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DAWN WIRE SERVICE
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Week Ending : 26 September 1996 Issue : 02/39
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Murtaza killed as his guards & police exchange fire
Gunmen kill 21 worshippers in Multan mosque
Ghinwa nominated as Murtazas successor
The Clifton encounter
Rocket fuel was meant for research: FO
Pakistan refuses to take back Biharis
Sale of F-16s to Indonesia not dropped: US
Surfing on the serfdom
More Afghan refugees arrive
Accountability net must cover president and others
---------------------------------
-
SPI shows 0.24% increase
Strategy evolved to meet IMF conditions
Turnkey power $25 bn burden on economy
Software technology park planned
Capital market to take leap towards automation
Prospects of software industry in Pakistan and India
Pak-India trade - an inevitable conclusion
Rupee devaluation: will it really boost exports?
Foreign exchange reserves fall to $625.96m
Govt approves $2.6bn oil pipeline project
KSE 100-share index breaks 1,400-point barrier again
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Maa ki hai Ardeshir Cowasjee
In the eye of the hurricane Mazdak
Nothing to say Ayaz Amir
Brutalisation of our society Ghani Eirabie
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Need to deal strongly with violators of discipline
Zeeshan case goes to Jamaican High Court
One-day Internationals claim new territories
Canadian plan to bid for World Cup with W.I.
Inzamam, Mushtaq to miss Kenya quadrangular
Laurels for Pakistan in international boxing
Jansher favourite in PIA Open squash
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960921
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Murtaza killed as his guards & police exchange fire
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Ghulam Hasnain
KARACHI, Sept 20: Mir Murtaza Bhutto, 42, was killed with six supporters
during a shoot-out with the police outside his 70 Clifton residence on
Friday night.
At least seven others including two policemen were wounded.
After addressing a public meeting at Yousuf Goth in Surjani Town, Murtaza
Bhutto, who celebrated his 42nd birthday on Thursday, was coming towards
his residence in a four-vehicle convoy around 8:30pm.
Officials claimed that a few yards away from his residence, police tried to
stop one of the vehicles carrying his guards. It was at this moment, the
shooting erupted between the police and his guards.
Mir Murtaza Bhutto, who was hit by at least six bullets including one in
the neck, was taken to nearby Mideast Hospital after a considerable time.
His wife and children who were at the 70 Clifton learnt about the shoot-out
an hour later. "The shooting was heavy. We were informed about Mir Sahib's
injury by telephone. We tried to go out but the police did not allow us,"
Murtaza's personal driver Wahid Baksh, who brought his wife Ghanwa Bhutto
and daughter Fatima at the Mideast Hospital, told Dawn.
Since there were no specialists at the hospital to treat him, senior
specialists from elsewhere were rushed to the hospital. There were at least
a dozen relatives and friends inside the Intensive Care Unit, watching
doctors trying to save his life.
His wife was standing by his bed. His elder daughter Fatima, who also
offered blood for her father, was also there.
"When he was brought to the hospital his heartbeat was stopped. Doctors
managed to revive him," said one of his friends at the ICU.
After he initially recovered, doctors took him to the operation theatre
where he breathed his last. At 11:50pm, his relatives were informed about
his death.
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960924
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Gunmen kill 21 worshippers in Multan mosque
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Abdus Sattar Qamar
MULTAN, Sept 23: Twenty-one people were killed and 50 others injured, 36 of
them seriously, when four unknown assailants resorted to indiscriminate
firing at a Fajr congregation at the Jamia Masjid Al-Khair in the
Mumtazabad locality here on Monday. Ten of those killed were children
between the ages of 10 and 15.
Eyewitnesses said four masked men wearing white shalwar-kameez entered the
mosque at about 5.15 am when over 200 people had just started offering
their prayers. The men opened fire with automatic weapons, said
eyewitnesses who were performing ablutions in the mosque at the time of the
incident.
As a result of the firing, which lasted a few minutes, 15 people died on
the spot and 54 were injured.
Later, two more died in the hospital, where a state of emergency was
declared and citizens were asked to donate blood for the wounded people.
A tense situation prevailed in the city after the incident, with angry
protests by groups of citizens. The army was called out to patrol city
streets. The army contingent took control of the area around the Masjid Al-
Khair.
Punjab Chief Minister Arif Nakai said he did not believe the Multan firing
was sectarian in nature. He blamed terrorists for it. It was later reported
that two people had been arrested.
Maulana Abdul Rehman, imam of the mosque, said I heard the firing but I
could not judge whether these shots were being fired in or outside the
mosque. Then there was total pandemonium and the injured were crying for
help.
Then I heard the shout of a student of Jamia Khairul Uloom, a religious
institution adjacent to the mosque, who was saying he had caught hold of
one of the terrorists, but his accomplices killed the student, the Imam
added.
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960924
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Ghinwa nominated as Murtazas successor
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Our Correspondent
SUKKUR, Sept 23: The PPP(SB) central committee on Monday rejected the
judicial inquiry conducted under a high court judge into Mir Murtazas
murder, and demanded a neutral inquiry under a Supreme Court judge.
This was disclosed in a crowded press conference by Rao Abdul Rasheed,
secretary general of the party at Al Murtaza, Larkana.
Rao said the party had unanimously decided that Ghinwa Bhutto, widow of Mir
Murtaza Bhutto should succeed him in the best national interest and the
interest of democracy, revolution, and the people of Pakistan, and the
decision had been communicated to Ghinwa after the meeting.
On a question, Rao said the incident of Murtaza was a grave shock for
Ghinwa and the entire Bhutto family, and it would not be appropriate at
this stage to expect her to take an immediate decision about chairmanship
of the party.
She has lost her world, her husband, the people of Pakistan have lost the
son of Shaheed Bhutto. How can you expect at the height of emotions and
gloom that she would jump at Chairmans seat? he asked.
Ghinwa has held that she would take some time to ponder over the very
important and sensitive question of chairmanship, and would make her
decision public after a time.
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960922
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The Clifton encounter
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Tahir Mirza
LAHORE: The immediate reaction to Mir Murtaza Bhutto's violent death must
be one of overwhelming sympathy for the Bhutto family, particularly for
Begum Nusrat Bhutto. She has seen her husband hanged to death by a military
dictator, one son dying in mysterious circumstances in exile and now Mir
Murtaza shot dead allegedly in an exchange of fire between his supporters
and police outside his house in Karachi on Friday night. It must be an
equally poignant time for Ms Benazir Bhutto and the rest of the family.
It is difficult to imagine any other family except the Kennedys perhaps
which has been characterised by so much political charisma and at the same
time dogged by a succession of such shattering tragedies.
The exact circumstances of Mir Murtaza's killing remain confused. The
police version is that when they tried to stop him and his supporters, the
latter fired on the police party, which retaliated. Six of his supporters
were killed and he was himself critically injured, dying later in hospital.
Mir Murtaza must have been on the road when he was hit; if he was in his
car, it is difficult to see how he could have been injured also in the
stomach.
It is said that an inquiry has been ordered into the incident, but already
the air is rife with speculation and innuendo. Who could have benefited
from his death, it is being asked.
It is impossible to believe that the Karachi police were not aware of Mir
Murtaza's identity when the incident took place. Whatever his politics, how
could the police dare to shoot at the prime minister's brother? Was Mir
Murtaza trying to restrain his supporters or encouraging them to engage the
police?
If the police version is to be accepted, that his supporters had fired
first, what is the explanation for such rash behaviour on their part? Were
there any agents provocateurs in the ranks of Mir Murtaza's supporters who
deliberately engineered the showdown? Has the killing anything to do with
the irresponsible and loose talk emanating from several quarters about the
need for extra- constitutional changes in the country and was meant to
create another crisis for the present government?
Ever since his return from exile, Mir Murtaza had pitched himself against
his sister and was often outspoken in his criticism of the administration.
But he had not yet begun to pose any threat to the prime minister and was
still in the process of finding a niche for himself in the country's
political scene. It does not, therefore, make much political sense for
allegations to be levelled against the government at the present time.
All these points must await a full investigation into an incident which has
shocked the nation. But one thing is absolutely clear and it is this,
that the use of the police for political purposes can only lead to such
tragedies. Why was Mir Murtaza's procession or cavalcade of vehicles
stopped by armed police? Why was a police picket present outside his house
in any case? At his last news conference shortly before his death, he had
accused the administration of trying to prevent his party from carrying out
political activity and of planning an operation against him? The role of
the federal government and the Sindh administration in setting the police
after Mir Murtaza and his party should also be clearly explained.
He is alleged by police to have "raided" the CIA's Garden and Riaz centres
on September 17 and had cases registered against him. Mir Murtaza said at
his Press conference that he had gone to the CIA centres to see the
condition in which some of his partymen were being kept, and that he was
entitled to do so both as a political leader and as an MPA. If the police
had cases against him and it is not unlikely that Mir Murtaza might have
tried to throw his weight around why didn't they arrest him between
September 17 and September 20 instead of ringing his house and stopping
those going in or out of it? Is this merely another case of the police
being too overbearing and trigger- happy? The Sindh police have enjoyed
almost a carte-blanche to do what they like, and many citizens had long
warned against this freedom to stop, search and kill enjoyed by the
security forces in Karachi. It should be a sobering thought for the
interior minister that the Karachi police's methods which he had so
wantonly promoted and defended should, on the face of it, recoil like this
on his own prime minister.
Whatever the truth, everyone is apprehensive of the possible political
fallout of the Clifton encounter. It is important that no political leader
should try to take undue advantage of it till all the facts are known.
Both as prime minister and as Mir Murtaza's sister, it is primarily the
duty of Ms Benazir Bhutto to tell the nation of the circumstances that led
to the killing and if a lapse is proved on the part of the police or the
administration to take appropriate action against those involved.
PS: The killing was the first item in BBC TV's 11pm news bulletin, but our
own TV's midnight bulletin had it as the last story before the sports news,
and even then the news only was that Mir Murtaza had been injured and it
was quoting the BBC.
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960920
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Rocket fuel was meant for research: FO
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Hassan Akhtar
ISLAMABAD Sept 19: A foreign office spokesman has refuted the press reports
suggesting that a Chinese consignment of rocket fuel for Pakistan had been
delivered to some one in Hong Kong.
Answering questions at his weekly news briefing here at the foreign office
on Thursday, he said it was true that research organisation in Pakistan had
been getting a very small quantity of the rocket fuel for its upper
atmosphere sounding programme but the substance and conclusions of the
press reports in question, were totally baseless.
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960920
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Pakistan refuses to take back Biharis
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Hasan Saeed
DHAKA, Sept 19: Diplomatic sources confirmed this week Pakistan had finally
declared it would not accept Biharis stranded in Bangladesh and denied that
Pakistan had earlier agreed to take them back, the New Nation reported on
Thursday.
The Bangladesh foreign ministry sources were, however, not aware of any
such recent declaration by Pakistan. The sources said that the government
of Pakistan had been cold- shouldering the issue over the years. Pakistan
Foreign Secretary Najmuddin Sheikh did not indicate any positive gesture
during his recent visit to Dhaka. The issue was discussed with him at the
official meeting with Bangladesh Foreign Minister Abdus Samad Azad and
State Minister for Foreign Affairs Abul Hasan Chowdhury.
Both the ministers had raised the issue of repatriation of the stranded
Biharis on humanitarian grounds and had also called for early resumption of
the repatriation process.
Meanwhile, according to sources, Pakistan foreign ministry had prepared a
paper on this issue which was also released last month, saying
categorically for the first time, that Islamabad would not take back any
more Biharis.
The late Pakistan President Ziaul Haq had said: We are morally obliged to
take the Biharis back and we only want to take them on purely humanitarian
grounds. Nawaz Sharif had also made similar commitments during his tenure
as prime minister.
The Biharis, over 200,000 in number, live in 66 camps around the country.
Eight of the camps are in the capital city.
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960920
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Sale of F-16s to Indonesia not dropped: US
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Shaheen Sehbai
WASHINGTON, Sept 19: Two senior US officials confirmed on Wednesday that
the sale of Pakistani F-16 jet fighters to Indonesia was on, although
reports indicated the Clinton Administration was looking for an alternate
buyer as well.
The administration believes the sale of the jets is in the US interest
because it would support regional stability. We remain convinced that this
transfer is in the US interest and should proceed, and that we intend to
notify Congress of our intentions in January, Assistant Secretary of State
Winston Lord told a Senate sub-committee hearing.
Washington plans to sell nine Pakistani jets to Jakarta but recent
political upheavals in the far eastern country cast a big cloud of doubt
over the sale.
But recent congressional reports have indicated that the administration was
also working on an alternative track to dispose of the Pakistani planes and
the new targeted country for these sales was Philippines.
Defence sources told Dawn the Pentagon had already indicated to Manila that
it could reduce the price of the planes by close to 50 per cent from $25
million a piece to $13 million - if Manila was interested.
Philippines is said to be looking for a massive modernisation of its air
force and officials are evaluating the US F-18, Russian MiG-29 and French
Mirage 2000-5 aircraft besides the F-16s. A decision by Manila is expected
in the coming months.
Sources said if Manila agreed to purchase the Pakistani planes, Washington
would be spared of an embarrassing congressional battle on the Hill where
every attempt would be made to block the sale.
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960922
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Surfing on the serfdom
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Aziz Malik
Notwithstanding categorical denials by the concerned quarters, government
functionaries, ministers, members of the legislative assemblies, Sindh
chamber of agriculture and Sindh Abadgar Board that there were no private
jails in Sindh, the issue of bonded labour has attained scandalous
proportions.
Many a seminar and hari conferences have been held on this all too
important and burning topic and the newspapers are full of horrendous
stories about the plight and predicament of the enslaved peasantry. But the
vested interests continue to insist that the existence of private jails is
a "fiction and figment of imagination" of the NGOs and the journalists.
Nonetheless, the gospel truth is that about 3,000 bonded haris have been
liberated so far and if anyone has any doubts, he can just visit Qasimabad
and Matli and listen to the woeful takes of the hapless men and women.
In view of the magnitude of the problem, it is indeed a happy augury that
the Sindh government has asked the provincial ombudsman, Justice (rtd)
Salahuddin Mirza, a renowned jurist and a man of sterling qualities to
probe into the matter.
It would be relevant to point out here that when the stories about the
torture of prisoners confined in central prison Hyderabad were published in
the Press and summarily dismissed as concoctions by the people in
authority, it was justice Salahuddin Mirza who was entrusted with the
responsibility of finding out the truth. Although his full report has not
been made public officially, the suspension of the jail superintendent,
major (rtd) Khoso, makes it abundantly clear that the reports about the
torture of prisoners were true.
Thus, everyone should rest assured that the report of the ombudsman about
the bonded labour will be as crystal clear as day light.
It would be preposterous to say anything about the findings at this stage
but one thing in quite clear. The report is not going to be one sided.
During the past few days, the ombudsman has already met the representatives
of the growers' associations, namely the Sindh chamber of agriculture and
Sindh Abadgar Board, the official bearers of the NGOs including HRCP who
were instrumental in the release of bonded haris and of course scores of
liberated haris themselves.
On Thursday night, justice Salahuddin Mirza along with his able consultant,
a retired sessions judge, Mohammed Hussain Siddiqui, also held an informal
meeting with the local journalists and heard the point of view of a couple
of newsmen who had themselves seen bonded haris working in the sugarcane
fields with chains tied to their feet.
On Friday he left for a tour of Mirpurkhas division which has gained
notoriety about the bonded labour. It is a foregone conclusion that the
learned ombudsman is making exhaustive investigations and the outcome is
going to be conclusive which might surprise quite a few.
So far two points of view have emerged prominently and both deserve
dispassionate consideration.
The alarmists claim that the bogey of bonded labour has been raised by the
conspirators and "agents" with a view to destroying the agricultural
economy of Sindh. The justification given by them is that the haris take
advances and loans from the Zamindars who have every right to keep a
"watch" over them till the loans/advances are fully realised.
However, it is seldom that the haris are ever able to pay back the loans.
The haris are not given the 50 per cent share of the agricultural produce
although the entire family, including women and children, are obliged to
work on the farm. No accounts are maintained and the hairs are sold and
purchased like chattel.
The tenancy act exists only on paper and the Mukhtiarkar, who is supposed
to enforce the act dare not do so for reasons not difficult to gauge.
The NGOs, who have championed the cause of the bonded haris, maintain that
keeping the farm labour in bondage on the pretext of advances and loans is
prohibited under the Bonded Labour (Abolition) Act 1992. In letter it is
true, but in spirit it is impracticable, for the haris do have the tendency
to leave for greener pastures when they are direly needed on the farms.
This too is equally true that some elements are exploiting the haris for
political gains and this includes some government servants. The authorities
know about this but they are loath to take any disciplinary action against
them.
The learned ombudsman is a man of few words who prefers to listen and talks
but seldom. However, what could be gathered from the wrinkles of his
forehead was that he is more worried about the rehabilitation of the
liberated haris living in camps in abject poverty. This indeed is an
untenable situation.
It is like "out of the frying pan into the fire," of what good is the
liberation if no work can be found for them? The haris are very good farm
workers Nay this is the only vocation they known. Plain wisdom demands
that they must return to farms for their own good and for the good of
Sindh's agricultural economy. However, one must hasten to add that this is
not possible under the prevailing conditions.
There must be some fool-proof guarantees to protect their genuine rights.
No such guarantees are available under the existing laws.
Old habits die hard but it is imperative that the landlords change their
attitude towards the tillers of land if not voluntarily then through the
force of law, which should be enforced rigidly.
To begin with, the ruling party should implement its own manifesto by
constituting hari courts on the pattern of labour courts.
All the haris should be registered and hari unions should be formed and
registered on the pattern of labour unions. Radical changes should be
brought about in the tenancy act and the district judge should be made the
incharge instead of Mukhtiarkar, to save the agriculture economy of Sindh.
The government must tackle the issue on priority basis. Now no one is going
to buy the argument that "private jails are non-existent."
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960923
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More Afghan refugees arrive
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Bureau Report
PESHAWAR, Sept 22: A total of 10,212 members of 1,454 Afghan families have
taken shelter in Pakistan since Aug 8, says a government handout issued
here on Sunday.
According to the Afghan Refugee Commissionerate most of these newly arrived
Afghans have been putting up with their relatives who are already in
Peshawar. However, they have been approaching the Commissionerate for
seeking accommodation and food. The Commissionerate has, therefore,
contacted with the UNHCR and relevant NGOs to extend them assistance as an
emergency measure in the Nasir Bagh refugee camp near Peshawar.
The co-ordinator pre-registration and repatriation cell of the refugee
commissionerate is making all possible efforts to ensure provision of basic
necessities to the refugees who are settled in a separate distinguishable
area so that they could return to Jalalabad after situation normalises
there, the handout adds.
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960926
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Accountability net must cover president and others
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Bureau Report
ISLAMABAD, Sept 25: Interior Minister Naseerullah Babar has called for
conducting accountability of politicians, the president and all retired
civil and military officials.
Speaking at a news conference here on Wednesday, Mr Babar said his
government believed in the process of accountability so that anybody who
had played with the destiny of the country should be taken to task.
He proposed that if any member of the Parliament was found guilty of
misconduct and corruption he should not only be unseated but aldo given an
exemplary punishment.
He said it should also be determined that whether the process of
accountability should be started from the period when Pakistan came into
being or from 1958. Let this issue be settled once and for all so that the
country may be saved from bad people.
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960926
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SPI shows 0.24% increase
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KARACHI, Sept 25: The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) with 1990-91 as base
for the week ended Sept 23, 1996 released by the Federal Bureau of
Statistics (FBS) showed an increase of 0.24% over the SPI for the preceding
week. The SPI showed an increase of 10.72% over the corresponding week of
last year (on Sept 23, 1996 over Sept 25, 1995) as against 12.22% in the
previous period (on Sept 25, 1995 over Sept 27, 1994).
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960920
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Strategy evolved to meet IMF conditions
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Bureau Report
ISLAMABAD, Sept 19: Pakistan will present a package of measures to the IMF
during talks with its officials for seeking the stalled tranche of $600m
standby loan, said Prime Ministers Adviser on Finance and Economic Affairs
V. A. Jafarey here on Thursday.
Mr Jafarey claimed that Pakistan enjoyed the confidence of the World Bank
and the IMF and dispelled the impression that the country was heading
towards economic crisis. The current economic situation did not warrant
declaration of financial emergency in the country, he added.
Speaking at a news conference the prime ministers adviser denied that the
international donor agencies were getting tough with Pakistan and had
refused to offer new loans. We are taking with us a package of measures
and facts and figures on the basis of which we will hopefully reach an
agreement with the Fund, he said.
However, he admitted that the World Bank and the IMF had expressed their
concern over some issues. For example, he said the IMF was concerned at
certain changes made in the budget while the World Bank wanted to have an
effective utilisation of its aid especially related to Social Action
programme (SAP). And we share World Banks concern over the issue.
Mr Jafarey offered no comment when asked to disclose the economic plan he
would discuss with the IMF. At this stage I would not like to discuss our
various proposals for the resumption of the standby loan and also for
reaching an agreement on ESAF, he added.
Pakistan is the largest recipient of the World Bank which is expected to
offer 1.9 billion dollars for 1996-97 against 580 million dollars of the
previous year, said the prime ministers adviser.
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960920
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Turnkey power $25 bn burden on economy
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Ashraf Mumtaz
LAHORE, Sept 19: Maintaining that the thermal power plants to be set up on
turnkey basis in Pakistan under agreements with various foreign countries
will provide costlier electricity which will be beyond the reach of the
industrial and domestic consumers, a high-level committee set up by the
prime minister has advised the government not to go for such plants in
future.
The agreements, the committee says in its report to the government, will
cause an additional burden of $1 billion per year for the next 25 years.
The committee said the additional burden could have been reduced by about
25 per cent by entering into joint ventures involving local participation
in design, engineering and construction of these plants.
So far, agreements have been signed for some 3,000 megawatt power
generation based on imported coal and oil.
The committee had been set up by Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto some five
months back with Mr Munir Ahmad Khan, former chairman of the Pakistan
Atomic Energy Commission as its head. It comprised 26 experts drawn from
various research organisations, research councils, universities and the
private sector. It was also supported by 22 sub-committees on major
economic and technical sectors and involved 360 specialists and experts
representing various sectors, the Ministry of Science and technology and
the Planning Commission.
The committee said the engineering industry in Pakistan was in a crisis at
present and it could be saved if the government refused to import turnkey
power plants and instead entered into joint ventures in engineering and
even in defence sectors. Implementation of this policy in the power sector
is of primary importance. We should stop buying turnkey power plants.
Pakistan, the report pointed out, heavily depended on imported machinery
and spare parts which accounted for $4 billion or 40 per cent of total
imports per year. Unless we develop our engineering sector, we cannot hope
to industrialise. The cost of imported raw materials and inputs (such as
steel, metals, energy) in Pakistan are already higher by 30 per cent than
in India which penalises our industry unfairly. This sector deserves
immediate attention.
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960920
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Software technology park planned
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Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Sept. 19; Pakistans first software technology park (STP) is being
built on 51 acre of land in Islamabad at a total cost of 130 million
dollars of which 20.6 million dollars will be invested in the first phase.
Announcing this on Thursday at a seminar the Managing Director of the
Private Software Export Board Mr Shahid Mir said that the Board is forming
a project company in collaboration with a Singaporean firm.
The seminar was organised by the PSEB and the Board of Investment to inform
the executives and officers of select financial, banking and trade
institutions about the business opportunities in the Prime Ministers
software initiative.
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960920
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Capital market to take leap towards automation
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Muhammad Ilyas
ISLAMABAD, Sept 19: Pakistans capital market will make a major leap
towards automation and transparency with the enactment of a law to
establish the Central Depository Company of Pakistan Ltd (CDC).
While bringing Pakistan at par with other capital markets of the world,
explained Mr Abdul Rehman Qureshi, Member, (Company Law) of the Corporate
Law Authority (CLA) and go a long way towards reinforcing investing
publics confidence.
The decision has now come too soon in view of the depressed state of the
capital market and investors trust which, unfortunately, at a low ebb at
the moment. It is expected to put an end to numerous problems which arose
out of the antiquated manual system and settlement of shares that was an
anachronism in the present age of computerised transactions and global
reach of the financial markets of each country.
The present system is also open to all kinds of manipulation of the shares
market by speculators as well as managing companies to the detriment of
ordinary investors. Under CDC, the relevant information about a company
would be readily available to the public, thanks to automation.
Described as a universally tried instrument of efficient functioning of
capital markets, CDC has been formed by the three stock exchanges in
collaboration with the International Finance Corporation (a subsidiary of
World Bank), Citibank, HBL, MCB, ICP, NIT and PICIC under the Securities
and Exchange Ordinance, 1969.
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960921
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Prospects of software industry in Pakistan and India
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Kamil Siddiqui
INDIAS software industry, which barely existed till 10 years ago, has rung
up sales of more than $ 1.2 billion last year and is growing at over 40 per
cent per annum. Bangalore is the industrys centre, with more than two-
thirds of the 300 software companies being indigenous, while the rest are
multinationals, like IBM, Texas Instruments, Siemens, Group Bull, Sun
Microsystems and Motorola. Multinationals account for about 70 per cent of
the investment in software development.
India produces 20,000 computer-science graduates a year, but demand is so
high that the industrys wages are rising at about 20 per cent annually. A
brand new 68 acre information technology park built by a Singaporean firm
at Bangalore will open next year and may ease some of the industrys
infrastructural problems. Rather than supply cheap hands, like many
industrialising Asian countries, India has prospered by supplying cheap
brains of its software companies.
The state of the software industry in Pakistan though not as satisfactory,
nevertheless has good prospects as the Japanese and Gordon Wu of Hong Kong
are considering construction of industrial parks at Islamabad, Keti Bunder,
Karachi, etc.
Unsatisfactory situation
There is a tendency among MNCs of practising follow the leader. In this
regard, Mr Wu has set the ball rolling and invested in Pakistan in a big
way. Total investments by him in the near future, are stated to be around
$8 billion. This is double what was offered by a large American delegation,
which visited Pakistan in September 1994, just before Mr Wus arrival. The
Japanese are also interested in investing at the site selected by Gordon Wu
at Keti Bunder.
A Japanese delegation visited Keti Bunder during March 1996 and expressed
keen interest in its development. Keti Bunder is where the River Indus
meets the Arabian Sea. Another attraction is that inland navigation can
also be initiated from here. Ocean-going vessels can enter the river
channel and move upstream to offload goods up to Sukkur. Further movement,
however, may be obstructed by barrages that are built on the Indus.
Once technological parks are built at Keti Bunder, Karachi, Islamabad,
etc., it will give a great boost to Pakistans software industry which
presently earns only $ 15 million a year. Help and guidance could also be
sought from Mr Safi Qureshi, a young Pakistani-American CEO of Americas
fourth largest computer company, AST Research. He is also one of the
founders of AST Research.
His participation in Pakistans software and computer industry could be
expected only when information technology parks as well as industrial
parks, for not only software but also hardware, are built at several places
across the country.
Concerted efforts
If we are to learn by the Indian experience we should remember that by the
mid-1960s the Indian government had three stated goals concerning ties
between India and the international computing industry.
First, India should participate in the ownership and control of foreign
computer subsidiaries in the country. Second, by the late 1960s, wholly
Indian producers should satisfy most of the countrys computer needs, with
foreign units temporarily supplying only very exotic technologies and large
systems. Third, India should have access to and participate in the
manufacture of the most advanced systems available internationally.
In 1966, two foreign computer firms had substantial sales and manufacturing
activities in India namely IBM and ICT (of Britain), which in 1968 became a
part of ICL. The Indian government advised IBM in 1966 and 1968 that the
company should share ownership of its local activities with Indian
nationals.
In both instances the firm responded that its highly internationalised and
interdependent operations required centralised co-ordination and control.
In 1968 IBM threatened the government that it would terminate its
operations in India rather than share ownership of its Indian subsidiary.
The government decided not to press the matter and IBM was permitted to
retain full control over its operations.
Complicated situation
ICT/ICL experienced a slightly more complicated situation in India. It had
split its operations into two units, one for manufacturing and the other
for sales. The manufacturing unit involved 40 per cent Indian ownership,
thus giving the impression that ICT/ICL was sensitive to Indian policy
concerns.
The sales unit was appointed the sole distributor of the manufacturing
units products. Furthermore, it made all the decisions about the
activities it would undertake. This relationship rendered irrelevant Indian
partial ownership of the manufacturing unit, which could not affect the
activities of ICT/ICL in India.
The experience of the Indian government in 1970s, however, was markedly
different. For example, after intense negotiations ICL agreed to merge its
two units and to own only 40 per cent of the successor corporation in
India, thus ensuring Indian participation in both the marketing and the
manufacturing activities of ICL in India.
Finally, the government began anew in 1973-1974 to urge IBM to share equity
of its local unit with Indian nationals. The company responded by offering
new and quite high levels of manufacturing activities that would be useful
to the government in terms of foreign exchange earnings and transfer of
technology, as well as provide direct technical assistance to Indias data-
processing programmes. This was offered in exchange for an exemption from
the Indian policy that the company share equity.
IBM again indicated that it would withdraw from India rather than be
compelled to share ownership or submit to other controls on its operations.
In contrast to 1966 and 1968, the government decided to press its demands
on equity. IBM announced in November 1977 that it would withdraw from India
by June 1978, which it did. Thus, in contrast to the 1960s, the government
had decided by the mid-1970s that it could afford to pursue its policy even
at the cost of losing the worlds premier computer enterprise.
During the late 1970s Burroughs and ICL consolidated their operations in
India, and IBM completed its withdrawal from the country. The major new
development within the Indian computer industry during this period was the
emergence of several wholly Indian systems engineering firms, firms that
were not under the direct control of the central government.
For most of the 1970s, the only wholly Indian computer enterprise had been
the central governments Electronic Corporation of India Limited (ECIL). By
the end of the decade, however, three other Indian firms were designing and
assembling systems. Hindustan Computers Limited (HCL), a joint venture
between a private Indian firm and the Uttar Pradesh government; DCM
Dataproducts, a subsidiary of Delhi Cloth Mills and Operation Research
Group (ORG), a subsidiary of Sarabhai Enterprises.
A fourth Indian enterprise, International Data Machines (IDM), marketed and
serviced a Microsystems designed and assembled by the Indian firm National
Radio and Electronics Company, a subsidiary of Tata Enterprises.
India endeavoured to seek supercomputer technology from the West in the
mid-1970s, and the Indian efforts continued for a long period till a
memorandum of understanding was signed between the governments of India and
the US in June 1985, paving the way for the transfer of technology.
The Cray Research Computer of USA, leaders in designing and building
supercomputers, started to build a supercomputer for the Indian Research
Institute at Bangalore at a cost of $ 10 million. When the supercomputer
was ready for shipment, the US government blocked the deal apprehending its
possible use in the development of nuclear weapons.
The Indians decided to utilise their own resources rather than entering
into a licensing battle with the US government. Within three years, the
country succeeded in building its own supercomputer, known as Param, which
is reportedly 28 times more powerful than the Cray that India had agreed to
buy. The Indian-made supercomputers are taking over the home market and
competing with Cray around the world.
In Pakistan, the government is already showing concern to diversify the
minds of our entrepreneurs from matured-technology industries, such as
textile and sugar, to high technology industries such as computers and
superconductors. It has to be seen, how far our entrepreneurs accept the
challenge.
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960921
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Pak-India trade - an inevitable conclusion
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Shahid Faraz Waraich
TRADE with India has assumed the status of a long-standing debate, leading
to increasing global competition, highlighted with the onset of a new world
trade order. Pakistan signed along the dotted line in April 1994 in Morocco
and committed itself to becoming a member of the World Trade Organisation
(WTO) from January 1, 1995. It also accepted the provision to liberalise
trade, in particular its trade in textiles, by opening up its markets for
the import of textiles, specially clothing from the European Union and the
US.
In addition to that, agreements were signed in an attempt to lower the
rates of import duties on all items including textiles to a reasonable
level. Pakistan also agreed to open up its markets to the services sector
of advanced countries and to protect their patents, intellectual property
rights, as well as the trade marks of the manufacturers.
The implementation of the Uruguay round has begun from January 1, 1996.
Both India and Pakistan are signatories to the WTO, which implies the
relaxation of the barriers to mutual trade and granting of Most-Favoured-
Nation (MFN) status to both. The MFN status does not involve the creation
of a free-trade zone, as in the case of the European Customs Union (ECU)
wherein member states do not impose customs duties or trade tariffs on one
another. Even after granting MFN status to a country, it is still
permissible to impose non-tariff barriers or ban certain important items
that would adversely affect the domestic industry. Pakistan has already
accorded MFN status to most of the WTO member states.
Sensitive Issues
India has granted Pakistan MFN status. It is a sensitive issue to grant
India MFN status. It is estimated that unofficial trade between these two
countries stands at over $ 1 billion. The ancient way of conducting
international business has been transformed into an open but exceedingly
tough, tenacious, and high priority activity. Political differences and
armed conflicts are making way for closer economic and business ties.
The new trade order is that the countries traditionally bogged down at the
other extremes contentious issues or who are averse to any normalisation of
relationships or who are keen competitors on the world export trade, have
to readjust and conform to the new realities. Pakistan and India are two
such countries. No doubt, trade between the two will increase and that
Pakistan may grant MFN status to India, but the roadblocks if any, will
have to be removed, if Pakistan is to continue the desired progressive
journey along the global trade highway.
In bilateral textile trade, the Indians may flood the market by resorting
to dumping, or take over the share of the domestic producers eventually
rendering Pakistan non-competitive.
Pakistan may import polyester chips for manufacturing filament yarn. India
may supply viscose staple fibre, acrylic staple fibre, and polyester staple
fibre as they have these in abundance. There exists about 10,000 tons of
surplus viscose staple fibre, about 70,000 tons of acrylic staple fibre,
and over 175,000 tons of polyester staple fibre. We are importing these
three fibres from other countries. We may import dye-stuffs and chemicals
from India as they produce over 32,000 tons of dye-stuffs per annum.
Pakistani processing units have tried and tested Indian dyes, still we are
importing these expensive dyes from Europe. Pakistan may import yarn from
India when our domestic textile spinning industry is exporting more the 70
per cent of its yarn production. India may penetrate into Pakistan by
introducing its specialised fabrics, like Khaddar, fancy yarn, muslin, and
other such novelties.
India is a major supplier of fashion apparel throughout the world. India
itself has opened its borders to foreign brands. The import of Indian
specialised fashion apparel and garments will decrease the demand of
Pakistani garments within the country. In Pakistan, there is demand for
Khaddar products-namely waistcoats and Sherwanis which is already being
smuggled from India. On the other hand, Indian sweaters will reduce the
demand for Iranian ones. India has 125 units producing the complete range
of textile machinery and 330 units manufacturing textile machinery
components and accessories. India also has collaboration and joint ventures
with the leading world textile machinery manufacturers like Toyada, Sulzer
Ruti, Howa, Reiter, Schlafhorst, Stork etc. Import of textile machinery
from India is beneficial to us because of their relatively low prices,
early shipment, and the after-sales services. Pakistan may import
pharmaceuticals from India price of which are in the ratio of 2:20
respectively.
Under the agreement, Pakistan has to reduce import duty to the level of 35
per cent. When this comes into effect, a flood of European, American,
Japanese, and Korean products will make a clean sweep of the Pakistani
markets not only because of their superior quality but also due to our
craze for imported products.
Historical perspective
Looking at the historical perspective between India and Pakistan, it is
clear that at the time of partition, Pakistan was completely dependent on
India for the sale of raw material and the purchase of finished goods in
the Indian market. This trade was banned by India as a result of Pakistans
independent decision not to devalue its currency in line with the
currencies of other Commonwealth countries.
This decision weakened Pakistans economic position. Exports to India from
Pakistan in 1948-49 was at source Rs 1,008.8 million and imports were to
the tune of Rs 1,464.2 million and it continued along an irregular pattern
till 1965.
Trade resumed again in 1975 and it was not without clauses safeguarding the
relative interests of both countries. In 1981, Pakistan announced a list of
42 tradable items with India. It later expanded to 571 items in July 1989.
Another fact is that the balance sheet of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP)
till today has the statement, assets to be received from India, which it
regards as an unequal distribution of resources at the time of partition.
Pakistan, as a signatory to the WTO, is committed to give equal status to
all members of the WTO. Therefore, it cannot exclude India. If both
countries allow free trade, it is possible for informal trade worth $1
billion to follow regular channels which will ultimately benefit the
economies of both the countries.
Pros and cons
Trade with India will adversely effect the engineering sector and the
corresponding vending industry, which actively supports the defence
industry of Pakistan.
In India, both consumer and capital goods are cheaper and economical and of
a far superior quality than those in Pakistan. In addition to that India
has a sound technological and industrial base which will in the long run
ensure that foreign investment will automatically turn to India leaving
Pakistan behind.
There are some benefits of trading between two countries. India is capable
of providing Pakistan with cheap and good quality raw material, machinery,
and consumer goods.
Smuggling between the two countries leads to a loss of $ 1 billion per
annum to the national exchequer. Trade regulation would be useful not only
for the general public but also for both the governments who will earn
revenue. Moreover, inefficient and uncompetitive Pakistani industries will
close down.
In the agricultural sector, we could import cheaper fertilisers,
pesticides, and edible items from India. Their new techniques, innovations
and agricultural research will increase the per-acre yield and production
in the long run. We may conclude that trade with India is a sensitive issue
and needs strategic treatment. Inefficient industries in both the countries
will close down.
If Pakistan grants MFN status to India, then it can import goods from India
rather than the present trend of importing goods from other countries.
There is no chance for Pakistan to export textile products to India because
India is self-sufficient. There is, however, a chance for Pakistan to
penetrate India in value-added suiting and shirting.
The government should maintain macro-economic parameters while making
decisions. Our government has held up the status of MFN to India until
India withdraws all subsidies to its manufacturers.
Before opening trade to India and granting her MFN status, the government
of Pakistan must rationalise the existing high mark-up rates on bank loans
and all regulatory duties and levies should be withdrawn immediately.
Infrastructure rates should not be increased and there should be zero-rated
duty on yarn, machinery and raw material.
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960921
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Rupee devaluation: will it really boost exports?
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Muhammad Aslam
THE external value of the Pakistani rupee is now about three per cent
cheaper after the last weeks 3.65 per cent devaluation as compared to
India and China and it should provide the much-needed push to textile
exports in the coming weeks.
This was the consensus among the leading financial analysts in their post-
devaluation deliberations but some of them were sceptical about the
performance of the spinning sector keeping in view its previous track
record.
The Indian rupee is currently being quoted in the range of Rs.35.75 and
35.77 for buying and selling against Pakistans Rs. 36.97 and 37.15,
showing a difference of Rs.1.19, which comes to about three per cent
calculated on a percentage basis.
An identical gap is evident between the currencies of Pakistan and China,
which could well mean that a lot of manoeuvring ground has been provided to
the local spinning sector to achieve the export target of $10.2 billion and
reduced the trade deficit to an economically viable level.
However, could the textile sector really deliver the goods in its present
shape, is a big question and the answer could hardly be in a positive
light.
It is not that it is in a terribly bad shape financially, owing to stuck up
bank loans totalling Rs.35 billion and having a big list of 200 closed down
units to its credit, but because of a perception of weaker link among the
major foreign exchange earners.
There is a danger in leaning so heavily on the textile sector for which
the devaluation is largely meant, said an analyst, adding, though it
accounts for 65 per cent of the total annual export bill, it could hardly
meet the compulsion of the devaluation.
What is more disturbing is its failure to add, over the years,
significantly to the export value of its products, which hardly could get a
real price on the world markets.
An idea of value addition by some of the leading cotton and cotton yarn
importers from Pakistan may well be had from the fact that they add Rs.30
per kilo as against only Rs.5 by our spinners.
A Japanese importer of Pakistani yarn, for instance, sells his made-ups or
other textile products on the world markets at Rs.30 per Kilo higher than
our spinners. The question that arises is: why should not our spinners add
this value to the cotton yarn right here. Why do they rest content with
spinning yarn just out of the available, cheaper local lint.
This means that Pakistani spinners and producers of made-ups add only five
per cent value to their products despite having indigenous raw materials in
plenty and at much lower rates as against on average Rs.30.00 by those who
import basic raw materials for their end-products from them.
The breakthrough, which the massive devaluations of the rupee seek to
achieve on the textile front might not be possible until producers opt for
new modes of productions and try to cater to the needs of world consumers
according to their taste and demands, said a leading exporter. He feared
the devaluations could backfire as those for which they were meant seemed
to be a little allergic to change themselves to new situations.
How then, would spinners be able to significantly benefit from the
devaluation of the rupee if they are not inclined to bring value-addition
to their products, at least close to the international standards.
Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea are one of the leading importers of our
cotton and cotton yarn and a look at their value additions could be a
lesson to spinners, official said.
Spinners might not be in that bad situation as being portrayed by some
quarters as the leading ones among them must have the will to survive.
Although the impact of the massive devaluation was not visible in the share
values of the entire sector, most of them ruling well below face values and
there are no buyers for them even at 90 paisa for a 10-rupee share.
Spinners are happy over the devaluation of the rupee and optimistic about
its positive impact on the entire textile trade in the coming months but
are not inclined to entertain the idea of a major boost to exports.
No doubt we have an edge now over our immediate rivals on the exports
front after the devaluation but Indian exporters still have an advantage of
lower home prices of lint, spinners said.
They said on an average an Indian spinner is getting lint cotton well below
Rs.2,000 per maund, while we have to pay Rs.2,000 for the same quantity.
A difference of Rs.200 to 300 per maund could take away from us the
competitive edge brought in by the devaluation if steps are not taken to
make lint prices more competitive, they maintained.
Market sources, however, said that owing to news of a bumper crop prices of
lint during the last one week had declined by more than Rs.500 per maund
and could ease further as ginners are selling in panic fearing an imminent
price crash. The cotton situation is, therefore, being watched very
closely by both the officials and the industry and spinners now have to
respond positively to the national demand, said a banker.
Let then not raise slogans seeking a ban on export of cotton to check price
flare-up and try to live in a free-market economy as other are doing and
only then the current years export target of $10.2 billion could be
exceeded by a wide margin.
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960926
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Foreign exchange reserves fall to $625.96m
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Mohiuddin Aazim
KARACHI, Sept 25: Pakistans approved foreign exchange reserves fell to Rs
23.0418 billion or $ 625.96 million on September 19 from Rs 31.7481 billion
or $862.48 million on September 12.
The latest SBP weekly statement shows under its assets column approved
foreign exchange reserves of Rs 23.0418 billion as on September 19 while
the previous statement showed Rs 31.7481 billion as on September 12 under
the same column.
The officials of the ministry of finance and the SBP authorities say the
total foreign exchange reserves are more than $1.0 billion but they never
specify the components of total reserves and approved reserves.
No official word is available on the causes for the fall in the approved
reserves but senior bankers and money market analysts link it to widening
trade deficit, stock market depression and current buying-spree for
dollars.
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960926
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Govt approves $2.6bn oil pipeline project
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Bureau Report
ISLAMABAD, Sept 25 : Pakistan government has formally approved 2.6 billion
dollars laying of 1609 kilometre long and 42 inches diameter oil pipeline
which will originate from Turkmenistan.
Minister for Petroleum Anwar Saifullah Khan here gave the formal approval
on Wednesday to the project after a meeting with the officials of the
Unocal Corporation, USA and Delta Oil Company, Saudi Arabia who are the
sponsors of Central Asian oil pipeline projects. The officials of the two
sponsor companies presented the pipeline route and terminal site
optimisation study report to the minister on the occasion.
President of Unocal Pakistan Inc., Mr.Richard Keller told Mr. Anwar
Saifullah Khan that the project has been conceived to construct a large
diameter crude oil pipeline to supply the growing Asian import market with
oil from resource rich but land locked Central Asia and Siberian areas.
However the officials of two sponsoring companies expressed their
apprehensions about the prevailing political instability in Afghanistan.
They said although the Afghan leaders realised the benefits from the
project and supported it, but uncertainly in that country could still pose
a threat to the project.
The project costing about 2.6 billion dollars will have the capacity of
transmitting one million barrel of oil per day. This integrated export
pipeline and marine terminal project has been planned to originate at
Chardzhou in Turkmenistan and pass through western Afghanistan to marine
terminal on the Pakistan coast of the Arabian sea in Balochistan province.
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960926
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KSE 100-share index breaks 1,400-point barrier again
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Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Sept 25: The Karachi Stock Index of 100-share again breached the
barrier of 1,400 points on Wednesday and analysts said the near-term
outlook appeared to be a bit bearish because of the current political
uncertainty.
Although the late strong institutional support allowed it to finish
partially recovered, the Thursdays weekend selling is sure to push it
further lower.
The 100-share index was last quoted at 1,383.32 as compared to 1,403.19 a
day earlier as investors were not inclined to take long positions on any of
the counters and sold in a haste .
The issue of Pakistans credit rating as painted by Moody in the economic
scenario is not that relevant as the local disturbing factors are,
analysts said adding the market is toeing the line of immediate happening
rather than thinking of distant possibilities.
The government is under an all-out attack from all directions and that is
chief worry of local as well as foreign investors, they added.
Dividend news both from Shell Pakistan and Burshane Pakistan were fairly
encouraging and were on the higher side of the market thinking and in a way
averted major decline.
Shell Pakistan came out with a final of 27.5 per cent making the total to
82.5 per cent as it has already paid an interim of 55 per cent plus right
shares of 50 per cent and Burshane announced final at the rate of 40 per
cent making the total together with the interim of 35 per cent to 75 per
cent. Dawood Leasing announced 12.5 per cent cash dividend.
Shell, which has been rising in the sessions preceding the final dividend
announcement and was quoted around Rs 140 for 10-rupee share, attracted
large selling and post-dividend dealings saw it losing Rs 12 just in one go
as some of the dealers sold in a haste to cash in on the available margin
of profit.
Dadabhoy Insurance led the list of leading losers, falling by Rs 55 on
selling prompted apparently by news of legal notice about guarantees.
Others to follow it were Noon Sugar, KESC, Sui Northern, Crescent Steel,
Philips, Dawood Hercules, Engro Chemicals and Siemens Pakistan, falling by
Rs 1.40 to 2.50.
Leading gainers were led by Brooke Bond and Grays of Cambridge, which rose
by Rs 2 to 3, followed by Schon Textiles, Pakistan Tobacco, PSO, Packages,
Universal Leather and Cherat Paper, which posted gains ranging from one
rupee to Rs 1.50.
The most active list was again topped by Hub-Power, off one rupee on 8.299m
shares followed by PTC vouchers, easy 60 paisa on 5.688m, Fauji Fertiliser,
lower 80 paisa on 1.304m, FFC-Jordan Fertiliser, unchanged on 0.277m and
Ibrahim Fibre, lower 10 paisa on 0.295m shares.
Other actives were led by Faysal Bank, lower 35 paisa on 0.201m, Waqas
Haseeb Sugar, unchanged on 0.111m, and Lucky Cement, off 30 paisa on 0.140m
shares. There were some other notable deals also. Trading volume rose
further to 26.041m shares from the previous 23.414m shares owing to active
selling in most of the pivotals.
There were 302 actives, out of which 160 shares showed fall, while 57 rose,
with 85 holding on to the last levels.
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960920
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Maa ki hai
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Ardeshir Cowasjee
THERE is very little to choose between the PPP and the MQM. Both parties
the leaders and the led have adopted fascistic tendencies, and both have
a firm belief in the success of terrorist tactics. Muscle is ranged against
muscle, leaving losers on both sides. Be that as it may, the state, as
opposed to political parties, must not and cannot indulge itself in acts of
terrorism.
Loathsome is a word which may aptly describe the conduct of the Chief
Minister of Sindh, Syed Abdullah Shah, when he terrorised the widow Feroza
Begum, mother of Osama Qadri.
Osama, a proclaimed offender with a price on his head, had been in hiding
for many a month. He was found and arrested on August 21. The next day, a
point of order on his arrest was raised in the Sindh Assembly by leader of
the opposition Farooq Sattar and Feroza Begum. The Chief Minister conceded
that Osama had been picked up and declared he would produce a list of the
cases in which he was involved. On the 23rd he gave a list to the House of
32 cases against Osama registered in District Central, promising to give a
further list of the remaining cases as soon as he could. He never did.
Osama, while held in police custody, was reportedly tortured, which
naturally the government denied.
On September 3, the presiding officer of Special Terrorist Court No. 1,
Abdul Majid Bhatti, ordered that Osama be held in judicial remand and that
he be sent to jail. The order was disregarded by the police.
Osama was arrested in North Karachi by the police of Khwaja Ajmer Nagri PS.
He was shuffled about between Ajmer Nagri, Taimuria, New town and Gulbahar
police stations, at which PS he was found to be incarcerated on September 7
in the custody of SHO Chaudhry Aslam, a man who is alleged to have killed
71 persons in encounters in the city of Karachi.
Osamas remand expired on September 9, but the police did not produce him
on that date before the judicial magistrate, as they should have done. His
alarmed mother, Feroza Begum, at once sent telegrams to the President,
Prime Minister, COAS, the Chief Justices of Pakistan and Sindh, and the
Chief Minister, Home Secretary and IG Police of Sindh, telling them all of
her apprehension that her son would be killed by the police whilst in
custody, and seeking their intervention and help.
The last contact her party members and family had with Feroza was when she
was with her legal adviser on September 9 at 1600 hours. Thereafter she was
not to be found, until September 11 when she suddenly appeared in the
Governors House, before a battery of Press and television photographers to
be sworn in by the Governor as a minister of Sindh. The following day, the
proud and clever government proclaimed that it had managed to create chaos
in the MQM ranks and had won over to its side an MQM member.
What was not broadcast to the public was the fact that the government had
threatened Feroza Begum that were she not to accept the post of a minister
and agree to be sworn in she would never again see her son alive. Since
then, the widowed mother has been held incommunicado by this gallant
government. Her house in Gulshan-i-Iqbal, which in the past three years has
been raided thirty-seven times by our law enforcement agencies, was and
remains surrounded by the police under the pretext of giving her
protection. Visitors wishing to see her are told to contact the Home
Secretary for permission. No one knows whether she is in her house or being
kept elsewhere.
The government has a clear majority in the Sindh Assembly. By his
terrorisation of a widow, just what has Abdullah Shah achieved? What he has
done is to confirm the bully-boy tactics practised by his party; he has
proved to the people what we have long suspected that his ability to rule
and reason is, to say the least, limited.
Listed hereunder in this newspaper of record are the persons who cold be
charged with complicity in an act of terrorism, and with being accessories
to a crime. As far as we are informed, not one of these men or women raised
a voice against the action of the Chief Minister (some may have done so,
but clandestinely). The party unity has been commendable:
The Oxford-educated President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Tumandar
of the Legharis, Sardar Farooq Ahmed Khan.
The Radcliffe and Oxford-educated Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of
Pakistan, Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto.
The Interior Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, an IMA-PMA
trained retired General of the Pakistan Army, Naseerullah Babar.
The Oxford-educated honourable Governor of the Province of Sindh, Syed
Kamaluddin Azfar. Ever since he has been in occupation of the Karachi
gubernatorial mansion, he has raised the style and dignity of his office.
He no longer sees or meets people he grants audiences. On September 11,
he spent the day to-ing and fro-ing about Karachi commemorating the death
anniversary of Jinnah, and then hurriedly had the darbar hall of his
mansion opened and spruced up, and under a painting of Jinnah being sworn
in by the bewigged Chief Justice Abdur Rashid, he administered the oath of
office to a sobbing and devastated woman, frightened out of her wits. What
a desecration of the office he holds, of the house in which Jinnah died in
which he lives and governs.
Ministers of the Government of Sindh (30): Syed Abdullah Shah (Chief
Minister); Syed Pervaiz Ali Shah (Irrigation and Power); Haji Zafar Ali
Leghari (Communications and Works); Nisar Ahmed Khuhro (Planning and
Development); Abdul Hakeem Baloch (Housing and Town Planning); Abdul Khaliq
Jumma (Bureau of Supply and Prices); Agha Siraj Durrani (Education); Agha
Tariq (Mineral Development and Kachchi Abadis); Sikander Mendhro
(Cooperation); Ghulam Rasool Jatoi (Revenue); Mir Nadir Magsi (Excise and
Taxation); Hari Ram (Minority Affairs); Jam Mumtaz Ali (Forests); Abdul
Salam Thahim (Wildlife); Jan Muhammad Brohi (Transport); Khwaja Muhammad
Awan (Labour); Kunwar Hamir Singh Sodha (Science and Technology); Mr Lal
Bux Bhutto (Public Health Engineering); Abdul Wahid Soomro (Primary
Health); Shamim Ahmed (Health); Mir Munawar Ali Talpur (Local Government
and Rural Development); Mir Ghalib Hussain Dombki (Culture and Youth
Affairs); Pir Amjad Hussain Shah Jilani (Fisheries and Livestock); Syed Ali
Mardan Shah (Fisheries); Arbab Ataullah (Livestock); Pir Mazharul Haq (Law
and Parliamentary Affairs); Syed Mohsin Ali Shah (Food); Syed Murad Ali
Shah (Agriculture); Syed Umaid Ali Shah (jails and Illegal Immigrants
Affairs); Feroza Begum (no portfolio).
Ghous Bux Mehr (Speaker of the Sindh Assembly); Sardar Mohammed Nabi Khan
Gabol (Deputy Speaker of the Sindh Assembly).
Advisers to the Chief Minister of Sindh (15): Abdul Rahim Baloch (Narcotics
Control); Aziza Salim Jilani, wife of the Defence Secretary (Population
Welfare); Shamim N.D. Khan, wife of the Federal Law Minister (Womens
Development and Social Welfare); Iqbal Yusuf (Co-ordinator, Vigilance
Committee); Jam Saqi (Bonded Labour Affairs); Maulana Ehtiramul Haq Thanvi
(Auqaf); Mian Muhammad Akhtar Pagganwala (Political Affairs); Mohammad
Yousuf (Information); Munawar Hussain Suhrawardi (Sports); Mushtaq Mirza
(Chief Ministers Inspection Team); Nawab Mohammad Jehangir Khan (Culture,
Heritage and Archaeology); Syed Asad Ali Shah (Finance); Tufail Tony
Casino Shaikh (Tourism); Sardar Wahid Bux Bhutto (no assignment); Tariq
Niazi of Mianwali (no assignment).
To all, or some of the above, one day justice may be done in the form of
retribution. It may befall them for the maa ki hai, the anguish, pain and
deep distress they have caused to a mother, a widow at that. Payment in
some form will be exacted from them.
It would be in the fitness of things if the other Shah of Sindh, Chief
Justice of Pakistan Sajjad Ali Shah, will consider summoning Abdullah Shah
to stand before him so that he may warn him that should any harm or hurt be
unjustly caused to either mother or son, Abdullah Shah and his cohorts will
be held responsible.
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960921
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In the eye of the hurricane
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Mazdak
PARADOXICALLY, the further one is from Islamabad, the greater one's sense
of gloom and doom about the country's immediate future.
In the capital itself, it is business as usual: like the eye of the
hurricane, all is calm; things work; and the lightning and thunder are
limited to the occasional rainstorm that breaks over the Margallas,
bringing down the temperature. Usually the sound and the fury are limited
to Parliament and the Press. Within this tiny artificial island, our rulers
rule serenely, seemingly without a care in the world. As far as they are
concerned, the distant din from the plains is merely the tumult produced by
a frustrated opposition and some disgruntled journalists. Recently, a few
World Bank officials have joined this list of malcontents. But apart from
this handful of dissatisfied customers, there are no problems to speak of.
The common man that mythical creature evoked by all politicians with the
same frequency as they call upon the deity is happy and contented with
his lot. All, in short, is well with the world.
This is not the view the rest of us share. A creeping devaluation that has
snowballed into a run; a galloping inflation rate; and a collapsing stock
market have combined to cause alarm bells to ring in boardrooms and banks,
to say nothing about the homes of the poor and the middle class alike.
But is our imploding economy reason enough to demand that this government
be turfed out? On balance, no. Ever since I started reading the newspapers
many, many years ago, we have been living in a state of perpetual crisis.
The crops have failed, the monsoons have forsaken us and inflation has
eroded our purchasing power with such monotonous regularity that it is a
wonder that the economy has survived this constant buffeting. If you read
the back-issues of any newspaper, you will find nearly daily editorials
predicting the imminent collapse of the rupee, the economy and civilisation
as we know it.
But despite the gloom and doom, we have somehow muddled along. If the
government of the day were to be kicked out each time the rupee fell, or
the stock market plunged, or prices shot up, or scandals were unearthed, we
would have had many more ex-prime ministers plotting their return to power
than we do today. And we would probably have many more aspiring caretakers
waiting in the wings like vultures.
As we know to our cost, dumping the rider in mid-stream has caused far more
problems than it has solved. Firstly, it confers political martyrdom on the
politician who has been booted out, and gives him (or her) justification to
crusade for a similar unceremonious exit for his (or her) rival. Next, such
repeated quasi-constitutional coups give rise to enormous stresses and
strains within the system, quite apart from distorting the entire
democratic process by thwarting the will of the people as expressed through
their vote.
There are a few people whose power belies their numbers who have
constantly questioned the ability of smelly, illiterate voters to make
intelligent choices at the ballot box. In newspaper articles and the
drawing rooms of the rich and the powerful, they have long advocated a
meritocracy of the elite. And since it is unfashionable to openly advocate
a return to a dictatorship, they couch their demand in the form of a plea
for a caretaker arrangement that would stay in place long enough to
"enforce accountability and put the economy back on track." No small agenda
this, given the Augean stables we live in, so the caretakers would be
around for a good, solid spell.
The problem with this glib formula for authoritarianism is that if applied,
it would unite all political forces against such a dispensation. The one
redeeming feature about our murky politics is that there is a refreshing
consensus about the desire for democracy. This has manifested itself every
time a dictatorial deviation has occurred. Indeed, we should cherish and
nourish this strong sentiment instead of disparaging it every time a fresh
story about corruption in high places breaks. It is an unfortunate fact of
life that most of our politicians are venal and incompetent. But then, were
our military dictators and their uniformed and civilian lackeys so much
better?
It is a sobering fact that today, Pakistan is the freest Muslim country in
the world. Much of what is printed regularly in these columns would not be
permitted in any Muslim country, and I, for one, would not surrender this
freedom gladly. I find it bizarre that in a country with so much experience
with dictatorship, there are still those who would want it back. Of course,
most of these advocates for a caretaker arrangement are ambitious people
who wish to exercise power without having to dirty their hands in the muck
of Pakistani politics. Others riding this bandwagon think their ability to
make more money has been impaired by a government perceived as being
unfriendly to business. Some idealists feel that a neutral government
composed of non-political professionals will be able to clean up the mess
and then hold elections after a couple of years.
Let me disabuse them of these naive notions. The two-party system is here
to stay, and if Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif can agree on anything, it
is that the present system must not be scrapped. Granted that there is a
strong element of self-interest in this stand, but nobody with a firm grasp
on reality should imagine that any interim arrangement will go unchallenged
in the courts, in the streets and in the Press. Nothing short of martial
law will put a lid on the explosive situation that would emerge in such a
scenario. And we know all too well that far from resolving any problem,
military rule becomes the major problem itself.
Having mounted this defence of the system, I do not wish to be
misunderstood as defending our politicians. Their track record and
performance are directly responsible for the political and fiscal mess we
are in today. But fortunately or unfortunately, the solution lies in the
hands of the people who put them in power, and not in the Presidency, the
GHQ or indeed, the White House.
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960923
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Nothing to say
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Ayaz Amir
ZULFIKAR Ali Bhuttos tragic death was mourned by his family, his friends
and his supporters, whose number admittedly ran into the millions. But at
the same time there was no shortage of people who rejoiced at what they saw
(mistakenly or not is beside the point) as an act of divine retribution for
the supposed excesses committed by Bhutto when he was the undisputed ruler
of Pakistan. Shahnawaz Bhutto was too remote a figure for his death to
touch many people outside the circle of the PPP.
Murtaza Bhuttos case is different. Unless I am mistaken, his death has
touched friend and foe alike not because he commanded any extraordinary
popular allegiance (which, harsh though it may be to say so, he did not)
but because of the tragedy that this means for the most prominent name in
Pakistani politics, that of the Bhuttos. The father and his only two sons
meeting untimely ends. That would be tragedy enough for any family. It
becomes more of a tragedy when the family in question cuts a great figure
in the world. If a street vendor or a nameless passer-by is cut down by a
stray bullet or run over by a car, who apart from his near and dear ones
will mourn his death? The tragedy of the Kennedys and that of the Nehrus
on the other hand becomes the stuff of popular legend. So it is with the
Bhuttos whose name, for better or worse, has been with us for the last 30
years. The truth expressed by Shakespeare is a cruel one:
When beggars die there are no comets seen;
The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.
As is to be expected most expressions of sympathy and commiseration have
gone to Begum Bhutto and the young widow of Murtaza Bhutto. Their loss
obviously is the greatest. But in a way the more onerous burden is
Benazirs. Begum Bhutto and Ghinva have to live with their share of grief.
But Benazir apart from grieving over the loss of her only remaining brother
must also live with the tormenting thought that his death took place at the
hands of the police when she was prime minister. Had she acted differently,
or if she had taken a more personal interest in the events leading up to
Murtazas killing, could not this tragedy have been averted? She must live
with this question for the rest of her life.
After all, this incident did not take place in a void or happen suddenly.
For the last one week events were building up to some kind of a showdown
between Murtaza Bhutto and his faction of the PPP and the Karachi police.
Since the footprints of the PMs Secretariat can be seen everywhere, in big
matters and in small, from the recruitment of subinspectors to big
financial deals involving millions, is it too far-fetched to suppose that
timely intervention from the same quarter could have imposed a measure of
restraint on the trigger-happiness of the Karachi police?
Although a prime minister cannot have his or her eyes on everything that
goes on in the country, the stand-off between the Karachi police and
Murtaza Bhuttos supporters was not just an everyday occurrence if only
because the prime ministers real brother was involved in this affair. To
say that justice is blind and that the law knows no favourites is a fine
line to take but not in this country where FIRs are registered at the whims
of the police and where there is one law for the privileged and another for
the poor and the weak. The Karachi police especially has been hardened by
mock encounters and extra-judicial killings. It is no longer a safe
instrument to play around with. Since Murtaza Bhuttos followers were being
rounded up in Karachi, and since the Karachi police was already accusing
Murtaza of having raided two CIA centres in the city, the sister or
anyone from amongst the cohorts of her advisers and consultants should have
been able to judge of the sensitivity of what was happening. Instead of
which the police was allowed the freedom (for without prior clearance from
on high could anything of the sort have been contemplated let alone done?)
to mount a senseless operation against the brother. As you sow, so shall
you reap. The seeds of law-enforcement sowed in Karachi over the last year
and a half have now claimed their most prominent victim.
Whose then is the ultimate responsibility? That of the minions at the scene
of the incident who either were acting out of a spirit of vengeance against
someone who was defying their authority (remember the raid on the CIA
centres in this connection) or who once again were giving free rein to
their instincts honed over the last year and a half of law enforcement? Or
that of their masters like General Babar who may have been forced to resort
to desperate measures when parts of Karachi were virtually in the grip of a
mini-insurgency but who were bereft of the wisdom of knowing that in order
to please the gods (and here I am paraphrasing Horace) power must not be
unrestrained, its use must be tempered with counsel?
Islam is neither here nor there in this discussion but since we do pay lip-
service to it, let us not forget that the concept of accountability or
rather answerability in it is very wide. It was the Caliph Omar who uttered
the evocative cry (than which I consider nothing more moving in the annals
of Islamic history) that if a dog went hungry by the banks of the
Euphrates, he as the Commander of the Faithful would be answerable for it
on the Day of Judgement. Going by the same analogy, is no one else
responsible except some SHO for the drama at Clifton? Henri the Second did
not order the slaying of Becket. When he said in a fit of drunkenness,
Will no one rid me of this troublesome priest? Some barons of his set
about proving that they were more loyal than their master. Even so, King
Henri had a nagging sense of his ultimate responsibility for this deed
which is why, as a form of penance, he laid open his back for chastisement
in public. Perish the thought, however, that anyone in a position of
authority in this country will offer his head or even his back for
chastisement as far as the gunning down of Murtaza Bhutto is concerned. It
is safe to expect that any qualms that there may be over this event will be
carefully smothered.
This tragedy which has befallen an individual and his family, however,
should open our eyes to what is happening with the country at large. Our
economic situation may be grim and our currency in a mess, but what our
foremost problem is, and on which attention should be centred above
everything else, is the gathering lawlessness, corruption and inefficiency
of the states administrative structure. Try going to a police station
without connections or a fat purse and you will realise the extent of this
crisis. Try going to the courts and you will gain an insight into the
workings of Pakistani justice. It is no exaggeration to say that the
honest, law-abiding citizen today has no sense of security and no hope of
securing justice should he ever feel the need of doing so. The writ of
privilege and pelf and power is flourishing and getting stronger by the
day. The writ of the law has become a joke. Regulating traffic in our big
cities or capping the legendary corruption of the Traffic Police is beyond
the strength of our cumulative ingenuity to tackle. How in the name of
heaven do we retrace our steps in history and, following the example of our
mediaeval kings, first provide a sense of security to our citizens?
The British when they came to Punjab first stamped out lawlessness and then
dug canals and built railways. This government sets out to eradicate one
form of terror from Karachi and ends up by replacing it with another. When
will we start thinking of digging our canals and building our railways?
Where our rulers should be concentrating on this first essential task of
government, they are presiding over the gradual disintegration of the
structure which they inherited. If only they would begin to devote to the
cause of good administration even a minuscule portion of the passion and
frenzy that in the last few years they have been giving to their own
betterment and to lining their pockets this would be a better place to live
in. But then if wishes were horses would not all of us become championship
riders?
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960926
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Brutalisation of our society
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Ghani Eirabie
THE killing of Murtaza Bhutto has grave implications for Pakistan than what
the murders of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi had for India. Indira was
killed by Sikhs infuriated at her sacrilege of their holy shrine at
Amritsar and Rajiv by Tamils angered by the occupation by his troops of
their motherland, Sri Lanka. But Murtaza has not been killed by any
religious fanatics or nationalist guerrillas.
Nor had he yet acquired political influence enough to pose a threat to the
ruling regime which, in any case, was headed by his own sister. The fact
that he was nonetheless mowed down by the states own minions of law and
order points to something far more sinister complete collapse of
discipline and self- restraint in the very institution that anchors the
state by dint of its trained manpowers ability to apply force in a
measured way. Any unregulated unleashing of force especially if
manipulated from somebody outside reduces it to the position of a rabble
that constitutes a serious threat to any stable or civilised polity.
Not only have we been brutalised by the Kalashnikov culture (as also by the
relentless struggle for economic survival) but also emboldened by the
manner in which a lot of people, including sectarian fanatics, political
cadres and VIP bodyguards and above all ordinary criminals, have been able
to equip themselves with readily-available sophisticated weapons. Fear has
tended to make the police trigger-happy. Worse still, the free hand given
them in curbing disorders has been taken by them as a licence for
excessive use of force almost everywhere and against anybody, be they
Jamaat-i-Islami workers in Rawalpindi or the MQM agitators in Karachi.
When the MQM agitation assumed the dimensions of a mini- insurgency, the
government panicked and furnished Karachi police and the Rangers not only
with more lethal weapons but also with untrammelled authority to use them
as they thought fit. Fake encounters became frighteningly common and
killing in custody (to avoid the inconvenience of a court trial) became
everyday occurrence. The callous killings peaked with the assassinations of
the brothers of the MQM chief and the Sindh Chief Minister and scores of
still more innocent citizens. Though completely unrelated to the MQM
agitation of Karachi, it is the momentum of the police orgy, based on
lack of fear of any accountability, that has still continued in Karachi and
claimed the lives of Murtaza Bhutto and his companions.
This is not to proclaim Murtaza innocent; his raids on two police stations
to rescue a comrade by force, points to a relapse into his Al Zulfiqar
days approach; he never really ceased to be a hothead; and this gave the
police an excuse to resort to questionable tactics. But just as no fair-
minded person can condone Murtazas tactics of defiance, no impartial
observer can help coming to the conclusion that the police use of force on
the fateful night outside 70, Clifton was inexcusably excessive; and its
failure to rush the victims to hospital without loss of time, was vicious.
But the purpose here is not to pre-empt the final verdict of the judicial
inquiry (yet to begin) but to highlight the disturbing emergence of a new
phenomenon namely brutalisation of our society and the collapse of the
administrative structure and erosion of discipline in the law-and-order
forces; and worse still, in the increasingly important role they are
assuming in the affairs of the state, which converts what is supposed to be
a peoples democracy into a police state notwithstanding the protective
canopy provided by the elaborate charter of human rights embodied in the
Constitution.
This anomaly drives us to the conclusion that there is something terribly
wrong with the way we are operating our constitution or running our
parliamentary democracy. The fault lies within us, more specifically with
the lack of integrity of our politicians and their insatiable love for
power at all costs (primarily because of the financial fringe benefits it
brings in its wake). It is in pursuit of this quest for power that our
politicians show readiness to sup with the Devil rather than negotiate
with their political rivals. Their continuing feuding has resulted in
political instability and economic stagnation and worse still in
effective power passing on imperceptibly into the hands of bureaucrats,
especially minions of law and order.
The question is: Are we going to let our country go down the drain just
because a reigning Prime Minister and an ex-Prime Minister are too arrogant
to condescend to sit together, chat and sort out the countrys problems. No
matter what high pedestal their partymen have placed them on, the common
people are beginning to lose patience with their concern. If they love
their ego more than the survival of the country, we should seriously start
thinking of dumping both and entrusting the affairs of the nation to more
modest persons.
Frankly, other than the craving to grab the Prime Ministers chair or hold
on to it as long as possible there are no major policy differences between
them. The PPP and PML(N) manifestos read amazingly alike; and the ease with
which legislators elected on one partys ticket face no ideological problem
in switching to the ranks of the other party proves that the gulf is not
unbridgeable.
Before pushing for fresh elections, Mian Nawaz Sharif would be well advised
to ensure that they are free and fair; and to that end, his first priority
should be to negotiate an accord with Benazir Bhutto on the nomination of a
completely impartial Election Commission. The PPP manifesto commits the
party to the appointment of a Chief Election Commissioner with the
concurrence of the Leader of the House and the leader of the Opposition. If
the PML(N) chief is a wise man, he would hold Benazir to her manifesto and
first have a mutually acceptable Chief Election Commissioner appointed.
Likewise, holding her to her own party manifesto, he should settle with her
the method of nomination of the Chief Justice and other judges of the
Supreme Courts and High Courts. Yet another point on which agreement can be
easily reached is reducing the tenure of the legislatures from five to four
years or even three and a half.
Further, it would serve the interest of both parties if the number of seats
in the federal and provincial Assemblies is substantially increased, say
doubled thereby reducing the size of constituencies, and making
electioneering less expensive and rendering horse-trading more difficult.
And while increasing the number of womens seats in the legislatures, the
two leaders should hammer out a new mode of election for the female members
having them elected not by male MNAs/MPAs but by women voters say
graduates for MNAs and girls school faculties for MPAs.
And finally, to guard themselves against the scourge of floor- crossing,
they ought to agree on stricter enforcement of the existing anti-defection
law clause 8-B of the Political Parties Act of 1968. If instead of trying
all the time to seduce the opponent legislators, they focused on ensuring
the steadfastness of their own MNAs and MPAs, they will find themselves
less vulnerable to blackmail from their partymen and more successful in
drastically cutting back on corruption. If Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto
are sincere in their professed aim of making a success of the system
(parliamentary democracy) they will initiate talks forthwith to settle for
a compromise formula.
One fervently hopes they grasp the true significance of the assassination
of Mir Murtaza Bhutto. Neither of them stands to gain from it in the
backlash Benazir will suffer a setback in Sindh, but Nawaz Sharif will not
profit from it. In fact the assassination flashes a red signal the police
resorting to reckless use of force on its own and the situation becoming
still graver in the event of their having been manipulated by somebody
outside. The somebody outside seeking to destabilise the state can only
be an enemy of Pakistan. Even if the entire police posse be not involved in
any conspiracy, the ability of a single agent provocateur to penetrate
their ranks is dangerous enough insofar as it represents a serious security
lapse.
And even if the police did no more than what it had got used to doing
recently in Karachi and Lahore, namely killing in custody or committing
extra judicial murder through excessive use of force, the phenomenon still
is extremely dangerous. It points to complete breakdown in discipline and
to the relapse of the guardians of law and order into the mental crudity of
a mob gone crazy. Unless the district administration and the police force
everywhere, in all parts of the country, are brought back under strict
discipline, Pakistan runs the risk of dissolving into chaos.
What has encouraged this trend is the running feud between the two major
political parties and their bid to enlist state officials for partisan
purposes, soliciting their favour or tampering with their discipline. This
has got to stop forthwith and that would be possible only if the two
major parties manage to evolve an understanding or establish at least a
working relationship.
If Mian Nawaz Sharif and Ms Benazir Bhutto fail to see the writing on the
wall, we may well be advised to look for less conceited and more modest
leadership in the larger national interest.
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960921
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Need to deal strongly with violators of discipline
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Lateef Jafri
Cricket players, seniors or juniors, on foreign tours are supposed to be
ambassadors of the country; their behaviour on and off the field is
watched. They earn the appreciation of the officials and mediamen of the
host countries for their good manners and conduct. A slight slip or a gaffe
is seriously taken note of and is flayed by the newspapers. A protest is
made by the trip organisers and the concerned cricket boards.
The recent incident of alleged rape of a 36-year- old woman by a Pakistani
junior cricketer, Zeeshan Pervez, in Kingston, Jamaica, must have shocked
the senses of the fans of the game as well as all citizens of the country.
It happened when the under-19 team, touring the Caribbean, had stayed in
Kingston for its match. The 18-year-old boy, a member of the cricketing
squad, was reportedly suffering from food poisoning and had stayed back in
his hotel room. As reports have been flashed in the foreign Press he
entered the room of the woman tourist, originally from Jamaica but living
for the last 18 years in Boston, and somehow or the other allegedly tricked
two of the woman's children to go to the pool and later engaged in the act
of criminal assault. This was related by the woman to the children and the
matter was reported to the police.
The lower court took up the case for hearing and in the first instance
admitted the petition of the complainant. She had been asked to produce
witnesses and Zeeshan, helped by local lawyers, has to defend himself with
evidence.
Some well-wishers of the team and keen observers of the game like former
Test off-spinner Haseeb Ahsan initially took the incident with
reservations. He thought it was a framed case just to demoralise the team
and malign the country. Doubts were expressed by other persons pointing to
the fact of the impossibility of a teenager raping a female, double his age
and mother of three. But then the cricketer himself has admitted of sexual
intercourse by consent. The prosecution witness, Dr Herb Elliott, has also
told the court that he found evidence of intercourse but there were no
injuries on the body of the woman. Zeeshan, according to last Press
reports, has gone on trial, though he is also to produce witnesses before
the court - to prove or disprove nobody knows what! Perhaps to give the
impression to the court that he was invited to the woman's hotel room by
deception.
No reports, sketchy or detailed, have been received of the lines that the
prosecution and defence lawyers have taken in their arguments but one thing
is quite clear that sexual intercourse was committed, though it was by
agreement. The boy may be let off due to what the magistrate, Martin Gayle,
said "several inconsistencies in the prosecution case" or the lacunae in
the Jamaica law where perhaps there is no punishment for consensual sex. It
is a high crime in the Pakistani law. The junior palyer gave a bad name to
the team and lowered the prestige of the country in the eyes of the
cricket-playing nations.
It is a breach of discipline and all rules for the manners and demeanour
while on tour of a foreign land have been flung to the winds. The visiting
management too, it seems, has not been looking after the discipline part of
its assignment.
Though the board's Chief Executive, Majid Khan, has expressed his
intentions of giving the severest punishment to the guilty, he has been
trying to suppress the news. Maybe there were communication problems or
there was a big lapse on the part of the officials Asad Aziz, a Railway
executive but a raw hand in managing teams overseas, and Haroon Rashid.
They were at a loss how to send the day-by-day development of the case.
It beats one's mind how the managerial duo was picked up and sent to such a
difficult place as the West Indies where a crisis situation cropped up when
the national squad (of seniors) visited the country in 1993. The police
held and booked Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Aqib Javed and Mushtaq Ahmad,
for "constructive possession of drug (cannabis)". The whole affair led to a
diplomatic row which may have led to strained political relations. The
crisis was quickly and wisely taken up by the cricket board set-up
consisting mainly of Dr Nasim Hasan Shah, then President of the
organisation, and Shahid Rafi, Secretary, and the case was dropped and the
proceedings discontinued. It is doubtful the present board officials
quickly reacted to the Kingston episode and thought out the necessary line
of action. It is now 20 days that the abominable incident took place and
yet the case is gong on. No decision has also been taken to send the boy
back to Pakistan - to face the court of law here and get the ban from
cricket board.
Such happenings cannot be condoned. Majid Khan in his very first Press
conference after taking over as Chief Executive had laid full stress on
discipline and had warned of severe action in cases of deviation from set
rules. He should neither protect the manager/ managers nor the guilty
cricketer. The sports scribes, organisers and veterans of the game will
extend support to him if he strikes hard at the violators of discipline,
particularly those indulging in such sinful act as criminal assault.
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960921
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Zeeshan case goes to Jamaican High Court
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Sports Reporter
KARACHI, Sept 20: The Jamaica High Court has admitted for hearing Zeeshan
Pervaiz's petition against the case filed by a 36-year-old mother of three
and has given Jan 3, 1997 as date of the opening hearing.
However, Zeeshan has been allowed to return to Pakistan but his identity
card and passport have been confiscated by the local authorities.
Zeeshan has been given permission to return to his country on the request
of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) who have assured the Jamaican
administration that the player will be produced for the opening hearing.
The Jamaican officials have also expressed their no-objection to Zeeshan if
he continues the tour with the Pakistan Under-19 team currently visiting
the Caribbean.
Nevertheless, it was not known if the touring officials have decided to
retain Zeeshan or to send him back.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has still not decided the fate of Zeeshan
on his participation in the ongoing domestic circuit. However, it is
believed that he will remain suspended until the case is decided.
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960921
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One-day Internationals claim new territories
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Mohammad Shoaib Ahmed
The matches of the five match series between Pakistan and India at Toronto
make Canada the 13th country where a One-day International match is being
played. So far One-day Internationals have been played on 110 grounds at
103 centres world-wide if the two London grounds Lord's and the Oval, are
treated as separate ODI centres. On September 27, Kenya becomes the 14th
country when to win this distinction.
Melbourne, the first venue to be used for a bona fide One-day International
between Australia and England on January 5, 1971, staged the second largest
number of such games. Its total until then stood at 89, followed closely by
SCG in Sydney with 88.
The country-wise break-up of the centres, grounds and the number of matches
is as follows:
Countries Centres Grounds Matches
Australia 13 14 308
Bangladesh 2 2 7
England 16 16 135
India 30 33 157
New Zealand 7 7 109
Pakistan 12 13 104
South Africa 7 7 46
Singapore 1 1 4
Sri Lanka 3 5 60
UAE 1 1 104
West Indies 9 9 66
Zimbabwe 2 2 12
Total: 103 109 1112
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960923
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Canadian plan to bid for World Cup with W.I.
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Special Correspondent
TORONTO, Sept 22: Canadian cricketing dreams do not end with the Indo-
Pakistan one-day series which they will be hosting for five years. Their
ambitions, fuelled by the success of other off-shore venues, stretch beyond
the realm of what has ever been achieved by any of the other cricketing
outposts.
Pakistan Cricket follower are well aware of the ability of Canadian
cricketers when we faced them in the inaugural match of 1979 World Cup in
England. The Pakistanis won the match easily but the Canadian players
definitely left a good impression.
Canada is now dreaming of hosting World Cup games along with the West
Indies, and possibly the United States of America. Toronto has already
exhibited its potential as an international venue and the ability to host a
major international series.
The next logical step would be to expand the horizon and host quadrangular
tournament, about which the Canadian Cricket Association (CCA) has already
begun chalking out plans.
The CCA, with 3,000 active cricketers on its roll is a firm believer in
choosing most effective route to bringing cricket back to the mainstream of
Canadian sport from its current status as a recreational weekend sport.
The CCA plans for the near future are staging a four-nation Canada Cup
event featuring the West Indies, Sri Lanka and South Africa and Australia
next year.
While hoping to perform well in the 1997 ICC Trophy in Malaysia, Canada
views itself as the likely venue for the 2001 ICC Trophy. The Canadian bid
will underline the enthusiastic local support for the game and the
sponsorship. But there could be intense competition with bids likely to
come from several other hosts. This bodes well for the games growth and its
frontiers.
Canada has a well-organised cricket set-up with leagues and national
championship attracting more and more clubs every year. So good is the
promotional programme for junior cricketers that the organisers of the
inaugural Lombard Under-15 World Cup were compelled to invite Canada to
field their national colts team in the competition that was eventually won
by India.
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960925
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Inzamam, Mushtaq to miss Kenya quadrangular
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Ehsan Qureshi
TORONTO, Sept 24: Pakistan suffered a setback on the eve of the four-nation
tournament in Kenya when their star players Inzamam-ul-Haq and Mushtaq
Ahmed were declared unfit to play in the forthcoming event starting Sept 29
because of knee injury.
Pakistan cricket manager Mushtaq Muhammad told this to reporters in his
post-match Press conference after Pakistan beat India by 52 runs in the
fifth and final one-day for Sahara Cup at Toronto Cricket Stadium.
Inzamam aggravated his old knee trouble and Mushtaq Ahmed had similar kind
of knee problem and may be operated upon in Toronto, he said. Mushtaq said
Inzamams problems was very severe as some cartilage had bothered him and
he has been with the injury for quite some time.
He said that because of the tough cricket schedule, players are facing such
problems.
Mushtaq said Inzamam and Mushtaq Ahmed are unlikely to fly with the team
which was due to leave for Nairobi (Kenya) via Frankfurt and Karachi on
Tuesday evening.
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960921
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Laurels for Pakistan in international boxing
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Samiul Hasan
KARACHI, Sept 20: The teenage Pakistan boxers indicated that they could be
a force to be reckoned with in the next few year when they collected a rich
haul of seven gold, six silver and nine bronze medals on the final day of
the inaugural KPT Cadet and Junior International Boxing Championship which
concluded at the Benazir Sports Complex here on Friday.
Pakistan Greens, with three gold, five silver and three bronze, received
the team trophy from Nawab Yousuf Talpur, Minister for Food and
Agriculture, amid sonorous cheers from a disciplined crowd of over 1,500
which packed the complex to capacity.
Pakistan's five gold medal, two silver and three bronze came in the cadet
category which was fought between boxers from 15 to 17 years of age. The
other two gold, four silver and six bronze were won in the junior category
between 17 and 19 years of age.
The only upset result of the evening from home country's point of view was
the defeat of promising Asghar Ali Shah of Pakistan Greens who was beaten
fair and square on points by Thailand's Somchi Nakbalee in the junior 57
kg.
Thailand emerged the second best country by winning four gold and one
silver medal. Besides being accomplished with the honour of having the best
boxer in Somchi Nakbalee, Pichai Sayota earned the rare honour by winning
with a knock-out, the second of the tournament, in only 100 seconds.
The boxing enthusiasts, with drums, symbols and trumpets, praised all the
15 fights which were decided on Friday but expressed their real support for
the 13 home boxers by shouting morale-boosting slogans which lifted the
confidence of the pugilists sky-high and charged them emotionally when they
made a dream start by winning the first four boutstwo all-Pakistan
affairs.
Nawab Yousuf Talpur, who was the guest of honour, lauded the contribution
of KPT for providing the city with a magnificent sports complex. He also
hailed the dwellers of Lyari locality for producing young boxers and
encouraging them by coming to the finals to support them.
Chairman, KPT, Rear Admiral (retd) Akbar H Khan, stated that the
participation of boxers from 11 countries was a sign that Karachi was
returning to normal. He argued that if Karachi would not have been peaceful
and calm, the parents of young boxers would not have allowed their children
to come here. The Chairman promised that his institution will continue its
patronage of sports and sportsmen in years to come.
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960926
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Jansher favourite in PIA Open squash
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Sports Reporter
KARACHI, Sept 25; Defending champion and top seed Jansher Khan, decidedly
the best player of world squash, is overwhelmingly favourite to retain the
title before overcoming the challenge from Zubair Jahan Khan in the semi-
finals and later facing either Zarak Jahan Khan or Mir Zaman Gul in the
final as the fourth five-day PIA Open squash gets underway here tomorrow
(Thursday) at the Jahangir Khan Squash Complex.
World number one Jansher Khan, who is scheduled to arrive here from his
home town Peshawar, tonight, starts the defence of his title against
qualifier Haider Ali at 3 pm at the championship court.
Heading the upper half of the 32-man draw, Jansher Khan, fresh from his
revengeful victory over Australias world No 2 Rodney Eyles recently in
Cairo to whom he had lost over two weeks ago in Hong Kong, would be the
star attraction of the championship which carries a hefty cash prize of Rs
120,000 - Rs 80,000 for the seniors events, Rs 20,000 each for the juniors
(Under-16) and Boys (Under-14) events, first time included in the PIA Open.
Zubair Jahan Khan, who has shown remarkable improvement in his world
ranking and currently ranked No 20, is seeded fourth to be the possible
semi-finalist challenger to the mighty Khan.
The seeding in the championship is based on national rankings announced by
the Pakistan Squash Federation on July 1. But placing Zubair Jahan Khan at
number four and world number 25 Mir Zaman Gul at number three seems to be
debatable, keeping in view the much improved showing of Zubair in the
international circuit as well as in the domestic events in which he
competed.
Barring any upset Zubair Jahan Khan is well destined on his way to semi-
final to be up against the great Jansher and how the 24 years fares against
the 27-years-old Khan would be watched with great interest, though Jansher
enjoys a definite edge over all his opponents.
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