pakistani ambassador
Munir Akram told a UN conference on disarmament.
He warned that a test would certainly subvert the possibility of
concluding the CTBT in the near future and added that his country
would take appropriate measures if nuclear-capable missiles were
deployed along its borders.
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960125
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Constable among 22 killed in city violence
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Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Jan 18: Twenty-two people, including a police constable ,
Rehan Ahmed, one of the most wanted MQM activists, his younger brother
and three other party workers were killed in sporadic incidents of
violence in the city raising the months death toll to 92.
Rehan Ahmed, who was carrying a head money of Rs 1.5 million and was
wanted in over 100 murder cases, died along with his younger brother
Junaid Ahmed, his cousin Tanveer Pasha, Shaikh Zaki, and Nayab Haider.
Rehans family disputed the police version and claimed that all the
five had been arrested during a raid on the residence of Rehans
mother-in-law in the Federal B Area.
In another incident following a shoot-out, Alam Zeb, said to be an MQM
(H) activist was killed. Parveen Fatima, and a constable Mohammad Ali
were wounded.
Unidentified terrorists also shot and killed Hamid Yar Khan a police
constable in Liaquatabad.
In other incidents of violence, eighteen people lost their lives. Four
of them were kidnapped, tortured and killed in Korangi, and an MQM man
died reportedly during interrogation. He had several bullet wounds on
his body. Police claimed he had committed suicide after snatching a
rifle from a constable during interrogation and shot himself dead.
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960125
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Altaf asks partymen to go into hiding
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Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Jan 24: MQM chief Altaf Hussain has asked all his party
office-bearers and activists to go underground to avoid what he
described government suppression.
In a Press statement issued and copy of which was faxed to Dawn from
London, Mr Hussain urged all his workers to immediately go into hiding
as according to him Benazir Bhutto and her government have decided to
eliminate all Mohajirs.
The life of each companion is dear to me and therefore, I ask
everyone of them to immediately go underground otherwise the savage
government will arrest and kill them in fake encounters, he said.
Reacting over the arrest of his Lyari acting chief Mohammad Yaseen and
five other office-bearers in Karachi, Mr Hussain said that after their
arrests no one would believe in government statements that the MQM
should take part in politics and begin its political activities in the
city. These statements, according to him, were being given to misguide
the democratic forces.
Mr Hussain said he had sent telegrams to international human rights
organisation to save the lives of Mohammad Yaseen, acting chief Lyari
sector, Mohammad Zakir, Musharaf Ali, Mehmood and Nasir Ajmeri.
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960119
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MQM men killed DEA official: DIG
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Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Jan 18: One of the three MQM men who had ambushed and killed
a Pakistani employee of the US Drug Enforcement Agency in North
Nazimabad in August was arrested.
The young suspect was identified as Ziaullah, he was arrested by
police on Jan 16 on the suspicion of his being involved in rocket
attacks but during interrogation he also told police that he was a
member of the three-men MQM team which killed Maj Shah Nawaz Toor.
The motive behind killing the DEA employee, he said, was to shut down
the US Consulate in the city so that America could force the Pakistan
government to accept MQM demands. It was aimed to shut down other
consulates so that information about whatever happened in the city did
not reach the outside world, he said.
Asked when the motive was to put pressure on America, why then the
Americans themselves were not killed and why a Pakistani employee was
targeted, Ziaullah said that for them he (Toor) was the most important
person.
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960124
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Dehlavi asks govt to honour its commitments
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Shamim-ur-Rahman
KARACHI, Jan 23: MQM chief negotiator Ajmal Dehlavi said that the
government must stop torture and extra-judicial killings and honour
its commitments if restoration of peace through negotiations was its
objective.
There will be no delay on our part to come to the negotiating table
if the above was done by the government, said Mr Dehlavi.
Mr Dehlavis remarks indicated that resumption of the stalled talks
was still a far cry as there seem to be no change in the positions
taken by the two parties.
Commenting on the federal cabinets decision about its handling of the
Karachi situation, Mr Dehlavi said : It appears that they are
inclined more towards the use of brute force and have forgotten that
the people, whom the PPP also regards as the bastion of power, cannot
be tamed by the use of force.
Any solution dictated by the use of force could not be lasting and
acceptable to the people, he said. Mr Dehlavi said not only the MQM
but also the human rights organisations had also taken exception to
the extra-judicial and custodial killings and torture of MQM
activists. In this context, he mentioned the observation, made by the
HRCP in which it had called for constituting a commission headed by a
judge of the Supreme Court to investigate the allegations about
custodial torture and deaths and extra-judicial killings.
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960122
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Opposition senators stage walkout
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Bureau Report
ISLAMABAD, Jan 21: The opposition in Senate staged a token boycott of
proceedings as a show of solidarity with their MQM colleagues. The
walkout had been led by MQM senators Ishtiaq Azhar and Aftab Sheikh
who accused the government of indulging in extra- judicial killings
of MQM workers and supporters.
Speaking on a point of order before the walkout, Sen Azhar warned the
government that if the situation persisted like this then a time may
come when the people would refuse to listen to us and even to Altaf
Hussain.
He alleged that 31 police mobiles and three APCs had cordoned off an
entire locality on Saturday and staged a fake encounter which
resulted in the killing of MQM workers. He was making a reference to
the killings of alleged terrorist Rehan Kana and his accomplices in an
encounter with law enforcing agencies.
He went on to point out that one of the dead had a head money of one
million rupees, insinuating that the police might have killed him to
collect the reward. The two senators then staged a boycott, followed
by the entire opposition.
The minister of state for law, Raza Rabbani, denied the charge and
claimed that the hideout of the criminals had been raided on a tip-off
but when the terrorists opened fire on the police with automatic
weapons and rocket launchers, the police returned the fire and killed
the terrorists.
To substantiate his claim of a genuine encounter, he pointed out
that two policemen had also been seriously injured.
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960123
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Token walkout staged by opposition senators
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ISLAMABAD, Jan 22: Entire opposition in the Senate staged a walkout
when Interior Minister Naseerullah Babar expressed his inability to
interfere in the provincial affairs after Senator Ajmal Khattak
pointed out that he and some other legislators were refused permission
to meet Sheikh Rashid, MNA, and opposition leader in the Punjab
Assembly Shahbaz Sharif.
The country, the senator remarked, was facing serious crisis where
peoples rights, constitution and democratic norms were being trampled
upon but the rulers were shutting their eyes and doing nothing.
Mr Khattak, who was also supported by opposition leader in the Senate
Raja Zafarul Haq, Chaudhry Mohammad Anwar Bhindar and Tariq Chaudhry,
said the interior ministers open admission that he was unable to do
anything meant that there was no cohesion between the federal and
provincial governments.
He said no action was taken against a Peoples Party MNA from whom a
revolver was recovered but Sheikh Rashid, who is a senior political
leader, was sentenced on a false charge. Similarly, he added,
Shahbaz Sharif was a senior politician and except for his relations
nobody else, even members of the parliament, were allowed to meet him.
Senator Bhinder of the PML pointed out that the interior minister had
earlier stated on the floor of the House that government would try to
sort out the matter and ensure that meetings with the detained leaders
by the people, particularly members of the House, would be allowed
freely.
Mr Babar, however, reiterated his inability to do anything in this
connection, leading to a token walkout from the House.
But, the Minister for Water and Power, Ghulam Mustafa Khar, assured
the House that the matter would be taken up with the provincial
government to ensure that meetings were allowed.
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960124
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Acerbic exchanges dominate NA proceedings
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Muhammad Malick
ISLAMABAD, Jan 23: Bellicose rhetoric and fiery speeches loaded with
innuendoes, dominated the proceedings of the National Assembly session
requisitioned by the opposition.
With the alleged attack on Nawaz Sharifs life being on the agenda,
the sitting had been expected to prove an explosive affair but it was
perhaps the rare presence of both the prime minister and leader of the
opposition in the House which seemed to have super-charged the hawks
on both sides of the aisle.
At the outset, ANPs Asfandyar Wali moved an adjournment motion to
discuss the issue and accordingly the speaker set aside a two-hour
chunk for the purpose. Later, however, the whole day was consumed by
the debate, which will continue on Wednesday as well.
The first salvo was fired by deputy opposition leader Gohar Ayub Khan
who, accused the government of virtually every crime under the sun.
The former speakers discourse swayed from one issue to another but
somehow the only thing he did not touch upon was the actual incident
of the attack in Hala. And that was all the opening an astute lawyer
like Raza Rabbani required.
The minister of state for law immediately launched a fierce frontal
attack on Gohar Ayub, equating his arguments to being the angry
rumblings of a disappointed man. He pointed out that Gohar Ayub had
not made a single reference to the Hala incident and had only tried to
create the impression of Pakistan being a country divided into
mohallas and zones and divided on linguistic and ethnic lines.
Dismissing the opposition claims rather disdainfully, he thundered:
The whole assassination attempt charge is just a drama to seek public
sympathy.
Makhdoom Amin Fahim undoubtedly proved the most distinguished of the
entire battery of speakers. Speaking in a composed manner, he said he
would have condemned such an attack on anyone let alone the leader of
the opposition. Informing the House that he had been told about the
incident while he was in Karachi and had condemned it immediately. He
said he was ready to go to his village and conduct a personal and
totally impartial inquiry into the facts of the event and apprise the
House accordingly.
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960125
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Treasury benches face embarrassment
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Mohammad Malick
ISLAMABAD, Jan 24: The treasury faced some very embarrassing when
first, the deputy speaker refuted the governments defence of imposing
a total ban on visitors of jailed parliamentarians and then the
speaker, too, brushing aside the law ministers arguments, referred
the matter to the House privileges committee.
It all started with a privilege motion moved by opposition MNAs
agitating against the government ban on meeting their jailed
colleague, Sheikh Rashid. The minister of State for Law, Raza Rabbani,
immediately challenged the motion on the ground that every criminal
was equal in the eyes of law and that a convicted parliamentarian did
not enjoy any special status as compared to an ordinary convict.
After listening to the detailed deliberations of Syed Iftikhar Gillani
and a sharp crisp interlude by Syed Zafar Ali Shah, the speaker
concurring to their views ruled that a jailed MNA did have special
privileges and declaring the motion in order referred it to the
committee. All a hapless looking Mr Rabbani could do was shake his
head in disbelief.
That the opposition would make a strong case of its grievance was
expected but the governments defence received a serious and totally
unexpected setback when the deputy speaker, Zafar Ali Shah, rising
languidly from his seat, tore down Rabbanis line of argument. He said
an elected representative did enjoy a special status because he was
not an ordinary person to begin with. The deputy speaker, known for
taking the privileges of parliamentarians very seriously, went on to
reason that a parliamentarian represented hundreds of thousands of
people and helped resolve their problems.
If Zafar Ali Shahs arguments had posed a dilemma for Mr Rabbani,
Iftikhar Gillanis suave legal interpretation of the privilege only
added to his growing frustration.
Citing Article 66 of the Constitution, Mr Gillani argued that the ban
constituted a denial of the fundamental privileges guaranteed by the
Constitution. His reasoning being that where the law was silent, the
privilege of the member was inviolable. He seemed to be referring to
clause (2) of the Article which reads: In other respects, the powers,
immunities and privileges of Majlis-i-Shoora (parliament), shall be
such as may from time to time be defined by law and, until so defined,
shall be such as were, immediately before the commencing day, enjoyed
by the National Assembly of Pakistan and the committees thereof and
its members.
He opined that the government was free to regulate the jailed MNAs
visits but it could not bar him from interacting with his constituents
as long as he was a sitting member of the House.
Speaking about the alleged attack on Mian Nawaz Sharif, he criticised
the government for needlessly blowing up the issue whereas all it had
to do was express its concern and order an inquiry. Even now I hope
the president and the prime minister will call the leader of the
opposition and not only register their concern but also order
inquiries into such a sensitive matter.
Mr Gillani had a point to make when he lamented that if a soldier or a
civil servant was attacked it was considered a serious attack on the
institution itself, adding pointedly Doesnt the leader of the
opposition represent the institution of parliament, the most sacred of
all the institutions.
Imploring the government to foster new healthy traditions, he warned
that unless this happened, democracy would remain under a serious
threat.
The Sheikh Rashid affair proved the only real source of friction for
the day because an intelligent manipulation of the days agenda
ensured that the overwhelming part of the remaining sitting was taken
up in legislation. The government managed to lay another six
presidential ordinances and introduce three bills in the House.
It was, therefore, only at the fag-end of the sitting that the House
could take up debating the law and order situation, a pseudonym for
discussing the Hala incident. Oppositions Makhdoom Javed Hashmi took
up the cudgels for the day but thanks to his over emotional and
college campus style debate, he soon lost the attention of the House.
===================================================================
960125
-------------------------------------------------------------------
IMF tightens control over Pakistan economy
-------------------------------------------------------------------
M. Ziauddin
ISLAMABAD, Jan 23: Details of the terms and conditions of the 15-month
standby loan arrangement worth 600 million dollars between Islamabad
and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), signed last month, show an
all-pervasive role for the IMF in Pakistans economic policy making
and financial management, according to documents made available to
Dawn.
Proposing strict performance criteria, including fixing of floors and
ceilings on variables, the fund has given its own unilateral
definitions of reserve money, net foreign and domestic assets of the
State Bank, domestic liquidity, net foreign and domestic assets of the
banking system, budgetary support, overall budget deficit, net
external financing, net domestic non-bank financing, CBR revenue and
public and publicly-guaranteed external debt, leaving no helpful
ambiguity for the government to fudge the data to its advantage.
The reporting requirements of the standby arrangement are very
stringent and call for supply of data to the Middle Eastern department
of the fund through the office of the resident representative
according to the following schedule:
Monthly statement on CBR tax collection and surcharges;
Privatisation proceeds from abroad for 1994-95 and for each quarter
of 1995-96;
Deposits into, and withdrawals from, the privatisation accounts for
each quarter of 1994-95 and 1995-96 (with regard to withdrawals, the
supplier of data is required to specify a) those which constitute
budgetary use of privatisation proceeds; b)those which constitute
costs of privatisation; and c) Others with full particulars about the
purpose;
Quarterly statement showing capital receipts and disbursements
including repayments of bonds, recovery of loans from provinces and
others;
Quarterly data on external financing, including project aid,
commodity aid, food aid, and other non-project financing (including
suppliers credit);
The following monthly monetary data on a last Thursday basis, both
at current and programme exchange rates, beginning in June 1995: a)
monetary survey, b) accounts of the State Bank, c) consolidation
accounts of the scheduled banks, and d) net credit to government;
The same tables in item 6, but on an end-quarter basis (including
the data for end-June, 1995), both at current and programme exchange
rates;
The following quarterly data on external debt for 1994-95 and 1995-
96: a) stock of public and publicly-guaranteed external debt
(including deferred payments arrangement), with initial maturities of
up to and including one year; and b) loan-by-loan detail of the
contraction of new medium and long term non-concessional public and
publicly-guaranteed external debt with separate identification of the
contraction of debt with an initial maturity of over one year and up
to and including five years.
The IMF has also put a strict ceiling on public and publicly-
guaranteed short-term foreign debt, amounting to 1.05 billion dollars
for the quarter ending March, 1996, down from 1.1 billion dollars
fixed for the period ending December, 1995. But for the three months
ending June, 1996 the ceiling has been reduced to one billion dollars
which remains unchanged for the two subsequent quarters.
The country has been further restricted from contracting non-
concessional medium- and long-term public and publicly-guaranteed
external debt with a ceiling of 2.35 billion dollars fixed for the
period ending December 1995. This includes 350 million dollars with an
initial maturity of over one year and up to five years but excludes
public and publicly-guaranteed loans in the energy sector.
In the subsequent two quarters, ceilings for debt contracting have
been fixed at 2.65 billion dollars and 2.95 billion dollars
respectively, but for the quarter ending September 1996 this ceiling
has been drastically curtailed to 600 million dollars, improving,
however, to 900 million dollars for the quarter ending December, 1996.
These amounts include 450 million dollars of debt with initial
maturity of over one year and up to five years for the period ending
March 1996, 600 million dollars for the quarter ending June 1996, 350
million dollars for September 1996 and 400 million dollars for
December 1996.
The ceilings cover the entire non-concessional borrowing, including
loans from multilateral donors and consortium members. Loans with a
maturity of more than 12 years will also be counted against the
ceilings. Loans will be counted against the ceilings on contraction
rather than disbursement basis.
The definition of concessional lending has been modified to the effect
that loans with a grant elements of 35 per cent with currency
reference rate (CRR) rather than a normal 10 per cent will be deemed
as concessional. Quarterly ceilings are cumulative flows.
All financial instruments or arrangements, like currency swaps,
leasing etc, will be counted against the ceilings. The public and
publicly-guaranteed external debt covers all external debt incurred or
guaranteed by the federal government. It excludes: a) the foreign
currency deposit liabilities of the banking system; and b) the
outstanding stocks of FEBCs, DBCs, and FCBCs. The short-term external
debt includes loans with original maturity of up to and including one
year while medium- and long-term debt consists of debt with initial
maturity of over one year.
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960123
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Criticism of PPL, Hashoo group deal uncalled for
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Bureau Report
ISLAMABAD, Jan 22: A former federal minister claims that the criticism
of a recent deal between Pakistan Petroleum (PPL) and the Hashoo group
is totally uncalled for and amounts to discouraging foreign
investment.
Sardar Wazir Ahmed Jogezai, said the shares purchased by Hashoo group
had previously been held by Burma Castrol. Nobody had any objection
when these shares were held by a foreign company, he remarked.
He said instead of being happy that a Pakistani has purchased the
shares, people had started raising frivolous objections.
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960125
-------------------------------------------------------------------
PPL issue : Balochistan Assembly opposes shares transfer
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Saleem Shahid
QUETTA, Jan 24: The Balochistan Assembly opposed the move to hand over
shares of the Pakistan Petroleum (PPL) to the Hashoo group through its
privatisation, without taking the assembly into confidence.
A resolution in this regard was moved in the House by Balochistan
Finance Minister Jaffar Khan Mandokhel, deputy opposition leader
Maulana Abdul Bari and Mir Zahoor Hussain Khan Khosa of JWP. It was
adopted unanimously.
Maulana Bari of the JUI criticised federal governments decision
regarding privatisation of the PPL and described it a conspiracy
against the economy of Balochistan.
Under the constitution, the federal government cannot take any
decision about the natural resources of a province without taking that
province into confidence, he said, adding that the Economic
Coordination Council (ECC) made this move without consulting the
Balochistan government or its assembly.
It was a serious violation of the provincial autonomy and the people
of this province would not allow anybody to take a decision which
imperilled its economic system and sources of income, he warned.
Finance Minister, Mandokel (of PML), taking part in the discussion on
the resolution, said it was a great injustice to Balochistan that the
ECC did not even inform the provincial government about its plan to
hand over the shares of the PPL to Hashoo group.
He claimed that over 2000 people were recruited in the PPL on
political basis by the government during the last two years which
increased the expenditures of the gas companies.
On the basis of this increase in the expenditure, he said, the share
of Balochistan in the development surcharge on gas was reduced. Our
50 per cent revenue depend on this surcharge and if it is reduced the
Balochistan economy would completely collapse, the finance minister
warned.
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960124
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Only one bidder left : Govt to go ahead with sale of UBL
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Faraz Hashmi
ISLAMABAD, Jan 23: The government plans to go ahead with the bidding
for the sale of United Bank Limited (UBL), despite the fact that only
one bidder is left in the arena, Federal Minister for Finance Makhdoom
Shahbuddin told the Senate.
Faysal Bank of Bahrain, one of the two qualified bidders expressed its
inability to participate in the final bidding.
The minister rejected opposition criticism that the government was
privatising the bank in undue haste. We will see if a reasonable bid
is offered, otherwise fresh bids will be invited, the minister said.
Earlier former finance minister Senator Sartaj Aziz demanded of the
government to postpone the privatisation of the bank, till it
recovered from the present illness.
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960124
-------------------------------------------------------------------
SBP penalises 3 banks for failure to meet reserve needs
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Mohiuddin Aazim
KARACHI, Jan 23: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) penalised three
banks for their failure to meet the mandatory reserve requirement and
warned two other banks to refrain from excess lending or else face a
similar action.
The SBP did not release the names of the banks penalised but banking
industry sources said the axe has fallen on Citibank, ABN Amro Bank
and Askari Commercial Bank. Habib Bank and Allied Bank received
warnings only.
They said the SBP directed Citibank, ABN Amro and Askari Bank to
deposit 2.0 per cent of their respective time and demand liabilities
as on January 18 and gave them 48 hours to comply to it.
No spokesman for any of the five banks was available to explain the
position of the bank concerned.
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960120
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Modest recovery despite inconsistency in trading patterns
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Mohammad Aslam
Stocks prices recovered modestly during the preceding week but buying
lacked the aggressiveness associated with a bull market.
The Karachi Stock 100-share index, after hitting the 1,500 points mark
fell to close around 1492.10. The KSE all share index also rose
fractionally. It was last quoted around 834.90.
The market capitalisation also rose by about Rs. 2 billion around 320
billion as compared to Rs. 328.351 billion a week, thanks to better
performance put in by the blue chips.
There was, however, inconsistency in the trading pattern as some bad
external news did not allow investors to plan for the long-term and
they just changed positions depending on the background development.
Dividend news, mostly from the modaraba companies were disappointing.
The Karachi Stock Exchange index of share prices posted fresh gain of
2.46 points at 1,491.02 as compared to 1,488.56 a day earlier,
reflecting the strength of base shares.
The process of recovery is expected to be initiated in a big way by
the investment shares under the lead of low-priced issues bank shares.
Most of them are already rising modestly, major gainers among them
being Al-Faysal Bank, Asset Bank, JOV, Bank of Punjab, BSJS, Bank Al-
Habib, Faysal and Metropolitan Ban.
ICP mutual funds ruled firm as most of them ended with fresh gains but
modarabas and leasing shares ruled on both sides of the fence followed
by news of blank years.
Insurance shares rose under the lead of leading among the including
Dadabhoy, Alico, and some others but others fell fractionally.
Bulk of the support in synthetic shares remained centred around Dhan
Fibre, and Ibrahim Fibre, which were traded modestly. Dewan Salman,
which is being quoted spot after initial fall managed to finish with a
good gain.
Textiles shares were fractionally traded at the falling prices, but
leading among them including Dewan Textiles, and Shafiq Textiles
suffered fresh sharp decline.
Lucky Cement in the cement sector was actively traded in each session
on strong speculative buying but others stayed mixed.
Energy shares generally rose. But bulk of the support remained centred
around Hub-Power and the newly turned active, Sitara Energy.
Auto shares were traded on both ways but Atlas Honda Cars managed to
look up on higher sale projections after the introduction of new
brands.
PTC vouchers in the transport sector maintained its firm posture and
stood firm above Rs. 30 amid heavy volume in each session, totalling
well over 5 million shares.
Most of the MNCs in the chemical and pharma sector maintained their
recovery trend and ended higher under the lead of BOC, Engro
Chemicals, ICI Pakistan, Welcome Pakistan, and some others.
But by and large Hub-Power, PTC vouchers, ICI Pakistan, Lucky Cement,
Faysal Bank and Sitara Energy were massively traded in each session,
according for more than 90 percent of the total volume.
Trading volume soared to over 100 million shares from the last weeks
87 million shares as most of the current favourites were massively
traded under the lead of Hub-Power and PTC vouchers, although both
ways as after initial rise they ran into profit-selling.
But in the meanwhile, some more shares joined the rank of active under
the lad of Fauji Fertiliser, ICI Pakistan, and Sitara Energy, which
were also actively traded mostly on the higher side owing to some
positive background news about earnings.
Reports of higher earning also triggered heavy buying in some of the
insurance shares under the lead of EFU and Metro Life Insurance which
were traded higher on large volumes.
Other actively traded shares were led by Lucky Cement, Faysal Bank,
Honda Atlas Cars, Schon Bank, Picic LTV Modaraba, Ibrahim Fibre, Dhan
Fibre, Bank of Punjab, and Indus Fruits.
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960124
-------------------------------------------------------------------
KSE 100-share index soars to 1526.12 points
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Commerce Reporter
KARACHI, Jan 23: The Karachi Stock Exchange index of 100-share soared
by another 15.16 points at 1,526.12, consolidating its position well
above the psychological barrier of 1,500 points.
Plus signs dominated the list, with some of the leading shares in the
forefront of gainers. Adamjee Insurance, for instance, came in for
renewed strong support and added the overnight gain of Rs 5, another
Rs 3.50.
ICP mutual funds consolidated the overnight gains and so did most of
the other investment shares, notably the bank ones, which rose further
but by fractions.
Insurance shares, however, rose further under the lead of Adamjee and
followed by Century, EFU and Dadabhoy Insurance, which posted gains
ranging from one rupee to 5.
Other good gainers were led by MNCs, notably Pakistan Gum, Reckitt and
Colman, Fauji Fertiliser, ICI Pakistan, and PSO, rising by one rupee
to Rs 3.
Some of the MNCs, however, remained under pressure and were quoted
lower by one rupee to Rs 1.75, notable losers among them being
Gillette Pakistan, BOC Pakistan, Pakistan Refinery, Wyeth Lab and
Dawood Hercules.
Other prominent losers were led by Al-Abid Silk, Fateh Industries, and
Bawany Sugar, falling by one rupee to Rs 2.
Hub-Power topped the list of most actives, up 70 paisa on 4.517 shares
followed by PTC vouchers, firm 15 paisa on 4.095 million shares, Lucky
Cement, off one rupee on 1.594 million shares, Faysal Bank, steady 15
paisa on 632,000 shares, Fauji fertiliser, up Rs 2.40 on 694,700
shares, ICI Pakistan, up 35 paisa on 567,700 shares, Sitara Energy,
higher 85 paisa on 420,000 shares and LTV Modaraba, lower five paisa
on 286,000 shares.
Other actives were led by Askari Bank, which fell 25 paisa, followed
by Dhan Fibre, up 20 paisa on 166,500 shares, Genertech Pakistan, up
75 paisa on 194,000 shares, and Tri-Pack Films, lower 25 paisa on
115,000 shares.
Trading volume soared to 23.143 million shares thanks to heavy
business of 2.100 million shares in Hub-Power and a million shares in
PTC shares.
There were 300 actives, out of which 128 shares rose, while 104 fell,
with 68 holding on to the last levels.
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960125
-------------------------------------------------------------------
KSE index increases by 36.56 points, signals at 1600 points
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Commerce Reporter
KARACHI, Jan 24: Stocks rose across a broad on heavy foreign buying,
lifting the KSE 100-share index by another about 37 points.
The markets firm stance and uppish leaning is also evident in a big
fresh increase of 36.56 points in the KSE 100-share index at 1,562.68
as compared to 1,5626.12 a day earlier, signalling that its next chart
point could be 1,600 points before the month is out.
Bulk of the support, however, remained centred around PTC vouchers,
which were massively traded and the interesting feature was that it
crossed the barrier of Rs 32 after several months of sluggishness.
Hub-Power followed it, rising sharply on active follow-up support and
was traded massively.
Lucky Cement, Fauji Fertiliser and ICI Pakistan have recently joined
the selected band of current favourites and were again heavily traded
mostly at the higher levels.
Adamjee Insurance, which has been dormant for the last several weeks
also burst into activity and rose sharply on news of strong foreign
buying.
ICI Pakistan, Fauji Fertiliser, Faysal Bank, Sitara Energy, Ibrahim
Fibre and Askari Bank were among the other actives.
Other big gainers were led by PSO, Lever Brothers, Brooke Bond,
Crescent Bank, Sui Southern and Sui Northern.
Losers were led by Fazal Textiles, National Fibre, Telecard, Pakistan
Refinery, Dawood Hercules and Dadabhoy Insurance.
The most active list was again topped by PTC vouchers, up Rs 2.40 on
11.775 million shares followed by Hub_power, higher 80 paisa on 7.564
million shares, Lucky Cement, higher 60 paisa on 1.162 million shares
and Fauji Fertiliser, easy five paisa on 511,000 shares.
Trading volume rose to 27 million shares from the previous 23 million
shares, while gainers outpaced losers by a big margin at 159 to 75,
with 70 holding on to the last levels.
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960119
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Independence of the judiciary IV
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Ardeshir Cowasjee
WHEN a minister, or a government servant, is afraid to stand up and be
counted and chooses to speak anonymously through a third person, who
then conveys the message to the people through the government news
agency, the APP, it is safe to presume that he is prevaricating, that
the opposite of what he said was true.
Based on this premise, a spokesman for the government on January 14
would seem to have confirmed that the government held in respect
neither the Chief Justice of Pakistan nor the other judges nor the
judiciary, and that the Chief Justice had been harassed. APP revealed
that the statement emanated from the office of the Attorney-General.
The Chief Justice, worried about the safety of his family, moved them
all to Islamabad and then abroad. The CJs nephew-cum- son-in-law,
Parvez Ali Shah, whose house was raided by the government and who was
then arbitrarily suspended from government service, on December 18
filed a petition (CP 2469-95) in the Sindh High Court challenging this
suspension. It was heard by Acting CJ Hafiz Memon the same day. He
ordered that the governments comments should reach his court by
December 31, and the case was adjourned to January 11. There was no
response from the government and the case was again adjourned to
January 18. So far the government maintains its silence. The case is
bound to be adjourned again and again. Parvez Ali Shahs brother, Ayaz
Ali Shah of PIA, has also been suspended on a vague excuse.
The Attorney-General and his law officers and advisers must surely
realise that such acts by the government smack of pure fascism.
According to a report, on January 15, Attorney-General Qazi Jameel
vehemently denied that he had asked Sharifuddin Pirzada to represent
the government in the judges case now being heard in the Supreme
Court. Sharifuddin, however, maintains that the AG rang him up in
November saying that at the AGs request he had been accepted by the
court as an amicus curiae, but that the AG would prefer to engage
Sharifuddin to represent the state. Sharifuddin declined the offer.
Thanks to the governments bungling and the unsuccessful attempts made
to get the CJ to toe the government line, the judges case which
vitally concerns the independence of the judiciary has attracted the
attention it merits. The people, the Bar Associations, and the Fourth
Estate have rallied round. After all, Rule 165 of the Pakistan Legal
Practitioners and Bar Council Rules, 1976, makes it obligatory for all
advocates to prevent political considerations from outweighing
judicial fitness in the appointment and selection of judges. It also
urges each practitioner of law to protest earnestly and actively
against the appointment or selection of persons who are unsuitable for
the Bench.
The members of Wukala Mahaz Barai Tahaffuz-i-Dastur, a specialised
body of Idara Tehqiq Qanoon Pakistan (The Pakistan Institute of Legal
Research) unanimously agreed to act and filed on the 16th of this
month:
(1) a complaint under Article 209(5) of the Constitution to the
President for the removal of the respondent judge (additional Judge
Agha Rafique of the SHC) on the ground of misconduct;
(2) a petition in the Supreme Court against Federation of Pakistan and
Additional Judge Agha Rafique under Article 184(3) for the enforcement
of the fundamental rights of practising lawyers;
(3) a petition in the Supreme Court under Article 184(3) against the
Federation of Pakistan, the CJ of the Peshawar High Court, and
Mohammed Arif Khan (who had filed in that court a petition challenging
the appointment of Chief Justice of Pakistan Sajjad Ali Shah) for the
enforcement of the fundamental rights of practising lawyers,
restraining the federation from making unlawful and mala-fide
interference in the judicial arm of the state. It, inter alia, prays
that the court declare that WP 1172/95 filed in Peshawar is mala fide,
having been inspired by the federation in pursuit of its vendetta
against the Chief Justice of Pakistan;
(4) an application under Article 186(a) requesting the transfer of WP
1172/95 (pending in the Peshawar HC) to the Supreme Court.
Dr Abdul Basit, the Founder Director of the ITQ, has also published a
pamphlet entitled Law Lions and the Pussy Cat resistance Campaign
of the Pakistan Bar against Zardari Power Elite. The full texts of
the above documents are contained in this pamphlet.
Now let us examine the fate of those whose lives and liberty fall
within the purview of the judiciary:
MQM Senators Ishtiaq Azhar, bailed out after 22 months; Aftab Ahmad
Shaikh, under house arrest in Hyderabad; Nasreen Jalil, under house
arrest in Karachi; Zahid Akhtar, under house arrest in Karachi.
MQM MPAs of Sindh 10 have fled the country; six are in hiding in the
country; Dr Farooq Sattar, former mayor of Karachi and now leader of
the opposition in the Sindh Assembly, has been in jail for close to
two years and has this week been put in solitary confinement in
Karachi jail; one is in Hyderabad jail; six are in Adiala jail in
Rawalpindi; two on the negotiation committee have been enlarged on
bail.
MQM party members 700 odd are incarcerated in Islamabad in camps
euphemistically termed as safe houses. In jail 50 Adiala; 1,000
Karachi; 28 Landhi; 287 Khairpur; 300 Sukkur; 250 Larkana; 200
Jacobabad; 400 Hyderabad; 167 Nara; 77 Mirpurkhas. In camps 300
Sohrab Goth; 50 National Stadium; 500 Nazimabad; 1,800 Khwaja Ajmer
Nagri; 1,500 Kalakot; 350 New Karachi; 85 Korangi; 20 Gulberg; 35
Gulbahar; 22 Mojka.
FIRs against 3,800 have been filed but no charges have so far been
framed. The rest are not being produced in court and are incarcerated
allegedly for murder, conspiracy to murder, riot, arson, civil
disobedience, theft, wilful damage, etc. etc.
Special reference must be made to the MQM propaganda man, Kunwar
Khalid Yunus, a former MNA. He has been jailed in Landhi for almost
two years, he is brought to the court regularly but has so far not
been charged. He rings me whenever he can to tell me of his fears of
extra-judicial murder whilst in custody.
Qazi Khalid Ali, the MPA and advocate in charge of MQM legal affairs,
maintains that he constantly seeks redress for his incarcerated party
members but none has been provided to him since the departure of the
former Chief Justice of the SHC, Nasir Aslam Zahid. I have explained
to him that the present Acting Chief Justice, Hafiz Memon, is a good
and humane human being but that his acting status imposes restraints
upon him. Khalid has handed me a computerised print-out detailing the
suffering of all those in custody, which I am forwarding to the acting
Chief Justice.
I can say without fear of any contradiction that if we had a truly
independent judiciary over 50 per cent of those now locked up would be
home and free.
Back to the judges case scheduled to recommence on January 21.
Hearings started at the very beginning of November and no progress has
been made. Now that the former Attorney-General, Yahya Bakhtiar, has
been brought in to defend the governments case, there is no reason
why there should not be further adjournments. He may well be sent away
to attend various international conferences.
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960119
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Private jails: why no legal action?
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Ghani Eirabie
IT is good to know that the Prime Minister has sent down her human
rights adviser to recover bonded haris from private jails in Sindh
and there are plans to rehabilitate them. But it is disturbing to find
no news of any police crackdown or arrest of any of wrong-doers on
charge of practising slavery, forbidden by both law and religion.
If no law was violated by the misuse of haris as free field labour or
the sexual abuse of their women in the havelis, there should not
have been any fanfare over their retrieval by the Prime Ministers
aide. But if forcible detention of human beings in private jails in
the 20th century and the humiliation of hapless women in the Islamic
Republic of Pakistan constitute a criminal offence, how come the
perpetrators of the crime have not been hauled up. Also how come, no
district official D.C. or S.P. has been suspended for grave
dereliction of duty.
There is something seriously wrong with our society; the evil can be
identified as continuation of the feudal scourge. The much vaunted
land reforms of President Ayub Khan and Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali
Bhutto were cosmetic, half-hearted measures, and they resulted neither
in ensuring distributive justice, nor in dilution of the waderas
political clout.
Lest it be presumed that the feudal virus infects Sindh alone, one
needs to recall a hair-raising episode of July 5 last when a housewife
was produced before the Lahore High Court, tied up in chains not as
an officially sentenced criminal from a state prison-house, but as the
inmate of a private jail, produced exactly as found by the court
bailiff chained and shackled. The 40-year old Sakina had been
abducted by landlord Dost Mohammad of Malakwal (Mandi Bahauddin)
following her husband Allah Dittas failure to repay an alleged loan
of Rs 5,000 and consigned to a dungeon and used as field labour
during the day and for carnal pleasure at night. Also confined with
her were her two young boys aged four and 11; while her two growing-
up daughters were held in slavery by a neighbouring zamindar.
The difference, however, lies in the way the two provinces have
reacted. The Lahore High Court has the landlord arrested and a case
registered against him on charges of abduction, illegal confinement,
and murder of the 15-day infant allegedly killed in the kicking around
of Sakina at the time of her abduction.
The Court sharply rebuked the SHO for kow-towing to the local
influentials and threatened action. As against this, there are no
reports of the Sindh High Court taking any suo motto notice of the
several publicly-disclosed cases of unlawful confinement, torture and
rape each of them more serious than the one in Punjab.
The Sindhi Press has long been reporting the existence of private
jails and even torture centres across the land, particularly in places
like Tando Allahyar and Sanghar and Umerkot and at one time, the
papers featured the private prison of Sardar Khair Mohammad Khokhar
but there has seldom been any response from the administration. The
credit for the latest raids too goes not to the police but to human
rights activists. It was the workers of the Jeay Sindh Taraqqi-Pasand
Party that made a surprise raid this month on the private jail of
landlord Amir Shah in Deh Manyan in taluka Gularchi of Badin district
and rescued 40 bonded haris including 21 women and children.
The modus operandi is the same in trapping both landless peasants and
brick-kiln workers namely lending them money and having them sign
blank papers and levying a rate of interest that would shame even a
Jewish money-lender, and escalating the payable amount to a level that
no hari or worker can pay back in a life-time. That manoeuvre ties up
the entire family in bondage, generation after generation and reduces
them to the level of chattel, transferred from one owner to another.
This loan- sharking is the root-cause of the evil and has to be
stamped out with all the force of law.
If the present battery of laws is not enough, a new presidential
ordinance can be issued repudiating all such loans. There is nothing
very novel about the idea; rural indebtedness has been liquidated by
governmental fiat in the past too in the pre-partition Punjab and in
several provinces of post-Partition India. It needs to be repeated in
todays Pakistan.
Even failing such a measure, non-payment of debts is something to be
dealt with through courts of law and not treated as justification for
enslavement of the indebted family. In the case of the Malakwal case,
the Lahore High Court directed the landlord that if he was owed any
money, he should file a civil suit to recover his legitimate dues but
he could not take the law into his own hands.
Over and above the promulgation of an ordinance liquidating illegally
inflated debts, several other measures are also indicated. These
include another instalment of honest-to-God land reforms, breaking up
overly large fiefs and distributing the released land fairly among the
landless peasants. The liquidation of feudalism is imperative if any
equitable economic or representative political system is to succeed in
Pakistan.
But this is a long-term measure, for which ground has to be prepared
by sustained vigorous campaigning over a period of time. But until the
ultimate goal is achieved, the more glaring of the abuses of the
feudal system have to be exposed and purged; and topping the list are
such vicious practices as enslaving hapless farm peasants and factory
workers through fake loans and holding them to ransom in private jails
or behind barbed-wire fences, and using men as free field labour and
their women for carnal pleasure.
Equally important is the urgency of retrieving the bureaucracy from
the stranglehold of the waderas. It is common knowledge that the
local influentials employ their political clout, acquired through
domination of the legislators and consequently of the party
governments, to influence the recruitment, promotion, posting and
transfer of district, police and revenue officials, who then, impelled
by self-interest, tend to defer to the wishes of the landlords and
even cover up their criminal activities.
This is confirmed by the Lahore High Courts rebuke to the area police
office and by the Hyderabad statement of Prime Ministers aide Kamran
Rizvi that he had taken very serious notice of the indifferent
attitude of the police and the administration and ordered a judicial
inquiry.
However, the unholy nexus between the bureaucrats and the local
influentials will not end until political tampering with the
administration has been eliminated.
None of these objectives can be achieved without mobilising public
opinion; and the primary responsibility for arousing popular
consciousness lies with the national Press which is now free enough to
play a meaningful role in ridding the society of its scourges.
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960120
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The rot of corruption
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Editorial Column
THE Indian law enforcement agencies have moved against some political
leaders on charges of- corruption. One of them is the leader of the
opposition, Mr. L.K. Advani. Had all the gentlemen concerned belonged
only to the Bharatiya Janata Party, the main rival of the ruling
Congress-I and leading contender for power in the forthcoming general
elections, one could have dismissed the matter as another case of a
government using its power to corner its opponents. But three people
wanted by the police in a Rs 650 million bribery scandal also happen
to be central ministers. They have now resigned from office regarding
this as the only honorable course to follow in such circumstances,
until their innocence is proved. This is not quite an extraordinary
event, at least not in the context of established democracies.
Political corruption is not something unheard of in the developed
countries of the West as well as in the Third World. Some politicians,
especially those in office, are known to "take with both hands".
Neither is it unusual in the countries where accountability is the
established norm, for persons in office to resign when serious charges
are brought against them. Many a political career has been ruined
because of disclosures of improprieties and wrongdoing.
What is significant about the development in India is the fact that
the Central Bureau of Investigation could proceed in the matter
independently and the prime minister did not try to protect his
ministers. Presumably the law will now take its course. One wonders
why this cannot happen in Pakistan. Political corruption has reached
its highest point in this country. With Pakistan rated as the third
most corrupt state in the world by Transparency International, it has
now come to be widely accepted that corruption at all levels is a fact
of life. But it is time we shed our tolerant attitude towards this
evil and something was done to eradicate political corruption which is
the root of all other evils in politics, economics and administration.
When those wielding political power are susceptible to amassing wealth
through grafts, commissions and kickbacks, they destroy the people's
trust in government. This also distorts national planning because, in
many cases, an investor's capacity to grease palms rather than the
feasibility and importance of a project determines whether or not the
necessary clearance and facilities would be forthcoming. This can be
extremely demoralizing.
It is disturbing that the ruling party which has had charges of
corruption leveled against some of its functionaries and their family
members has chosen to treat the matter with studied indifference.
There has been a lot of talk about weeding out corruption and charges
have been brought against politiciansalbeit those in the opposition.
Not that the exhausters are angels who did no wrong when they ruled
the roost. But taking them to task while turning a blind eye to
corrupt politicians in the ruling party hardly lends credibility to
the whole exercise. Hence if the prime minister really means what she
says about her resolve to root out corruption, she should make a
beginning with members of her own party and their kith and kin. This
will reassure the people that she is not indulging in a witch-hunt
against her opponents but is actively seeking to inject a measure of
honesty and rectitude into politics. It will also deny the opposition
an opportunity to present itself as a target of political
victimization.
It is time the Federal Anti-Corruption Committee was strengthened and
its scope and powers enhanced. Comprising 19 members of the National
Assembly, the FACC has found itself quite helpless before the power
and reach of the corrupt and the protection they receive from their
patrons and benefactors in the highest quarters. This is a situation
which needs to be corrected right away. The composition of the FACC
must be changed and all major parties, including those in the
opposition, should be represented in the committee. It should also be
given independent powers of investigation and prosecution. If the FACC
charges any holder of public office with corruption, is essential that
he/she be asked to resign until the matter has been adjudged with
finality. This is important if a fair trial is to be held. Above all,
those found guilty of corruption should be deprived of their ill-
gotten wealth apart from whatever other punishment is meted out to
them.
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960122
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Strange tidings from across the border
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Ayaz Amir
WHAT are Pakistanis supposed to make of the bribery scandal which has
shaken the Indian political establishment? After being accused of
receiving hefty payments from a leading Indian businessman, three
cabinet ministers have resigned while the BJP leader, Lal Krishna
Advani, has resigned from the Lok Sabha saying that he first wants his
name to be cleared in court.
No one as yet has been proven guilty, the Central Bureau of
Investigation still being in the process of filing charges against the
accused. But even before the start of legal procedures, the ministers
named in the scandal have thought it proper to step down from the
cabinet just as Advani who is a national leader has thought it fit to
resign from the Lok Sabha.
By this single act alone Indian politics are not placed on a higher
pedestal than the practice of this art in Pakistan. India in general
and its politics in particular are as corrupt and sordid as anything
to be found in this country. After all, we have more in common with
each other than just our mutual antipathy. Even so, there must be some
difference somewhere because what has just happened in India would be
unthinkable in Pakistan. Politicians and other leaders here are made
of sterner stuff. They never resign, usually not for anything in the
world, and certainly not for anything as inconsequential as a
suspicion of bribery.
Since the last ten years, during which with the restoration of
democracy a measure of openness has entered Pakistani politics, the
cupboards of the Islamic Republic have rattled with the skeletons of
the most incredible scandals. But no one has been punished as a
consequence. Nor has any champion of democracy ever entertained the
mind-boggling thought of quitting office even when accused of things
for which there is reasonable proof. Indeed, although the scale of
corruption has reached epic proportions, it would be considered a
laughable proposition in Pakistan to suggest that a serious effort
should be made to clean the higher echelons of government which today
set the pace of national corruption.
And what is the precise nature of the charges in the current Indian
scandal? That over a period of four years a clutch of Indian
politicians took bribes totalling 30 million dollars from Surendra
Jain, the businessman who is the key suspect in the case. Amazing.
Thirty million dollars divided among a fairly long list of politicians
and spread over four years. In Pakistan these days 30 million dollars
is small change that can change hands during the course of a single
deal. One of the most mirth- provoking words in the Pakistani
political lexicon these days is transparency. Everyone swears by it
even if everyone knows that today nothing is transparent: not arms and
business deals nor the gargantua of privatisation.
In our democracy today people have a fairly shrewd idea of the broad
outlines of what is happening, about who is making what and who is
fronting for whom but without being privy to all the details. Take
Asif Zardaris ponies of whom it is generally known that they are
stabled in the Prime ministers house. But what is their exact number?
How much money has been paid for them? Does their stabling in the
prime ministers house promote the progress and prosperity of the
nation? To these questions there are no clear answers.
The congenitally simple-minded can of course object that whereas in
the Indian scandal there are precise grounds available to justify
prosecution, there has been nothing like this in Pakistan. Was not the
co-operatives scandal in 1989 an open-and-shut case? Did it not
deprive half a million people of their savings? And yet did any heads
roll as a consequence? If there were some high priests of the then
PML-N government involved in the intricacies of that scandal so was
Senator Gulzar Ahmed who has always been close to the present prime
minister. No harm appears to have come to any of them.
And what about General Aslam Begs reluctant admission that, yes, he
took 14 crores, no less, from that champion banker, Yunus Habib of the
sadly-defunct Mehran Bank? If ever a Nelsonian eye was turned towards
anything in this country where the sturdy fashion all along has been
to brush unwelcome facts under the carpet, it was towards this
admission which in any other country pretending to be a democracy
would have caused a seismic upheaval.
If revelations of this magnitude cause no more than the temporary
discomfort which comes from reading unwelcome news, is it to be
wondered if the disclosure that a former chief justice made a tidy
profit by selling a residential plot which was allotted to him on
specious grounds and for which he had petitioned a chief minister,
should cause scarcely a ripple anywhere? If all the well-documented
scandals involving shady business deals which have been reported in
the Press over the last six to seven years were put together they
would form a hefty anthology. But applaud the standards of public
morality which have to come to prevail in the Islamic Republic because
none of these scandals has resulted in a single prosecution.
For all the well-founded charges against Irfanullah Marwat regarding
his taste in PIA air hostesses, nothing has happened to him while the
case against his CIA sidekick, Saleemullah Marwat, has been largely
forgotten. In the Mehran Bank scandal poor Yunus Habib has had to cool
his heels in jail while all those who were the objects of his largesse
from General Beg to Aftab Sherpao go preaching their sermons to the
country.
Or consider the latest offering of this government which in the
history books will no doubt be known as Benazirs Second Empire: the
proposed sale of the majority shares of Pakistan Petroleum Limited
(the company which owns the Sui gas field) and a stake in the money-
making Qadirpur gas field to the hotelier Hashwani. President Farooq
Leghari in no uncertain terms has objected to this sale as neither
being transparent nor in the national interest. At the last ECC
meeting this issue did not figure in the original agenda and was added
to it only at the last minute. Such things do not happen in Pakistan
just like that. The haste with which this matter has been dealt with
strongly suggests that some powerful interests are behind this deal.
Who are they and what do they stand to gain from it?
Democratic purists, of whom there is no shortage in our half- baked
democracy, regularly take a stand against the Eighth Amendment which
empowers the President to keep an eye on the workings of government.
This power of his may go against the principles of parliamentary
sovereignty but it is entirely in keeping with the muck of our
politics because the apostles of Pakistani democracy have given ample
proof that, left to themselves and their devices, they can scarcely be
trusted. Suppose the President had not intervened in the proposed PPL
deal. In that case, just because somebodys private interest is at
stake, a major strategic sale affecting the countrys long- term
interests would have gone through without subjecting it to proper
scrutiny.
Yet the Petroleum Minister, Anwar Saifullah, who as a business tycoon
should not have been placed in charge of a lucrative ministry in the
first place, is protesting the innocence and high merit of this
proposed deal even if his arguments convince no one. With such a
presidential censure on his back, a minister in any other country
pretending to be an accountable democracy would have been quickly in
trouble if not promptly out of office. But not in Pakistan, where the
tradition of not being answerable for corruption or wrongdoing has
been solidly established as a leading principle of government.
Ever since Benazirs First Empire in 1988 and through the Nawaz Sharif
era till today, it has been the common refrain of politicians or other
bigwigs charged with corruption that they are innocent because nothing
has been proved against them. Nothing has become of the charges that
were brought against Benazir Bhutto and Asif Zardari by President
Ghulam Ishaq Khan. Knowing the way such things operate in Pakistan, it
is reasonably certain that nothing will become of the miasma of
charges brought against the two Sharifs. For one the framing of these
charges is not honest because the spirit behind them is that of
victimisation. But even otherwise, in this God-gifted Republic nothing
ever is proved against anyone: from patwaris, thanedars and bankers
to the subverters of constitutional authority. If established proof
alone was the criterion to judge the existence or the absence of
corruption then this must be the cleanest country in the world and its
leaders the most honest of their fraternity.
To think of the matter is to be convinced that there is something
stirring in the attitude of our governing class. Nothing that may be
brought against its members makes the slightest difference. The Press
may rant and rave, the most incredible tales of money-making may form
the staple of drawing-room conversation, but for all the effect that
these things have on the countrys leadership they might never have
been said at all. Hence the anomaly that whereas the Press is free its
barb has lost its sting. Which should not be surprising because the
word spoken or written in censure has meaning or effect only in a
society where the rule of law in all its amplitude prevails. For all
the comprehensiveness of Macaulays legal code which forms the basis
of Pakistani and Indian jurisprudence, ours is still not a society
which can lay claim to this distinction.
There is no cause for despair, however, because this remains a sturdy
and resilient land. If what has been done to it throughout its history
were to be suffered by a professional woman of the streets during the
course of a single calendar day, she would beg divine forgiveness and
renounce her errant ways. But this country goes on while its people,
heroic in their fortitude, have learnt to live with their destiny.
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960121
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Green signal for KMTP
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CONSIDERING the unusually long time it has taken for arrangements for
the implementation of the Karachi mass transit system to be finalised,
the news that work on the project will begin before the end of the
year will be received with a measure of scepticism. Hopes of an early
commencement of work on the project have been raised from time to time
- only to be dampened by some unforeseen development at the last
minute or a procedural hitch of one kind or another. However, the
prospects this time look brighter than at any time in the past with
the signing of a 590-million dollar agreement between a Canadian
consortium and the National Mass Transit Authority (NMTA) in Islamabad
the other day for the implementation of the long delayed project. The
conclusion of this deal means that a formidable hurdle - the financing
of the project's 60 percent cost from private sources - has been
overcome at last. This then should be taken as the much-awaited green
signal for work to begin on the KMTP in right earnest.
Under the present plans, the balance of 40 percent of the project cost
will be met by the government, in the form of land to be made
available for the construction of the partly elevated railway serving
some of the most congested parts of the city. The Canadian consortium
will meet its commitment of funds by raising loans in an equity-debt
ratio of 20:80, which the government determined as an inducement to
foreign private investors in May last year, after the World Bank
backed out of its pledge to put up funds to cover 30 to 40 per cent of
the cost of the infrastructure facilities for the project. Ideally,
the loans should be raised externally, as this will also take care of
the foreign exchange component of the cost. However, it is hoped that
all conceivable wrinkles have finally been ironed out and that there
will be no further delay in the launching of the-project either for
technical or bureaucratic reasons.
It appears that the agreement signed with the Canadian consortium is
confined to what was originally conceived as the 15-kilometre priority
Corridor (Sohrab Goth to Merewether Tower) of an 87-kilometre partly
elevated light rail system to serve as the pivotal part of a
comprehensive and efficient transport network for Karachi. Even the
route of Corridor was realigned some two years after it was firmed up,
to meet some environmentalist objections and to avoid serious
dislocation of business in M.A. Jinnah Road area which is perhaps the
city's busiest trading district. The realigned route has now been
split into two phases the first connecting Merewether Tower to
Karimabad and the second linking Karimabad with Sohrab Goth. It is
estimated that work on the project will be completed within 56 months
but the time schedule for the completion of each phase has not been
specifically indicated. However, it is hoped that there would be no
significant timelag between the completion of the first phase and the
commencement of work on the second phase.
The fate of priority Corridor II (Orangi Town to Cantonment station)
under the original plans for Karachi's mass transit project is still
not known. One hopes that it has only been postponed and not abandoned
altogether. The basic design for this second corridor was completed by
a French firm of consultants in June 1994 and the environmental study
and resettlement plans were then said to be in an advanced stage. The
revamping of the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR), which has also been
proposed from time to time, should also be taken in hand at the
earliest, as it is absolutely indispensable to the immediate as well
as long-term needs of the ever growing number of commuters in Karachi.
With Pakistan poised to enter the 21st century, the provision of an
adequate and efficient mass transit system for Karachi can only be
viewed as a critical need of the entire country's industrial and
commercial progress.
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960125
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Mounting debt burden
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Sultan Ahmed
PAKISTANS external debt service payments have exceeded two billion
dollars, making it a landmark in the history of our increasing
external indebtedness. That happened in the last financial year,
according to updated official figures, but that tells only a part of
the story.
It relates to only long and medium-term loans, and not the increasing
short-term loans and the use of over seven billion dollars handed over
to the State Bank of Pakistan by commercial banks in Pakistan as
deposits made by resident and non-resident Pakistanis or brought in by
foreign banks to enlarge their operations in Pakistan.
As against such vast liabilities Pakistan has a small gross foreign
exchange reserve of 1.5 billion dollars, and, that too, as a result of
hasty external borrowing to boost the reserve after it had slipped to
one billion dollars from 2.737 billion dollars on July 1 last in
liquid form.
The long and medium-term debt out of the total external aid of 53
billion dollars received so far was 21.6 billion on July 1, while 11
billion dollars were stuck up in the pipeline due to inefficiency in
use of aid or for want of matching rupee funds. If the short-term
debt, private sector borrowing from abroad, suppliers credit to
industrial investors and the seven billion dollars from commercial
banks used by the government are added up, the total foreign exchange
liability of the country will be around 35 billion dollars, as against
the 1.5 billion gross reserve, unlike the liquid reserve mentioned by
the State Bank so far.
Look at the diversity of short term loans reported in one day
December 27: Foreign banks combined to lend 200 million dollars for
Pakistans petroleum imports. Bank of America lends 200 million
dollars for import of wheat. Seven foreign Banks led by the Bank of
America arrange for a syndicated loan of Rs 1.944 billion to WAPDA.
And on the private sector side, following the loans given by the
International Finance Corporation, an affiliate of the World Bank to
few Modarabas, the Asian Development Bank has approved 60 million
dollars of long-term loans to four major leasing companies. The IFC
loans to the Modarabas remained in the pipe- line for long as
Modarabas could not secure interest-bearing loans and so the same has
been converted into investment which would mean the Modarabas paying
far more to the IMF than for the low interest rate loans.
If the debt servicing cost of the short-term loans is added to the
cost of servicing of the long and medium-term loans, the total will be
around three billion dollars. And that is a large figure for a country
whose exports have not exceeded 8 million dollars, and the deficit in
the balance of trade in the first half of the year ending December 31
was as large as two billion dollars. The home remittances appear to be
falling after they rose to 1.866 billion dollars last year, despite
the higher targets set. But all that is not discouraging the
government from entering into large foreign exchange commitments. The
proposed new Lahore air terminal, which may cost far more than 220
million dollars following the additions approved by the federal
cabinet, is to be financed by a private sector builder, but his
foreign exchange commitments will be guaranteed by the Pakistan
government. Similar is the case in respect of many other foreign
funded projects.
Clearly this strategy has severe limitations. Debt servicing payments
will exceed Rs 160 billion this year out of the estimated tax revenues
of Rs 265 billion. And if the defence outlay of Rs 115 billion is
added to that, they exceed the tax revenues. So the government has to
borrow from at home and abroad, increase the heavy debt burden, and
stunt the crucial social sector development for want of funds.
Several remedies have been suggested to contain this situation and
reduce the national debt and the heavy debt servicing cost. Among them
is a ban on excess spending by the government each year and a ceiling
on the debt it can incur each year. If the government has to break
these limits it has to come before the Parliament and explain the
reasons. And immediately, the privatisation funds have to be used for
reducing the huge national debt, inclusive of the domestic debt of
over Rs 800 billion and total foreign exchange debt of around 35
billion dollars.
At this time the interest which President Farooq Leghari is taking in
the privatisation of major public sector units is heartening. Earlier
he had called for clean and transparent privatisation and urged the
government to avoid the methodologies for which the PPP had attacked
the Nawaz Sharif government. Major enterprises like the UBL, (26 per
cent of the shares) Sui Southern gas Company, Kot Adu Power station
and Habib Bank are billed for privatisation along with others in 1996.
And President wants to be fully briefed on that. But it is not enough
if he satisfies himself that the transactions are fair and
transparent, and that the major units have been given to the right
buyers who will develop and expand them as well. He has also to make
sure the sales proceeds of the privatisation go to reduce the enormous
national debt, internal and external.
There is a clear and insistent national consensus on the use of sales
proceeds of privatisation to reduce the national debt. But the
government is pretty vague about it and does not come up with firm
commitments. Nor has it used the sale proceeds of the PTC shares of Rs
30 billion for reducing the debt.
And now the World Bank in its Annual Economic Review of Pakistans
economy in 1994-95 says Rs 26.1 billion out of the total income of Rs
30 billion from privatisation has been used for financing the
budgetary deficit and the Social Action Programme. It says Rs 6.1
billion was used for financing the deficit and Rs 3 billion was
provided to WAPDA and only Rs 5 billion for SAP. The budget provides
for Rs 12 billion from the privatisation funds for SAP this year.
It is not often that the nation will be disposing of large projects
like major banks and power and gas companies. It is, therefore,
imperative that when the major assets of the nation are liquidated its
major liabilities, too must be liquidated. If not, we will be mired in
an ocean of debt too difficult to get out without serious damage to
us.
The government had proposed to set up a future Generation Fund out
of sales proceeds of privatisation. But the fact is that if the sales
proceeds are not used to reduce the large national debt we will be
burdening the future generations with heavy debt and doing a major
disservice to them. Must we do that when we have this rare golden
opportunity to slash the heavy debt, reduce the vast official
expenditure in the non-productive sector, reduce taxation and give a
boost to the economy and make it go bouncing? President Leghari has a
major role to play in this area. He should not hesitate or prevaricate
when the national consensus is too clear, and care-taker Prime
Minister Moeen Qureshi gave the lead by setting up a Debt Reduction
Fund which remains empty for want of an earnest follow-up by his
successors.
If the national debt is slashed, and the government reduces its
borrowing, the interest rates will come down and more funds will be
available for trade and industry in this age when the private sector
is expected to invest and develop industries and the infrastructure.
Along with more bank loans becoming available the interest rates will
also come down, and the rate of inflation which is officially 14
percent and far higher otherwise will fall. Then, savings and
investment will rise, and larger savings and cheaper loans will
promote industrial development. And that is what the country needs
desperately now if the massive unemployment is not to aggravate the
political and social tensions.
Look at the kind of leaps many Asian countries are making in the
industrial sphere. Production rise in Indonesia is 20.6 per cent,
Philippines 18.4 per cent, Thailand 11.6 per cent and China 14 per
cent. Compared to that our target this year is only 6.8 per cent, and
with too many of our industries, including textiles, sugar, paper and
jute manufacturers, in trouble, and about 4,000 industrial units sick,
how much of industrial growth will be recorded this year aided by the
far larger cotton crop remains to be seen.
Can we achieve in Pakistan what India has been able to do in respect
of inflation, interest rates and savings? Of course, the State Bank is
applying the squeeze in respect of money supply and bank credit, but
that alone is not enough to bring down inflation to a single digit as
some of the officials are predicting. High production costs,
exorbitant interest rates, and high taxes give a boost to inflation,
while the increase in production is not significant, except in cotton.
Our economic liberation has to begin by cutting down the huge national
debt, with less official borrowing, cheaper credit and lower
inflation, and the President has to take a lead in that direction now.
===================================================================
960120
-------------------------------------------------------------------
PIA regain National one-day title after nine years
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Ilyas Beg
SHEIKHUPURA, Jan 19: Outplaying Rawalpindi A side in all departments
of the game, PIA regained the title in the 15th Wills Cup Cricket
Tournament at the Shafqat Naghmi Stadium. PIA defeated Rawalpindi A by
seven wickets in the final, consuming only 30.5 overs.
National Captain, Wasim Akram, leading the PIA team, won the toss and
put Rawalpindi A side in to bat. The decision paid off because he read
the pitch correctly. Leading the team from the front, Wasim Akram
helped in restricting the Rawalpindi side to a paltry score of 124.
Excepting Zubair Nadeem (36 with two fours) none of the Rawalpindi
batsmen could cope with the pace and spin attack of PIA.
Wasim Akram took four wickets for 21 runs and rightly won the Man-of-
the-Final award. He was paid for his sustained bowling at good length
and good direction.
After the early fall of Shoaib Mohammad who ballooned a catch to
Mohammad Riaz at mid-wicket, the PIA batsmen galloped to the victory
target. Opener Ghulam Ali (51 with six boundaries) and Zahid Fazal (45
with three fours) added 73 precious runs in 76 minutes off 126 balls
to take PIA very near to victory.
Ghulam Ali stayed at the crease for 111 minutes, faced 82 balls and
hit six well-timed boundaries in his fine knock of 51. Ghulam Ali
mistimed a ball from Shakeel Ahmad and holed out a catch to Mohammad
Akram at mid-off but after taking PIA quite close to victory.
The second wicket fell at the total of 112. Zahid Fazal, having been
dropped by Pervaiz Iqbal off Shakeel Ahmad, was finally out to a catch
by Mohammad Akram at long-Off boundary off the first ball of Mohammad
Riazs second spell. Zahid Fazal hit three fours in his stay of 85
minutes at the crease in which he played 71 balls. He hit a fluent
knock of 45. The third PIA wicket fell at the total of 116.
At that stage, PIA was at the hand-shaking distance from win. Sagheer
Abbas (3) and Asif Mujtaba (6) took PIA to the victory-target without
being separated. With the score tied at 124, umpire Mian Mohammad
Aslam declared a bouncer from Naeem Akhtar as wide-ball and PIA
reached the coveted total due to that extra run. PIA coasted home to a
facile seven-wicket win.
Led by Test all-rounder Wasim Akram and ably supported by young
paceman Nadeem Afzal and Test off-spinner Saqlain Mushtaq, PIA bowling
did not allow the Rawalpindi innings to prosper during the morning
session of play. The PIA bowlers fully exploited the moisture in the
rain-soaked pitch and bowled with sustained hostility to bundle out
Rawalpindi for a dismal score of 124 in only 165 minutes, using only
42.5 overs out of the stipulated 45 overs.
Wasim Akram not only accounted for the Test opener Aamir Sohail but
also mopped up the tail by claiming the wickets of Naeem Akhtar (18),
Pervaiz Iqbal (9) and Mohammad Akram (4) to finish with the best
figures of four for 21 in 7.5 overs.
Nadeem Afzal bowled unchanged from the pavilion end to complete his
quota of nine overs. He was rewarded with two wickets for 24 runs.
Saqlain Mushtaq, claimed the wickets of captain Naseer Ahmad (11) and
Asif Mahmood (2), conceding 30 runs.
The only batsman who showed some fighting ability was Zubair Nadeem.
He was bowled by a leg-break off Asif Mujtaba, who knocked his off-
stump with a ball of low trajectory. Zubair Nadeem stayed at the
crease for 77 minutes, faced 62 balls and hit two boundaries in his
top-score of 36.
Aamir Sohail, survived 31 minutes, played 29 deliveries and hit only
one boundary in his score of 12 before snicking a delivery of Wasim
Akram into the safe hands of wicketkeeper Moin Khan. The second
Rawalpindi wicket fell at the total of 21.
Earlier, opener Naveed Qureshi had offered a catch to Wasim Akram at
the total 13 off the delivery of Nadeem Afzal to give the youngster
his first wicket. In the 16th over, Arif Butt (9) missed the line of
delivery from Nadeem Afzal and was declared leg before. Thereafter
Saqlain Mushtaq destabilised the middle-order while Wasim Akram
accounted for the tail-enders.
DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS
960121
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Australia clinch World Series in rain-hit thriller
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Ihithisham Kamardeen
SYDNEY, Jan. 20: Australia clinched the World Series one-day cricket
finals 2-0 in dramatic circumstances tonight after Sri Lanka failed by
eight runs in a rain-shortened frantic chase at the SCG.
Australias 273 for five from 50 overs looked impenetrable but a
thunderstorm during the dinner break left the visitors chasing a
revised target of 168 from 25 overs at 6.72 per over.
They had the luxury of only two men outside the fielding circle for 15
overs and made a flying start but lost wickets regularly to poor
shots.
At 135 for five, Sri Lanka needed 33 off five overs but legspinner
Shane Warne returned to get captain Arjuna Ranatunga for 41 and Kumara
Dharmasena for seven and Mark Waugh ran out Hashan Tillakaratne for 25
to make it 146 for eight.
With 22 needed off 11 balls and 17 off the last over, Sri Lanka ended
on 159 for eight. Warne finished with 3-20 from his five overs to
claim a Joint Player of the Finals Award after his 2-29 from 10 overs
proved the turning point in Australias 18-run win in Melbourne.
Captains Mark Taylor shared the award with Warne.
Opener Sanath Jayasuriya hammered 30 from 26 balls but lofted a long
hop from Warne straight to Glenn McGrath at deep midwicket. McGrath
had earlier been reported to Taylor by umpire Steve Randell for
blocking Jayasuriyas path on a single after the batsman took 13 from
his third over.
The lanky paceman gave Australia the ideal start by trapping dasher
Romesh Kaluwitharana, the Player of the Series from the preliminary
rounds, lbw for a first ball duck.
Offspinner Mark Waugh then had Aravinda de Silva caught by Paul
Reiffel at mid-off for six after the seamer dropped a tough chance
when Jayasuriya was eight.
The slippery ball made life tough for the Australians and one throw
went through three fieldsmen for overthrows. But Warne held a good
catch to dismiss Asanka Gurusinha for 24 and Taylor did likewise to
Ruwan Kalpage (9) to make it 87 for five in the 13th over.
Earlier, a majestic 73 off 82 balls by Mark Waugh and an equally
punishing 82 off 96 balls by Taylor set up Australias formidable 5-
273 - the fourth highest limited: overs total at the SCG.
They put on 135 in 25 overs for the first wicket after being sent in.
They took full toll of a lightning fast outfield, a loose line from
the Sri Lankan bowlers and some sloppy fielding to notch the highest
score of the series.
Taylor and Waugh gleaned 34 from the first ten overs then hammered 71
from the next ten to register their second century stand of the
competition in 87 minutes.
Waugh was spectacularly caught and bowled by offspinner Kalpage for 73
to take his tournament tally to 357 runs at 35.70 and put more
pressure on Test opener Michael Slater.
Taylor is still seeking his maiden one-day century, having also made
90 and 85 against Sri Lanka this season in chalking up 423 runs at
42.30.
The middle order lost its way as Kalpage (2-47) and fellow off
Dharmasena (2-45) applied the brakes and brought the run rate back
below five per over. From a healthy 1-170 in the 32nd over Australia
lost 4-40 to be 210 for five in the 43rd.
Left-hander Michael Bevan and wicketkeeper Ian Healy, the batting
heroes of Australias win in the first final, then smacked 63 runs in
34 minutes from 47 balls.
Bevan finished with 32 not out to take his series total to 389 at the
phenomenal average of 194.50 while Healy chapped in with an unbeaten
40 from 28 balls to follow his 50 not out at the MCG.
Leftarm paceman Chaminda Vaas was again the pick of the bowlers with
1-47 after opening spells of 0-12 from four and 0-20 from six.
Grusinha missed with a throw that would have run Taylor out on nought
and made it 1-9, while Ranatunga dropped Healy on 13 at 238 for five.
The two sides havent seen the last of each other the third Test
starts in Adelaide and they meet again in their opening World Cup
match in Colombo on Feb. 14.
Scoreboard
Australia
M.Taylor c Kaluwitharana b Kalpage 82
M.Waugh c and b Kalpage 73
R.Ponting c Vaas b Dharmasena 17
S.Waugh c Kalpage b Dharmasena 2
S.Law b Vaas 21 M.Bevan not out 32
I.Healy not out 40 Extras (lb-5 w-1) 6
Total (5 wickets, 50 overs) 273
Fall of wickets: 1-135, 2-170, 3-176, 4-184, 5-210.
Did not bat: P.Reiffel, S.Warne, C.McDermott, G.McGrath.
Bowling: Vaas 10-1-47-1, Pushpakumara 8-1-39-0 (w-1), Munasinghe 4-0-
33-0, Dharmasena 10-0-45-2, Jayasuriya 8-0-57-0, Kalpage 10-0-47-2.
Sri Lanka
S.Jayasuriya c McGrath b Warne 30
R.Kaluwitharana lbw b McGrath 0
A.de Silva c Reiffel b M.Waugh 6
A.Gurusinha c Warne b Reiffel 24
A.Ranatunga c Law b Warne 41
R.Kalpage c Taylor b McDermott 9
H. Tillekeratne run out 25
K. Dharmasena c S. Waugh b Warne 7
C. Vaas not out 8
M. Munasinghe not out 3
EXTRAS (lb-3 w-3) 6
TOTAL (8 wkts 25 overs) 159
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-1 2-22 3-49 4-66 5-87 6-135 7-146 8-146
DID NOT BAT: R. Pushpakumara
BOWLING: McDermott 5-0-33-1 (w-1), Warne 5-1-20-3 (w-1), 4-0-22-1 (w-
1), M. Waugh 5-0-31-1 (w-1), Warne 5-1-20-3 (w-1), S. Waugh 1-0-14-0.
Result: Australia won by eight runs.
Note: Sri Lanka set revised victory target of 168 from 25 overs after
rain.
Australia win best-of-three finals 2-0.
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