| August 18, 2003 | Monday | Jumadi-us-Sani 19, 1424 |
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Maintaining foreign exchange reserves
Two-nation theory
Private schools in Islamabad
Pakistani boy’s return from India
Oil spill: who is responsible?
Car thieves in twin cities
Mauripur Road’s condition
Encouraging dictators
Killings in Karachi
Armymen in civil institutes
Judgment at Mosul
Awards for civilians
This refers to the clarification furnished by the State Bank of Pakistan’s Chief Spokesman (Dawn 9th August) on the comments about the figures of cash recovery of the non-performing loans (NPLs) appearing in my article (Dawn EBR August 4-10, 2003).
The SBP’s clarification says that the figures of Rs 40 billion (or more) given in the SBP Governor’s article entitled “Dealing with banks’ non-performing loans” (Dawn October 21-22, 2002) pertain to the default of rupees one million and above.
I have looked into the matter again. It is noted that the remarks regarding recovery of Rs 40 billion were made under the title “pro-active treatment of the stocks of NPLs”. An extract from the above article is reproduced here: “It (SBP) has adopted a multi-pronged approach to resolve the issue. First, it has put pressure on the banks and DFIs to accelerate recovery. During the past three years, an amount of more than Rs 40 billion or 20 per cent of 1999 outstanding stock of NPLs has been recovered in cash”. It will be seen from the quotation that the SBP Governor in his article had referred to the entire stock of the NPLs and not to the defaulted loans of rupees one million or above.
It may be interesting to note that on page 93 of the SBP annual report for the fiscal 1999-2000, the figure of defaulted loans as of 30th June, 1999 was given as Rs 143.13 billion while the total amount of NPLs on that date was put at Rs 212.1 billion. The 20 per cent of the stocks of NPLs works out to slightly above Rs 40 billion. This amply substantiates that the cash recovery figure of Rs 40 billion (or more) appearing in the Governor’s article pertained to the total stock of 1999 NPLs and not [only] to the defaults of loans of rupees one million and above as per the position now taken by the SBP.
Thus the position taken in the clarification has become untenable and the jump of Rs 84 billion in the cash recovery during October 2002-July, 2003 is likewise untenable.
The data prepared by the SBP has always in the past been recognized as the most authentic of any other governmental organization, and it is used by all concerned including scholars, researchers, businessmen, educational/ research insinuations, etc. Therefore, in order to maintain the past credibility, if any error enters the data at any time, it should be accepted boldly and rectified instead of taking a refuge under unsustainable arguments.
A. M. Talha
Karachi
Mr. A.B. Shahid in his article ‘Maintaining foreign exchange reserves’ which appeared in Dawn on 11th August, 2003 has found the rationale given by the Governor, State Bank of Pakistan, on accumulation of foreign exchange reserves to be flawed. I have read the Governor’s article carefully and feel that his arguments appear quite logical and are in conformity with the economic strategy being pursued by the government during the last three years.
According to my understanding, the basic thrust of this strategy is to achieve debt sustainability i.e. that indebtedness be kept in line with the country’s capacity to repay without depending on financing from international financial institutions or other donor countries. It is quite apparent that high debt itself has been an obstacle to growth in Pakistan as growth rates have come down in the 1990s and debt burden became excessively high. While the temptation to meet all the development financing requirements at the cost of exposing the country to high indebtedness in future is quite strong, I feel we should learn from our mistakes and curb this temptation.
It is high time that we begin to live within our means and not beyond our means. This is the only feasible way in which we can overcome the debt problem and achieve sustainable growth for Pakistan.
Pakistan’s external debt to Gross National Income is still quite high - 54 per cent and total debt exceeds the country’s national income. So, if the SBP transfers its foreign reserves to the Government of Pakistan (GOP) to finance all its infrastructure requirements so ably spelled out in the article, this can happen only by extending loans to the GOP. Assuming that the SBP advances $3 billion out of reserves to the GOP during the next two years to finance additional development expenditure this will be equivalent to Rs85 billion annually and will raise the domestic debt from Rs1850 billion to Rs1935 billion or from 46 per cent of GDP to 48.1 per cent.
In subsequent years, debt servicing as percentage of revenues will jump once again crowding out development expenditure. It can thus be seen that those who are arguing for short term gratification are laying the foundation once again for getting the country back into the debt trap. All the efforts which have been made during the last three and a half years will be nullified and we would be back to square one. In contrast to this approach of utilizing foreign reserves for financing development expenditure a more prudent and feasible way out is to increase tax revenues and reduce debt servicing expenditures. This is a gradual approach and not a headline catcher but we should remember that it is slow and steady that wins the race. Following this strategy, the GOP has already increased development spending by 60 per cent from Rs100 billion to Rs160 billion in two years and we hope that this will rise to Rs. 200 billion next year.
Even assuming that the SBP lend $3 billion to the GOP, it is not clear that the government ministries and departments have adequate implementation capacity to make effective utilization of these resources. Do we want to increase our debt and spend them on unproductive and wasteful projects? I think we have already suffered a lot from such adventures and it is high time that we desist from these indulgences for the sake of posterity.
Kazi Azhar Mohyyaddin Farooqui
Karachi
I REFER to Kuldip Nayar’s article captioned: The two-nation theory (Aug 9). Will he, please, preach some homilies of sanity to India’s present-day extremist rulers such as the Pakistan-hating L. K. Advani, who spew venom against Pakistan incessantly and who recently massed a million Indian troops on Pakistan’s borders for 10 long months to blackmail us militarily?
The gruesome massacre of countless Muslims in the BJP-ruled state of Gujarat and the Hitlerian zeal with which some of the BJP rulers and their Hindu acolytes declare day in and day out that they will build the Hindu Ram temple on what are now the ruins of the poor Babri Masjid, in blatant violation of court orders, demonstrate how very strong even now is the communal virus in a powerful section of the Hindu majority in India.
The injustices heaped on the Muslims during two-and-a-half years of Hindu Congress rule between 1937 and 1939 in seven out of 11 Congress-ruled provinces in pre-Independence India, under the aegis of British-enforced provincial autonomy and general elections, forced the 1916 harbinger of Hindu-Muslim unity, Barrister Mohammad Ali Jinnah, to describe Hindus and Muslims as two nations and demand in March 1940 partition of the subcontinent into separate Hindu-majority and Muslim-majority states, leading to the August 1947 partition that created the two independent dominions of India and Pakistan.
This was with the tacit agreement of the ruling leaders of the Hindu-majority Congress and the Muslim-majority Muslim League in August 1947 under Viceroy Mountbatten’s aegis. Except the late prime minister Morarji Desai (1977-78), very few Indian rulers have truly reconciled themselves to the 1947 partition, and the destruction of Pakistan has been their dream and endeavour (such as India’s military role in the amputation of East Pakistan from the Pakistani state in December 1971).
As Mr Kuldip Nayar did a diplomatic stint for India in London, perhaps it may be in his knowledge that Nehru’s Sikh acolyte, Sirdar Baldev Singh, undivided India’s defence minister, imported covertly a retired officer of a Sikh regiment of the British India army, a Maj Short, early in 1947 to help organize a private Sikh army for the Sikh rulers of certain princely states in Punjab that would prevent the partition of Punjab and the creation of Pakistan. Maj-Gen Shahid Hamid’s book, Disastrous Twilight, has a brief reference to the shadowy Maj Short and his hobnobbing with the Sikh princely rulers in Punjab.
My researches on the subcontinent’s history in British archives show that the dynamiting and looting of Muslim refugee trains in the flaming Punjab in the summer and autumn of 1947 was done with military precision by trained saboteurs, many possibly trained by Maj Short and his armed hoodlums with the Congress rulers’ blessings and support.
In India today, extremist Hindu fanaticism is far more on the warpath against Muslims and Pakistan than the elements of Muslim fundamentalism in Pakistan. Will Mr Kuldip Nayar appeal to India’s hawkish rulers to clip the nearly 100,000 crore of rupees India spends on its war machine to, inter alia, blackmail Pakistan and keep millions of Kashmiris in chains? He ranks among India’s wise journalists who have the good of the subcontinent’s teeming millions at heart and perhaps his voice of sanity for peace in this unfortunate part of the world may find an echo in the sanctum of power in New Delhi.
QUTUBUDDIN AZIZ
Karachi
THIS is with reference to the news-item “CDA orders immediate closure of 21 private schools” in Islamabad which were illegally established in the residential areas in contravention of Section 49-C, Sub clause (1) of clause XXXIII of CDA ordinances 1960². How is an ordinance (whose life is just three months) of 1960 still alive and kicking after 43 years? With parliament away, the CDA can play!
Education and health care are basic human rights but the Capital Development Authority has failed to ensure both of these. The order by the CDA that all private schools be closed or shifted to Sectors G-11 and H-11 is illogical, unnecessary and uncalled-for. They are not virus-infected to be banished to God-forsaken areas. Schools, private and government-run, all over the world are in residential areas, so the children living nearby can reach them easily themselves, saving the time, petrol and energy of the parents.
Each private school needs an investment of at least Rs2 million. If they were not needed, so many of them would not have mushroomed all over the capital city. They also provide jobs for women teachers near their homes. Moving a school needs fresh investment which may not be available. The women teachers and children may not have the means to travel that distance daily on their own.
Changing to nearby schools will cost more on admission fees and will cause more crowding in the government-run institutions. Moving to far off sectors will cause problems for fathers, brothers and husbands who will have to sneak out of their offices to pick them up at 1pm, wasting more time, energy and money.
If the CDA chairman is looking for more work/recognition, he should concentrate on removing illegally-constructed encroachments in the Blue Area, and lay down new drinking water pipelines replacing the present old leaking ones which are playing havoc with our health, having been laid below the sewage pipes.
Pipes for drinking water should be a meter above the sewage pipelines, so sewage does not enter them if a leak occurs. The CDA should abstain from harassing the already harassed private school administrations, hard-pressed by the education ministry registration process, rising utility prices and the income-tax termites.
DR ZARINA KHAN
Islamabad
A 13-year-old Pakistani boy, Munir Ahmad, who had inadvertently crossed into India from a neighbouring village on the Pakistan side, was returned to Pakistan on Aug 12. He was received by the Lahore Nazim, accompanied by media, police and other officials.
As reported by Dawn, this was an overwhelming experience for the simple village boy who started to weep as he was surrounded by a group of strangers upon his disembarking from the bus that had just brought him from the India-Pakistan border crossing.
Theoretically, it was a nice gesture on the part of the Nazim to get involved with the process that will hopefully soon reunite the boy with his family. But it seems that this act was motivated more by the hunger for publicity than the boy’s welfare.
It is outrageous that no efforts were made by the Nazim to ensure that the boy’s parents were present to hug him upon his return. The last thing that a boy, who had been separated from his family for almost two months, needed was a barrage of camera lights and a host of strangers pretending to be his well-wishers. A hug from his parents would have acted as a panacea for the anxious youth.
I am sure that it would not have required too many efforts to locate Munir’s family before his return. Contacts could have been made with Indian authorities to obtain whatever information he could furnish about the location of his family. Eventually, his family will be located based upon this information. Why could this not have been done before his return home?
The boy’s emotional reunion with his parents as the Nazim and all others stood by would have been a better publicity for the Nazim than the barren attempts to act as his well-wisher. Sending a boy to a hospital and thus adding to the time he must remain available for further publicity gimmicks smacks of efforts to capitalize on a helpless child’s predicament. If Munir needs any treatment, it must not be made to add to his separation from his family.
SIDDIQUE MALIK
Louisville, KY, USA
THIS refers to the news-item titled “Grounded tanker’s breakup imminent: Oil slick hits Karachi coastline, beach closed for public” (Aug 14).
KPT Chairman Vice Admiral Ahmad Hayat has constantly been misleading the citizens for about two weeks. While it was a no brainier that the ship would ultimately break, the KPT took insufficient measures to avoid it. Two weeks are more than sufficient time to avoid any environmental disaster of this nature. “Near the ship a thick oil slick has been visible for the last two weeks, which belied the official claims that the leakage was minor, intermittent and under control, said the people visiting Clifton and seaview areas. (Dawn)
Furthermore, to fuel the inefficiency and stupidity, the KPT tried to tug the stranded ship and even the navy was part of this. The blame game has already started and “the adviser to the chief minister of Sindh on environment and alternative energy, Mr Faisal Malik, after his visit to the affected site along with SEPA officials, held the KPT responsible for the fiasco. He said the oil tanker was going to explode and any disaster should be attributed to the KPT which, according to him, failed to handle the situation and take appropriate measures in time”.
Mr Faisal Malik and the KPT chairman both should be fired from jobs for their incompetence and lack of ability to perform this important public service. Mr Malik and Mr Hayat should face criminal charges for endangering environment.
Furthermore, the company owning the oil tanker should be made to bear the cost or their insurance should cover the damage. It is time our leadership learnt some lessons and passed a legislation to face any similar disaster in future.
Similar incidents will happen if militarymen, and not seasoned bureaucrats, continue to lead the public service departments. The KPT chairman should have used conventional logic and not gut feeling.
ADNAN SALEEM
Chicago, IL, USA
IN the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, over a dozen cars and motorcycles are being stolen every day, which is directly reported in newspapers. Despite the tall claim of the police, the ratio of recovered cars is even less than one per cent. This is a very alarming state of insecurity, for which the police are responsible. The DIG or the SSP concerned should give a stern warning to the SHOs under whose jurisdiction the theft has taken place. Mere pep talks shall not suffice.
For the last three or four weeks, this gang of car thieves is actively operating in Chaklala Scheme 3, Rawalpindi, where many cars have been stolen in broad daylight. The president of the Welfare Society, Chaklala Scheme 3, has brought these ugly incidents of theft to the knowledge of the Rawalpindi SSP and the SHO of the airport police station. But so far no action has been taken.
Being a resident of Chaklala Scheme 3, I have yet to see any police party patrolling this area, which is their primary duty to safeguard lives and prosperity of the residents. Residents are also advised in their own interest not to park their vehicles on road during night, even during daytime. Vehicles should be properly locked, even for short duration.
SUNAWAR CHAUDHARY
Rawalpindi
I WOULD like to draw the attention of the authorities concerned to the pathetic condition of Mauripur Road, which is the main link road between SITE — the largest industrial estate of Pakistan — the Hawksbay truck stand and the entire upcountry import/export cargo to Karachi port at Keamari.
It was only in the last couple of years that this road was dualized and two bridges were made at a cost of Rs180 million. Lately, the NHA started construction of the Northern Bypass without providing any proper diversion for the convenience of motorists and cargo trucks. The temporary diversion provided by the NHA has resulted in a roller-coaster road and the recent rains have made it impossible for any traffic to move except the four- wheelers.
In my telephonic discussion with the KPT chairman, I was informed that Mauripur Road is the CDGK’s baby, although the land-owning and the tax-collecting agency on both sides of this road is the KPT itself. Since the CDGK is already overwhelmed with the problems of roads in the other parts of the city, I am afraid they will not be able to carry out emergency repairs on this road.
Another important event worth mentioning is the breakdown of the Quaid’s ambulance when our founder was making his last journey at the Wazir Mansion circular railway station near the ICI Bridge. What tribute that successive governments have paid to the Quaid is sadly reflected on the dilapidated and pathetic condition of this important road today.
I appeal to the governor, the chief minister and the chief secretary of Sindh, and the Nazim of the CDGK to take emergency measures to make this road motorable.
NAZIM F. HAJI
Karachi
THIS refers to Mr Shahid Javed Burki’s article headlined “Some possible pitfalls” (July 22). I protest against his remarks that “if the military under the direction of President Musharraf has to choose between economic stability and growth, on the one hand, and a quick return of democracy, on the other, it must choose the former.”
Mr Burki, in fact, is encouraging dictators and would-be dictators to trample on people’s rights and institutions in Pakistan, in the guise of the “doctrine of necessity”. This very “doctrine” has done the most devastating and irreparable damage to the nation and its institutions.
I think Mr Burki does not know or, perhaps, does not wish to know how eagerly and earnestly the people of Pakistan want to have ‘real’ democracy.
ASIF YASIN
Sheikhupura
THE Karachi police have again failed to provide protection to Karachiites and a spell of terror and fear has gripped the city.
The killing of five brothers in Karachi is a solid proof of the inability and helplessness of the police in curbing terrorism and sectarianism. Similar incidents of murder have taken place in the not-too-distant past, but no steps seem to have been taken by the police to ensure safety to the people.
Like always, an FIR is lodged against the ‘unknown culprits’ and after some time the case is forgotten completely. The police department should wake up from its deep slumber and take such culprits to task. Severe punishments should be given to them and no leniency or mercy be shown to them.
SIDRA RAFIQUE GOODA
Karachi
I AGREE with the contents of the letter published in Dawn a few days ago. It is a sad affair that senior, trained, seasoned and honest armed forces officers are posted in railway, Wapda, KESC, NAB, etc., instead of the units/formations where their skills can be better utilized.
There is an apprehension that these officers might get corrupted by working with dishonest staff drawn from police, FIA, taxation, Wapda, KESC and other departments. We should not forget the stories of the past two martial laws when good officers fell prey to corruption.
It will be better if honest/religious persons are enrolled and all officers of the army, navy and air force are returned forthwith to their services. It takes years and a lot of money to train an officer. Comfortable and authoritative posts also make them later on reversion misfit for service back in the army.
ASGHAR KHAN
Karachi
MR F. S. Aijazuddin’s superb piece which recently appeared in your newspaper will certainly be wasted on the Americans. The Yanks have a long history of dumping allies once they have outlived their usefulness. Remember poor long forgotten Noriega who is languishing in a Miami prison.
And there was Marcos who was dumped after many decades of faithful service. The list is long. Hamid Karazai should read history carefully.
NAELA HASAN
Oakville, Ontario, Canada
GIVING awards to civilians for outstanding performance in a certain area of expertise is a unique way of encouraging them and setting an example for others to follow in the footsteps of their fellow countrymen. I anxiously wait every year for the news on the announcements of annual civil awards, bestowed by the president of Pakistan upon prominent personalities for their services in their respective fields to mark the Independence Day.
The reason for showing interest in this area is that I was once a rocket/missile scientist working as general manager for the Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO), Karachi.
At one time, most of the awards were bagged by the scientists/engineers belonging to other organizations such as KRL, PAEC and NDC in the area of missile technology, who were amateurs in that field as compared to SUPARCO scientists who had an extremely rich experience in rocketry/missile technology over the last three decades.
Scientists from this prestigious organization were never rewarded in the way they should have been. The reason was the loose management which never had the say at the highest level.
Further, due to politics within the organization, the right people were never recommended for the awards from SUPARCO’s end. This obviously led to resentment within the scientists and engineers and quite a few (very talented scientists) have bid farewell to SUPARCO in the last 10 or so years because of the negative attitude of the management towards highlighting the true talent.
I know for sure that my name was recommended a number of times but dropped by the management just to include someone who was more close to some management executive. This really hurts someone’s hard work and dedication which resulted in a mass brain drain to North America, specially Canada which has now become a mini-SUPARCO. If scientists like us were good for nothing, then how could we adjust ourselves in a totally different environment by working in more or less the same field of application and getting praise from the employers abroad?
I am sure that we will learn from our past mistakes and do not repeat such mistakes for young talented scientists and engineers of the country if we have to progress in the right direction. I congratulate my former fellow colleague and a very good friend, Mr Mujib-ur-Rahman, deputy chief manager of SUPARCO, in finally getting the award of Sitara-i-Imtiaz which he rightly deserved four years back. Never mind, as we say it in Urdu Der aaed, drust aaed.
DR SAQIB SADIQ
Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
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