Tag Archive | "economy"

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Drug – Trafficking In Central Asia

Posted on 01 March 2012 by Tea Server

PROFESSOR ALI SUKHANVER US Department of State says in one of its recent reports regarding drug trafficking in the Central Asian states, “The Central Asian states that border Afghanistan are facing a significant threat from illicit narcotic drugs transiting from Afghanistan. Violent extremist groups from Afghanistan and Pakistan threaten stability in the region, with drug [...]

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Pak economy in Shambles

Posted on 01 March 2012 by Tea Server

By: Shaukat Masood Zafar Millions of suffering Pakistanis voted for them believing that they will not fail Pakistanis after nine years military regime; they will bring the desired changes. They must not fail! However, They have stolen much of our collective wealth and left us with little to fight our massive poverty. They have not [...]

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Pakistan’s economy: during military civilian regimes

Posted on 17 February 2012 by Tea Server

By: Shaukat Masood Zafar Pakistanis are not mature enough with democracy regime; while most of the politicians are morally bankrupt! The country’s current misfortune is due to civil leadership, who has demonstrated no appetite for sustainable change, economic or social. The effect of the stronger economic performance during military regimes translated into something more meaningful [...]

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Drug Prices go up by upto 100 Percent

Posted on 16 February 2012 by Tea Server

By: Shaukat Masood Zafar The prices of 350 medicines increased from 20 to 100 percent in the wholesale and retail markets across the country increasing inflationary pressures. Almost all local and multinational pharmaceutical companies notified the increase to their respective distributors, dealers and wholesalers. The increases – some as high as 100 per cent – [...]

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  2. Rising inequality in Pakistan: Elite should remember rest are 98 percent
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  4. Wastelands development – A best way to overcome food crisis
  5. Pakistan Budget 2011-12: An Overview



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Easy Paisa gets Grant to Expand Services to Poorest of Pakistanis

Posted on 16 February 2012 by Tea Server

Billa & Melinda Gates Foundation has been gracious enough to give a grant of us$ 6.5 million to Easypaisa to fuel the adoption of its services among poorest households of Pakistan. A press conference was held at Telenor Pakistan’s head office in which the grant was announced.

Roar Bjaerum, Vice President of Financial Services at Telenor Pakistan, said

Financial exclusion of the lower income population is a systemic challenge in Pakistan. With more than 85% of population not having access to formal savings or credit products, many households are vulnerable to fluctuations in daily income and unable to absorb economic shocks from unexpected events. Easypaisa’s vision is to serve as a vehicle for financial inclusion for such households. The grant will help us accelerate adoption of Easypaisa services among poor and unbanked individuals

 

Rodger Voorhies, Director of the Gates Foundation’s Financial Services for the Poor initiative, said:

While Easypaisa has seen rapid adoption of its payment and remittance services, adoption of mobile financial services, like savings and insurance, has been slower, this grant aims to accelerate adoption of Easypaisa’s Mobile Account among poor and unbanked households to create a foundation for the delivery of savings, insurance, and other mobile financial services.

Such a significant grant by Bill and Melinda Gates foundation not only sheds light on the philanthropic nature of Microsoft’s founder, but also to his aim to fight poverty across the world. Hundreds and thousands of poor households will be able to access financial services in Pakistan if this grant is utilized effectively for the purpose it is provided instead of marketing the Easypaisa brand.

 

Syndicated from: TelecomPK

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Rising inequality in Pakistan: Elite should remember rest are 98 percent

Posted on 15 February 2012 by Tea Server

By: Shaukat Masood Zafar There is a mess of political parties in Pakistan; all talking a lot about poor people and their problems. Nobody knows who is actually a true representative of people? If we look back, the picture for the last four years of “Democracy” has remained bleak. Political parties across the country are [...]

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  5. Pak Economy heading towards hyperinflation



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Food insecurity: A big threat to Pakistan

Posted on 13 February 2012 by Tea Server

By: Shaukat Masood Zafar Food is a basic human need and it’s the government who has to ensure a dependable food security system for the nation. For a country like Pakistan, this is crucial, since now a large part of the income of the population has to be spent to procure food. High grain prices [...]

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  5. Afghanistan a threat to Pakistan’s Security



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Leadership crisis and its impacts in Pakistan

Posted on 10 February 2012 by Tea Server

By: Shaukat Masood Zafar Pakistan’s rich human and material resource endowments have given it the potential to become a major player in the global economy. Pakistan is rich in minerals. It has good agriculture potential. The young population in Pakistan is large — as is the percentage of young who are unemployed but well-educated, meaning [...]

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Why DUNYA TV can never be trusted again…

Posted on 09 February 2012 by Tea Server

For a while now there has been a discussion about the rolethat the media plays. Throughout that discussion it has always been said thatthe media is unbiased and it is doing its duty of bringing hard facts toviewers spread all across Pakistan. The assumption has been that nomatter who owned the media outlet it would be totally unbiased when it came toreporting. And yet all the viewers and everyone involved always knew that everychannel had a specific agenda and that it would always push forward its ownversion of the truth rather than just the facts.  Actually this case was made in detailrecently by a friend of mine in his article that can be found here. Sogiven we all knew this already, yesterday’s DUNYA TV episode or shall we justcall it a broadcast was one of the saddest and most disturbing things I have seenin my life.


The All Knowing….Lucman
Starting with Mubasher Lucman, who is a talk show hostsomehow and claims to be seeking justice for all and yet he is the guy who stillowes USD 80,000 to a studio in Thailand, who went on a rant over the phone saying that Punjab has Bird Flu. Then slowly like a pathetictabloid story, the longer his argument went on, the clearer it became that there was nothing to it. Butwhile this conclusion was reached, he had already blamed the Government ofPunjab about 50 times. So in recap, he blamed the Govt. of Punjab for the BirdFlu that does not exist. Funny enough this story came in print a few days ago,and upon talking to one of the office bearers of the Poultry Association I wastold that it was a rumor to bring down the price of Chicken which recently has gone up quite a bit. It is a week old story but it was soon cleared up andretracted. But Mubasher Lucman, went on National TV or whatever DUNYA TV is,and started this rumor again without any solid proof. Within hours, DUNYATV had successfully managed to play with livelihoods of millions of people inPunjab without any proof just for the sake of making Government of Punjab lookbad.

Actual FIR that was filed against Mian Amir by the Father of one of the girls killed
Then came the  news bulletins, where most of the headlineswere categorically against the ruling government in Punjab. I mean it came to apoint where it was insane; they stopped trying to hide their hatred and just went full on against them. Be it the non BirdFlu story or the Building Collapse, everything was just simply blamed and somehowtied to the Government in Punjab. It became even sadder when DUNYA TV figuredout that an FIR had been lodged against their owner, Mian Amir who also happensto own the Punjab Group of Colleges. And that is when the figurative shit hitthe fan for DUNYA TV. Within a space of 5 minutes, they went ballistic as iftheir offices were under siege and they were broadcasting live from Homs inSyria rather than from their comfy office block in Lahore. They actually hadviolin music playing in the background while they narrated the story of HOW THEGOVERNMENT OF PUNJAB HAD LODGED AN FIR AGAINST THEIR OWNER because DUNYA TV wassaying the TRUTH. Now this claim on its own is misreporting of the highestorder as the Government of Punjab did not do that. It was the father of one of the girls killed at Punjab College’s Concertin Lahore. And to prove it, the picture above is of the FIR. IF you do not know thisstory, let me explain. You remember a few weeks ago there was a stampede at acollege concert in Lahore which was played out as the Atif Aslam Concert wherethe exit doors were shut down and a bomb threat caused a stampede resulting thedeaths of three girls. Well that story was killed off very quickly and it didnot even play once on DUNYA TV because the owner of that college was Mian Amir,who also owns Dunya TV.  But afterfailing to pay off the victim’s family, an FIR was lodged.

Owner Dunya TV and Punjab Group of
Colleges
But DUNYA TV took this and turned it in to something thatcould give them political Milage by saying the Government of Punjab did this.And what is worse is while they were reporting that the FIR was filed, they didnot mention even once in 3 hours for exactly what instance was it filed instead they did their best to spread the narrative that it because DUNYA TV had raised the Punjab Institute of Cardiology story and now they were being punished for it. Logically if that were the case, GEO and Express would have been screwed over too but no DUNYA TV did not think of that logic. 

The fact of the matter is, this whole episode has shown howchildish our media is. Within 4 hours, one media group for its own purposes hadspread a rumor that affects the livelihoods of millions of people and then hadmanaged to snub a story about their sister concern (Punjab Colleges) and turnthat in to a story of political victimization. All this took 4 hours. That isscary to say the least.

While this discussion on responsible media and the needfor media’s role to be well defined, we need to start moving towards specificsnow. The time for awareness and advocacy is nearly over; actual actions need tobe taken now. Things like what DUNYA TV did yesterday cannot be tolerated indecent or even semi-decent societies where a news channel can endanger millionsof livelihoods and then cry political victimization as part of its grand schemeof blackmailing a provincial government. We as the citizens cannot sit ideallyby and let this happen because it is insulting to our intelligence.  Channels like DUNYA TV cannot be allowed tocontinue claiming that they are independent and unbiased. They need to clarifythat they are agenda based news outlets there to provide cover for their owners’other business ventures because that is a fact. It is about time we startcalling things as they are instead of hiding behind the myth of being unbiasedand objective.

And just to remind you, Mubasher Lucman, who always goesaround claiming to be honest is the same guy who bought Twitter Followers. Who doesthat? And yet this guy did. So think about his mentality next time you hearanything coming from his mouth. And for your comic pleasure following is the video where he makes a claim about Bird Flu without presenting an iota of proof and the Anchor lets him go on without once asking for evidence. 


Syndicated from: Seedhi Baat

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Horrible democracy adventure in Pakistan

Posted on 08 February 2012 by Tea Server

By: Shaukat Masood Zafar Back in February 2008, at the dawn of another attempt at democratizing the nation, many Pakistanis yearned for a better society — one that truly brings the genuine dividends of democracy. Four years later it’s debatable whether democracy as practiced by the Pakistani politicians and understood by the electorate — has [...]

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Rs 8,500 bn corruption mars Gilani tenure: Transparency –>Ansar Abbasi, The News

Posted on 06 February 2012 by Tea Server

Transparency International Pakistan says Gilani tenure has given a loss of Rs 8,500 billions in corruption so far. Still nincompoos and corrupts in government expect people to pay taxes like “responsible” citizens. Yes, people like us who pay taxes despite corruption are responsible and they are responsible for beeing ignorant.

People should go for a collective boycott of taxes and take back the country from these evil ruling elite.

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Rs 8,500 bn corruption mars Gilani tenure: Transparency

Source : http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=12258&Cat=13

by Ansar Abbasi

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has lost an unbelievably high amount, more than Rs8,500 billion (Rs8.5 trillion or US$94 billion), in corruption, tax evasion and bad governance during the last four years of Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani’s tenure, Transparency International Pakistan (TIP) claims.

The TIP advisor, Adil Gillani, told The News that the real impact of corruption in the country’s economy is far more than what is generally estimated or what is formally uncovered. He believes that Pakistan does not need even a single penny from the outside world if it effectively checks the menace of corruption and ensures good governance.

It is generally believed that the four years of the present regime under Gilani had been the worst in terms of corruption and bad governance in the country’s history. Past records of corruption were broken and Pakistan started rising in the ranks of the most corrupt nations of the world.

There has been no check on corruption as the anti-corruption institutions like the National Accountability Bureau and Federal Investigation Agency instead of checking corruption have been siding with the corrupt.

These institutions have been helping the corrupt to get off the hook by distorting and mutilating the evidence in favour of the influential accused.
Adil Gillani, the TIP representative, who too has been haunted by the government during these years for producing corruption reports, explained that the TIP pointed out corruption of Rs390 billion in 2008, Rs450 billion in 2009, Rs825 billion in 2010 and Rs1,100 billion in 2011 under the present regime. The total of these identified cases of corruption is Rs2,765 billion.
In addition to this, he explained the following:

The minister of finance of the present regime himself confirmed corruption in FBR of over Rs500 billon per year, which makes the total Rs2,000 billion; Auditor General of Pakistan pointed out Rs315 billion corruption in 2010; Public Accounts Committee recovered Rs115 billion in 30 months till 2011; circular debt is Rs190 million; KESC was given Rs55 billion illegal benefits per annum since 2008; state-owned enterprises like PSO, PIA, Pakistan Steel, Railways, SSGC, SNGC are eating away Rs150-300 billion per annum; tax to GDP ratio in 2008 was 11%, which in 2011 has reduced to 9.1% instead of being increased.

Gillani explained that Pakistan’s Gross Domestic Product is worth US$175 billion and in the light of this the drop of 1.9% in the tax GDP means annual loss of US$ 3.3 billion. This confirms that FBR is losing Rs300 million per annum, which is annual additional loss since 2008 and stands at Rs1,200 billon in four years
The TIP adviser added that India’s tax-GDP ratio is 18%, and at that rate, Pakistan’s tax evasion/corruption in FBR is 9% of $175 billion, which is US$15.5 billion per year, i.e. Rs1,400 billion per year.

It is worth mentioning here that it is not only the Transparency International but there have been different international bodies including the World Bank and world capitals, which have been showing their concern over rising trend of corruption in Pakistan under the Gilani’s regime. It was mounting corruption and extremely bad governance, which even dithered the outside world to offer cash to Pakistan during 2010 and 2011 floods, which devastated different parts of Pakistan and affected millions of people.
At home the corruption became a fashion in such a shameless manner that even the cabinet ministers started openly pointing fingers at each other and even at the highest levels including the prime minister. Some even approached the Supreme Court but despite all this, corruption remained the hallmark of the present regime, which instead of curbing it started defending it in the name of democracy.

Syndicated from: United4justice’s Weblog

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Constant price hike: Save Pakistanis from hunger

Posted on 05 February 2012 by Tea Server

By Shaukat Masood Zafar Pakistan is facing many serious problems nowadays, but the problem of price-rise is the most serious one. The government of Pakistan and LPG producers has recently dropped three more bombshells on the people of Pakistan by increasing the price of oil products. Though many of the petroleum products are deregulated now [...]

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Energy prices…let them rise

Posted on 02 February 2012 by Tea Server

The price of oil has gone up again.


Predictably comments of how this is “democracies revenge” on the hapless people of Pakistan, and how Zardari’s corruption means we pay more at the pump.


What is frustrating is the expectation that, “if there is a shortage of gas, alteast it should be cheaper”. Every few days, some article or the other comes out where the author writes something along the lines that:


“if it wasnt enough that the people of Pakistan are suffering from electricity and gas shortages, they will be shocked to hear that the prices of the oil and gas are on the rise!”


A good example is the following:


The apathy and indifference of the members of the federal cabinet is evident from the fact that none of them paid any heed to the woes of the people who have been massively burdened with the hike in the prices of petroleum products and the imposition of a 10 percent cess on the compressed natural gas (CNG). Minister of State for Human Resource Development Shaikh Waqas Akram made a point that the increase in POL prices was too much, but no one bothered to discuss or raise the issue and all, including the prime minister, kept mum and the meeting was called off.

For one that is quite judgemental, and the article lacks facts as to what exactly was going on in the meeting. But more to the point, what does “POL prices was too much” mean exactly? What exactly is acceptable increase? And why does everyone believe that its the government responsibility to make prices lower? Who does it benefit? 



Have less therefore cheaper? 


Now it doesn’t seem to make any sense to alot of people, but it makes perfect sense to me. If a commodity is increasingly scarce its price will increase. Why does anyone expect it to fall?


The price of oil is determined by international market forces. Not free of course: OPEC tries to influence oil prices by manipulating price. Demand from China is a factor affecting energy prices. And recently, the increasingly aggressive tone between Iran and the US, and the Iranian threat to blockade the Straits of Hormuz, has contributed to rising oil prices. Then there are issues of limited refinery capacity that also contributes to higher prices.


Yes, we can argue that petroleum products are heavily taxed. Should the government lower the tax when oil prices increase to give the masses “relief”?


Spoilt silly


The problem with our consumption behaviour is that oil pricing uptil the end of the Musharaf era spoilt us badly. We became used to cheap petrol and diesel. Both were heavily subsidised.


The subsidy on petrol was plainly criminal. It resulted in a massive transfer of wealth from the have nots, to the haves. During 2002-2007, when banks were offering cars on two photocopies of an ID card and a utility bill, it was the urban, salaried class that benefited. The richer you were, the bigger your car, the more extravagant the use. And it was these people who went around filling there tanks with subsidised petrol. Who footed the bill? The taxpayer, and they continue to do so. The debt that was accumulated during this period to keep energy prices at bay in the lead up to the early 2008 elections, still remain.


The burden of that debt and the inflation that increased government borrowing caused hit the poorest hardest. The costs of inflation are dis-proportionetly felt by those on low incomes. While the well off, those people who had taken out consumer goods, including cars on finance and debt, experienced a decline in real terms, as inflations benefits debtors rather than creditors. Further, a salaried individual is more likely to enjoy annual increments in wages, not equal to, but in line with inflationary expectations. The small man is screwed both ways.


Alot of hot air


History will probably judge our move towards CNG as a major disaster. At most it should have been a source of fuel for public transport to cut down its cost. Again, its criminal to see brand new cars converted to CNG. If you can afford to own a Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla, you can afford to pay for petrol. After a decade of cheap CNG, people dont expect its price to rise. Or when it rises they expect the difference between petrol and gas prices to remain the same. However, that is neither sustainable, nor desirable. Households on low income which cant afford UPS’s and Generators, should at least be able to cook and heat there homes. Instead, the CNG Pump Owners lobby not only wants the price to fall and taxes removed, but a reduction in gas load shedding as well. Why should those with the least, have to bear the cost for some guy who can afford to buy his/her own car, but prefers to put gas in it?


Subsidies are generally a bad idea. They encourage over production and/or over consumption. It is also very difficult to make sure that those who the subsidy intends to benefit, actually benefit. Worst off, the economics of energy pricing have been co-opted by political rhetoric.


Every energy price increase is met with accusations of corruption and how democracy has brought us the gift of higher petrol/diesel prices.


The other day I read a comment on the Express Tribune which something something along the lines:


“Even when global oil prices were $142 a barrel, petrol in Pakistan was cheaper than it is now”


Well no surprises there, at that time the Musharaf government maintained the subsidy, by stopping oil prices from rising. It didnt help win him the elections, but it did insure that the new government was setup for failure.


Promises, promises, promises


The worst thing now is for opposition parties to promise lower energy prices. Its high time they all stuffed the rhetoric and say whats needed. Energy prices are going to keep on rising. What they should be focusing on, rather than promising to throw untold, 100s of billions of rupees on subsidies,  is on incentivising energy audits, improved insulation and building design, conservation etc. Car producers in Pakistan, who year on year demand tariffs to protect them from foreign competition, need to spurned towards energy efficient engines and design.


Thar coal, more gas in Baluchistan etc etc, are all mirages offered as possible future solutions. They are no closer to reality than they were a few years ago. No one is going to give us free oil, and its economic suicide to expect the state to foot the bill. Its also corrupt on our part to expect subsidies, the burden of which is borne by those who hardly consumer any of it. The poorest and most vulnerable, must and should be protected from inflationary pressure. However, we need to draw a line somewhere. The guy sitting in his brand new Honda Civic, being interviewed on GEO News on how the government should cut petrol prices doesn’t deserve a poor states economic protection.


So gear up for higher prices, and continue to blame corruption, Zardari, democracy, PPP for our ills, just do so while economizing energy use in your surroundings.

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Recession Backed Layoffs Reach Asia, Further Negate Value of Education

Posted on 01 February 2012 by Tea Server

Lets examine the bottom line … why get a degree? why study at all? No jobs on the market, ultra qualified executives backed with experience can’t land a decent interview, so why bother at all? The general suggestion among the entrepreneurial circle for aspiring workers of tomorrow is to either land a blue collar gig, [...]

Recession Backed Layoffs Reach Asia, Further Negate Value of Education is a post from: PakMediaBlog All Rights Reserved.



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