Mr. Prime Minister! Protect our national heritage by Senator A. Rehman Malik

                   

Pakistan is dear to all of us as it is not just a piece of land but an identity for each one of us and is proud home for all of us. Every citizen is Pakistan and everything present in it is dear to us.

Every political party represents its respective block of vote bank and political parties collectively are also the face of Pakistan. We as Pakistanis have not yet arisen above the politics and we political parties and leaders are still fighting on petty issues and ignoring the bigger national causes. We are still fighting to get votes and the party coming in the power continues in the mode of opposition.

The political elite are in the race of breaking news on TV channels. The leaders are more concerned for their image building rather giving attention to measures for nation and/or institution building. The record of successive Governments shows that they either fought for their survival or to pin down their opponents. There are hardly any meaningful efforts to bring the country under rule of law. The capacity building of law enforcement is being ignored. The countries do not progress without respect for rule of law.

The lack of rule of law will continue to generate the smell of corruption. Accountability in the past remained disputed because of the element of victimisation, and in fact accountability had become a tool of self-serving governance.

We only operate to get favourable flashy media coverage and the government operators can go to any extent to fetch publicity to give different temporary cosmetic looks. Every government comes with cosmetic approach of change and they engineer certain actions to get quick attention and we have seen in the past that such actions back fired for having no leg to stand on.

The newly formed government as their right announced 100 days plan agenda with austerity drive that includes auction of various items of government houses with a bid to generate cash. This auction plan just like the 100 days agenda is completely out of the understanding of many of us.

The first initiative to improve the economy is announced as under

1.           Non-use of the President House / PM House/Governor Houses.

2.           Auction of old Vehicles of the House

3.           Arrests of 100 big names for mega recoveries.

In a bid to implement the proposed austerity plan to raise funds, the task forces have planned to convert all the Governor Houses in the country into hotels for public use so that these government-owned lands lying as ‘dead capital’ could be used to generate income instead of resorting to foreign aid. I have a question, that how can these mini auctions meet our requisite financial requirements?

Can these few pieces of land from the PM House, President House, Governor Houses and rest houses sustain the shocks of heavy debts? Answer is no as the solution lies in a better fiscal policies and utilisation of our God gifted natural resources which have not been fully explored and are still not fully utilised.

The country needs reforms and not playing to the gallery. The nation is not interested in the media hypes, either curtailing the protocol or opening of the government houses to the public as picnic points, as they are interested only in their rise of economic status and reduction in price hike.

The governance too is a serious business, so instead of presenting the verbal dialogues by ministers in the evening shows in the defense of the government, kindly bring the reforms so that the public becomes your defender after experiencing qualitative change in their lives. Government needs to face the reality and to move forward with national reforms to get the country out of the crises with doable plans.

There is a growing trend among the public that the iconic buildings should not be altered nor their present status should be changed as any such hasty decision now will bring loss to the exchequer and may become subject of probe by NAB or FIA later. I hope that the competent authorities are aware of their duties to protect the national assets.

Pakistan still has many school and colleges which are lying vacant as if they were built for ghosts to study. The government needs to improve these already available institutions.

Literacy rate will be increased by introduction of a broad based education system and reforms and not by possessing of 8 to 10 official buildings. The devolution through 18th amendment does not allow the federation to interfere in the provincial autonomy.

Please leave these historic icons for their original use and do not use them to generate funds. Here i suggest that in order to raise funds, please convert Kashmir Highway into a commercial road like Shiekh Zahid road in Dubai. It will create nearly 2000 commercial plots and put them to auction only restricted to Overseas Pakistanis.

Bring the overseas Pakistanis investments with doable attractive and constitutionally secured profitable packages and give them their own Bank with their own management especially in real estate sector. You will raise billions of dollars and also create charm of investment for them. Create a Shiekh Zahid like roads in the name of our national heroes across the big cities and then see the response Mr. Prime Minister .

Please create environments of investment and not fears as fears technology will make the local capital further fly away and as in the past it will be parked either in Canada, Dubai or any other international tax heavens.

No country will help you to return already invested amount back to Pakistan. Let us create new ways to improve our economy and not by auctioning few heritages which are our icons. Modern fiscal policy with utilisation of under-utilised resources and it is the way forward to gear in the national economy on the right direction.

The government should consider protecting the icons /national buildings and national heritage and come with smart fiscal policy with the local business community and overseas Pakistanis.

The Article has been Published in ``The Nation’’ on September 23^rd, 2018

The Link to Article is: https://nation.com.pk/23-Sep-2018/mr-prime-minister-protect-our-national-heritage

Review of foreign policy by Senator A. Rehman Malik

                                                             

                                                       

We stand isolated today from the world and even our own old dear friends are not coming forward to help us. We have seen recently that even China and Saudi Arabia did not vote for us in FATF which is a big setback for us

.

I think we are victims of our own defective foreign policies and non-serious approach towards International community and lack of timely actions to maintain our meaningful diplomatic ties. Our inconsistent attitude has annoyed many of our friends and we have not yet learned the lesson.

Here are few glaring diplomatic blunders which have adversely affected our bilateral relations with many countries and one has to see if it happened due to collective mistakes or faults made at an individual level.

We got UAE annoyed on Expo-2020 event support in 2013 which was declined by Pakistan bluntly by not voting in favor of UAE. Later, we faced embarrassment when the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) general assembly in Paris awarded Dubai as the host on November 27, 2013. Despite being aware of the fact that UAE is one of the biggest investors in Pakistan and has the second largest concentration of overseas Pakistanis yet we chose to vote for Turkey despite an earlier commitment to UAE. In fact, UAE stood with us in the most difficult situations and helped us in every sector. I am a witness to the earlier commitment conveyed through me to the UAE Government of Pakistan’s support and vote for UAE but the PML N did not oblige UAE by not honoring the commitment of PPP Government. This adversely dented our diplomatic ties with UAE. Pakistan suffered big setbacks in maintaining diplomatic relations with UAE and fault was totally on our part.

We annoyed Iran authorities as well when on 25th March 2015, Indian spy Kulbhushan Jhadav was arrested near Baluchistan and Pakistani investigators found that the arrested Indian spy was running a terrorist financing and training network that used to operate from Chabahar in Iran and in the visit of president of Iran he was questioned in most unbefitting manners and proper diplomatic norms were not followed to deal with the visiting head of State.

The previous Government also mishandled the diplomatic terms with Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as well in 2015 when the support was requested for their “Determination Storm” operation. Saudi Arabia formally requested defense support in 2015 when the country announced the formation of a 34-state Islamic military coalition to combat terrorism and asked for Pakistan’s military support, Nawaz Sharif first assured HRH King Salman Bin Abdul Aziz of their support but later on, Pakistan’s joint Parliament session unanimously rejected this Saudi request for Pakistani troops to support its Yemen campaign. The reason to why and how it got rejected is another story and will reveal sometimes later.

Truly speaking’ Saudi Arabia helped us in 1965 with the planes and spare parts but we failed to give the requisite support to Saudi Arabia at the time of need. We took few steps later but it was too late as the damage was already done and Saudi Arabia had already lost confidence in us and dependence on Pakistan was shifted to the USA.

Saudi Arabia paid us in the same coins by not supporting us in FATF and we lost the crucial brotherly support of an elder brother. We noticed Saudi Arabia gracing with the highest protocol to Indian PM and India did create space there both in Saudi Arabia and UAE.

Moreover, the increasing Sino-Indian ties are detrimental to Pakistan. There is deliberate anti-CPEC propaganda which may create some miscommunications between Pak and China and Pakistan needs to counter this anti - CPEC propaganda.

The western anti mindset against Chinese International Economic policies has already attributed to the consecutive failures of Chinese Investments in Venezuela, African countries, Sri Lanka. It is western bid to block the rising strong economy of China which is quite evident from the recent statements of the USA on the Chinese fiscal policies.

The CPEC will give a strong boost to the export of Chinese finished goods and raw material via Gwadar which will also benefit Pakistan if both follow and protect each other’s Economic interest. The recent propaganda engineered against CPEC both abroad and at home is to dent this initiative.

Ministry of Foreign affairs and other stakeholders need to formulate a workable policy to counter these negative vibes against our Sino Pak Economic bond. Let us be grateful to China as we have witnessed in the recent past Pak history that it was China which in fact continued its development projects here even when terrorism was at its peak in Pakistan.

Let us continue to enhance our friendship and level of cooperation with China and our policy towards China should be friendlier. Also, we should not ignore the USA as it has its own importance in this region and it is equally important for us too.

Let us not forget that the USA bases its Foreign policies to fulfill its own geopolitical targets.

The US has been giving significant and weapon only when the USA needed Pak help and hence we also need to watch our national interest through our balanced Foreign policy towards the USA.

Our relations with the USA need to be restored and we need to objectively analyze those factors which are creating negativity and how can the misunderstanding between Pak and the USA be cleared.

“War on terror” slogan of USA is dying now with the passage of time whereas the war on terror has already entered like a virus in the entire Muslim world. This virus called “war on terror” is spreading among the Muslims and virus of Daesh is drastically damaging the fiber of unity of Muslim Ummah.

Pakistan needs to handle these issues by improving relations with fellow Muslim countries and USA at the same time.

The Article has been Published in ``The Nation’’ on September 17^th, 2018

The Link to Article is: https://nation.com.pk/17-Sep-2018/review-of-foreign-policy

Pak Woman — victim of discriminatory politics by Senator A. Rehman Malik

I have been watching the role of woman in Pak politics since long and I have made my strong observation that our system as converted majority of women into minority in terms of her presence and participation in all walks of life in our country.

Looking into the politics of Pakistan, I hardly see equal chances of politics for Pakistani women here. The Pakistani politics duly controlled by male domineering power does not allow the women to come forward in politics without their wishes especially at mid level politics.

The women have limited chances in politics in our country because of their vulnerabilities to harassment and insecurity throughout their education and then career (if ever she is allowed to pursue her career). The vulnerabilities then become a source of discouragement and resultantly more than 80% of well qualified and eligible women who are able to play active role for their country are either forced to get married early or sit back at home. They find themselves as being handicapped to demonstrate their abilities. Their ambitions are forced to be frustrated through our so-called social customs and these prevailing customs kill not only the talent but the high ambitions as well. Those who somehow manage to break the traditions or are compelled to step out of the house for various reasons, start working and unfortunately become the victim at the work place because of the male dominated society culture that considers it their right to harass a female worker around him and would like female worker to act on the tune set by him because he is male boss.

Thousands of women are harassed every day in every part of the country at their respective workplace, but a very few of them dare to raise their voices. Earlier this year a survey including 300 sexually harassed women at their respective workplace was conducted; a significant 35pc said they were told to remain silent by their colleagues and bosses. Many left their jobs and only 17 percent of those who experienced harassment went to their organisation’s internal inquiry committees with their complaints and 59 percent reported that their management does take harassment seriously.Let us see at all our workingwomen force.

Women employment rate in Pakistan is the lowest in the world standing at 4.5 percent. Around 65% of female doctors in Pakistan are not allowed to work after marriage. 80% of business graduates sit at home after marriage and less than 10 percent of educated and uneducated women are entrepreneurs.

Similarly, in Federal Government of Pakistan, only 4.6% employees (all grades 1-22) are women. However, around 28.5 per cent of all entry-level officers serving in the public administration sector are women. In the overall Civil Superior Services (CSS) examinations for 2017, out of 261 candidates recommended for postings, 106 were women for 17th grade.

We need to examine the direct and indirect input of women in our society. Similarly we need to look at the number of females in our political departments and see why the woman are kept away from politics except for those fearless souls who manage to make their place in politics.

Women in political fabric of our country hold only 21% of parliamentary seats and are not able to break the glass ceiling of the government. It is mandatory for political parties to hold 5% tickets for women in their party but they manage to keep women aside by nominating them for hard to win seats. In 2018 general elections, among 107 political parties enlisted with the ECP, 94 participated in the elections. These parties fielded 5,768 candidates out of which there were only 305 female candidates, which meant that 44 contesting parties did not field even a single female candidate despite mandatory law provision.

In National Assembly, out of 272 seats, only 60 are reserved for women and the Senate of Pakistan reserves 18 out 104 seats for women. Similarly at provincial level, Punjab Assembly reserves 66 seats for women out of 297 seats, Sindh Assembly 29 out of 130 for women, Balochistan Assembly reserves 11 seats for women out of 51 general seats and KPK Assembly holds 22 seats for women out of 99 regular seats.

Empowering women and ensuring better equal rights are probably among the most efficient things any country can do to develop society. To put it bluntly, a society that does not encourage women to contribute to all sectors of life to the fullest extent of their abilities is like a person trying to run a marathon, but using only one leg.

Women make up half of society; and it should be self-evident that society would develop better and faster if everyone works together rather than if half the population is relegated to the kitchen. Experience, case studies and surveys have always proven that countries progress fast where women are educated and receive equal treatment as men. Women’s economic empowerment is key to growth of our country’s economy and could boost Pakistan’s GDP by 30%.

These are some of the points to make women empower at workplace. A) Supporting full implementation of Security and make places safer for them to work.

B) Gender equality workshops and events should be organised and conducted in which women can actively participate. It is unfortunate that the majority of population in our country is of women yet this “majority” simply has been converted into minority. C) Government must address issues of women harassment at work place and sort them out in time so that they can work comfortably. D) Women entrepreneurs must be promoted by building partnerships with them to maximise impact on gender priorities by making them part of meetings and valuing the views of them. E) Pakistan’s depleting economy can be transformed by making them aware of importance of education, being sensitive towards their health problems, ensuring equal job opportunities and respecting their rights. F) The new government must make laws for provision of security and rights to women at workplaces so that they can work freely without any kind of pressure.

I would like to conclude by saying that more participation of woman in all the economic departments would make Pakistan more prosperous. The services of our woman force are not properly being used towards contributing to our national growth and male domineering society has turned the majority workforce/population to a minority force. We need to revisit it.

The Article has been Published in ‘’The News’’ on September 06^th, 2018

The Link to Article is: https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/364545-pak-woman-victim-of-discriminatory-politics

Donald Trump - South Asian policy by Senator A. Rehman Malik

The forthcoming visit of USA Secretary Mike Pompeo to Pakistan has already become the victim of mishandling on both sides. The dispute erupted when the Foreign Minister of Pakistan refuted that Secretary Pompeo ever mentioned the terrorists’ presence in Pakistan, calling it “factually incorrect” and that his statement regarding “do more” policy of USA towards Pakistan is already an old brand of harassment tool for Pakistan.

First of all the call should have been made from Donald Trump himself to our PM but he has undermined Pakistan by making the Secretary call our Prime Minister instead whereas on the other hand, Mr. Trump keeps on calling PM Modi himself every now and then.USA has decided to deal our PM at the level of his Foreign Secretary without acknowledging our sacrifices in waging war on terror with them, again choosing to ignore Pakistan.

I do not attach much importance to the visit of USA Secretary of State to Pakistan, as it will be a replica of visit of his past colleagues with same old unreasonable demands in a new folder. There is no doubt that USA is an important country and we should be having good diplomatic terms with them but this is what USA does not realize much.          

Mr. Shah Mahmood being the Foreign minister has played good innings as he very well knows the mindset of the Americans. We have been a part of Pak - USA diplomacy and he knows that USA would continue to press for non-ending syndrome of “do more “. Let us see how differently Mr. Shah Mehmood Qureshi performs this time vis-a-vis USA leadership.

The situation within USA administration is quite gloomy now-a-days because of the ongoing internal tug of war. The Muller investigation is mulling the government especially who are close aides of Donald Trump .

Let us review below as to why this wave of confusion and panic is going in Washington.Here I would give a soft reminder that earlier i had expressed in my articles “Hasty Sackings by Donald Trump” and “Ball game between Putin and Trump” about Donald Trump’s imprudent attitude and hasty decisions including travel ban on Muslims, numerous dismissals of his close aids from their offices and election meddling etc., and how it all led to the FBI investigations against him under former director FBI Robert Mueller’s supervision.

Knowing USA criminal justice system one cannot expect any relaxation in the due processes. The meeting between Donald Trump and Putin did not go well and its after effects brought Donald Trump under further cloud and public pressure.

It looks that move initiative against Donald Trump is not going to die so easily and Donald Trump will be coming under more pressure in coming weeks, which further make the authorities nervous.

Donald Trump is now facing additional charges against him as his own Ex-attorney Michael Cohen has ditched him by making confessional statements before the court in New York. The allegations include tax fraud, excessive campaign contributions, making false statements to a financial institution, and unlawful corporate contributions.

Cohen admitted that he paid “hush money” to Playboy playmate Karen McDougal and Stephanie Clifford (professionally known as Stormy Daniels), the adult film actress who allege an affair with Mr. Trump to keep quiet about it. Cohen said that Trump himself directed him to violate the law to influence the outcome of elections.                                

Cohen has further indicated that he is willing to tell special counsel Robert Mueller that Mr. Trump was aware of the 2016 Trump Tower meeting long before it took place between his son and Russian delegation, although he has shown no evidence to support this claim.

Donald Trump had two more judges in Supreme Court with the hope to get relief from Supreme Court whereas if he gets convicted then he can even pardon himself as president which is within his powers.                                                                       

In USA, the Constitution defines impeachment, which is limited to “The President, Vice President, and all civil officers of the United States” for offences like for “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanours” who may be impeached and removed from the office for committing any of these.       

Impeachment is only a formal statement of charges and is thus only the first step towards removal. Once an individual is impeached, he or she must then face the trial for conviction via legislative vote, which then determines the removal of that individual from office. Impeachment generally involves high office achievers that are why it requires super majority to vote.

Formerly, two U.S. Presidents have been impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives; Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1999, but both were later acquitted by the U.S. Senate. No US President till date has been removed from the office on impeachment or conviction.

Cohen is another Trump ally to be charged as a result of Mr. Mueller’s investigation, as former national security chief Michael Flynn and aide George Papadopoulos also admitted lying to the FBI over the Trump camp’s associations with Russia.

Trump has hit back to the claims questioning the legality of both the raids and the tape, writing in his tweet: “Inconceivable that the government would break into a lawyer’s office (early in the morning) - almost unheard of.

Donald Trump has stated that if he is impeached then USA economy would be finished and everyone will be poor. He also accused Cohen for making up stories against him and getting a great deal from prosecutors.                                 

The world is going through number of natural changes where the game is played by intel like what has been played by KGB to CIA?

The USA administration is coming under continued pressure because of the daily changes in politics because of legal battle on allegations against Donald Trump , which can lead to impeachment of the President Donald Trump . These pressures on President Trump certainly have disturbed him badly

The ongoing investigations against the President are indirectly affecting the USA International policies and its effects can be seen on South Asia especially Pakistan and Afghanistan.                      

The present USA internal political row coupled with FBI is certainly not allowing President Donald Trump to pay more attention to the International issues related to USA.

The Article has been Published in ‘’The Nation’’ on September 05^th, 2018

The Link to Article is: https://nation.com.pk/05-Sep-2018/donald-trump-south-asian-policy

Fractured politics on sale by Senator A. Rehman Malik

It is unfortunate to see the divide and rule policies of some political parties. This unethical trading of politics is certainly not good for the country.

We saw as to how the independents of 2018 election voted for the government and it was expected that the Prime Minister would be elected by independent MNAs. The political sale has become so open that no remorse is seen on the faces of politicians. Let us review the historical processes of the past of this fracturing and creeping of greed in our politics under successive governments. All laws of floor crossing and administrative efforts failed as the political greed won.

I would like to state some facts, which make us understand as to how our politics have been drowning in the sea of greed till today.

At the time when Pakistan came into being in 1947 the Muslim League was the only major party in the newly born Pakistan. The Pakistan Muslim League was the original successor of the All-India Muslim League that led the Pakistan Movement to achieve an independent country, and six of the country’s Prime Ministers have been affiliated with this party, namely Liaquat Ali Khan, Khawaja Nazimuddin, Muhammad Ali Bogra, Chaudhary Muhammad Ali, and I. I. Chundrigar.

Mohammed Ali Jinnah died on 11th September 1948 who could not get proper treatment and breathed his last in an out of order ambulance from the airport to the hospital. PM Liaquat Ali Khan was assassinated in October 1951 as result of conspiracy that hatched from abroad in order to eliminate the leader who would refuse to take dictations from them.

In 1951, Liaquat Ali Khan was succeeded by Khawaja Nazimuddin, a Bengali, and Malik Ghulam Muhammad was appointed the Governor General of the state. Khawaja Nazimuddin was forced out of office in April 1953. By 1953, dissensions within the League had led to the formation of several different political parties and sale and greed of political leaders came in full swing. During the legislative elections held in 1954, Suhrawardy provided his crucial political support to the United Front that heavily defeated the Muslim League in May 1955 (held by a system of indirect voting) and Pakistan got surrounded by riots and famine.

After supporting the vote of no-confidence motion at the National Assembly, Prime Minister Mohammad Ali was removed from the office and the three-party coalition government of Muslim League, Awami League, and the Republican Party, appointed Suhrawardy to the office of Prime Minister in 1956. He, however, lost control over his party, Awami League, and resigned on 17 October 1957.

In October 1958 the Army seized power and the martial law regime of Muhammad Ayub Khan banned all political parties. This was the end of the old Muslim League.

President Ayub Khan in 1962 formed Pakistan Muslim League again and appointed himself as a successor to the original Muslim League. Just a short period after its foundation, the party was further divided into two factions: The Convention Muslim League supported President Ayub khan and the new Constitution, and the Council Muslim League, opposed the new Constitution, denouncing it as undemocratic.

President Ayub was also forced out by his own Commander-in-Chief Gen. Yahya Khan and installed him as Martial Law Administrator, once again derailing already fractured political fabric. He had to resign in 1971 after the fall of East Pakistan. During this period, Mr. Nurul Amin (a right wing political veteran) attempted to reunite the factions of Pakistan Muslim League and to bring people of both the provinces closer but failed as the country was heading in different direction.

As a result of general elections, which took place in 1971, Awami League of Sh. Mujibur Rehman and Pakistan People’s Party emerged as major parties in respective provinces. Neither of the factions of Pakistan Muslim League (PML) could secure visible public support in the elections. However, after separation of East Pakistan from rest of the country, Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) formed the government in erstwhile West Pakistan under Mr. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.

The Pakistan Muslim League was formally dissolved alongside other parties following the 1977 Martial Law, though it supported it. However, it was restored in 1985, when General Zia organized his supporters into a formal party under the leadership of Muhammad Khan Junejo. In 1988, however, Zia dismissed Junejo government consequently the party split between Pakistan Muslim League (N) and Pakistan Muslim League (J). The death of Gen Zia in an air crash incident provided an opportunity to Pak Muslim League to come under the leadership of Nawaz Sharif who was a part of Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI), which was formally dissolved in 1993. Creation of IJI and receipt of money from National exchequer was yet another splinter in Pak politics and political sale was shameless act by many politicians who could be seen not playing real politics but business.

The greed and lust for power further jolted the already fractured political fabric when Gen. Pervez Musharraf ousted the government of PML (N) headed by Nawaz Sharif in 1999. A quite good number of PML/N as well as PPP members opted to ditch their respective parties and joined the hands of Gen. Pervez Musharraf for their personal benefits. This greed for power gave birth to PML (Q), headed by Ch. Shujaat Husain and Ch. Pervez Elahi and amalgamation of PPP turncoats to group called PPP (Patriots). PML/Q remained a staunch supporter of Pervez Musharraf and his government.

The PML/N once proudly claiming to be the custodian of legacy of Zia later turned hostile to its breakaway group called PML(Zia) led by the son of Gen. Ziaul Haq.

In 2000, at the controversial elections held by the Pervez Musharraf in October, five different parties using the name Muslim League contested elections. The largest of these, the Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-e-Azam), won 69 seats out of 272, and the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), loyal to Nawaz Sharif, won 19 seats. PMLQ made its way to corridor of power and enjoyed till 2008 at the expense of PML(N). Power greed continued later as well and the same majority of members from PMLQ jumped back into PML N in 2013. The lust of power brought them back. In 2013 elections, Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) emerged as the largest party in the country; the party formed its government at the center and Nawaz Sharif was re-elected for third term as Prime Minister.

It was not only the PML and then the breakaway groups like PML/N that suffered from this trend of horse trading or migration to other parties for the sake of power lust but PPP also suffered when the main PPP was fractured and different members of the PPP left the party and formed their own parties like National Peoples’ Party of Mr. Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi and Pakistan Peoples’ Party (Sherpao) led by Mr. Aftab Ahmed Sherpao. The PPP found by Mr. Zulfiqar Bhutto suffered further fractures when her daughter Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto was betrayed by few leaders of her party and joined the cabinet of Gen. Pervez Musharraf under the fold of Pakistan Peoples’ Party (Patriots) for the lust of power and to save them from accountability by NAB. The Patriots then helped form government by Mir Zafrullah Jamali and joined the cabinet.

Later, many among the rest of the members of PPP also left to join PTI and now they are the part of the cabinet of PM Imran Khan. Similarly many PMLN leaders with big names also left the party and later on joined PTI.If you look deeply in to it, every time, the bid made to politicians was different, but the common bait was nothing but power.

The politicians in the past and even now could not hold their grounds hence they kept on presenting themselves for the sale in the political auction and rest the nation knows how the loyalties were negotiated. This act of politicians is highly detrimental to the democracy.

Considering the past traditions of Pakistani politics, unfortunately it seems like there would be further more fracturing in PMLN in the future as rumors are being heard from yet another group of the party. The way the politicians have been doing politics for their own benefits has not left good impression on the future generations.

In conclusion, I would like to say that if this political fracturing and political greed of power further continued, the future of democracy does not seem to be any bright.

The Article has been Published in ‘’The Nation’’ on August 29^th, 2018

The Link to Article is: https://nation.com.pk/29-Aug-2018/fractured-politics-on-sale

Tabdeeli or national reforms by Senator A. Rehman Malik

Social media has now become an integral part of politics and a medium of spreading of facts or misinformation. This tool is sometimes being misused in many ways like creation of hypes and propagandas. Tabdeeli is also a part of hype created in media and it has highly raised the expectations of people. The projection given to Tabdeeli stands tied with our day-to-day social life. The jokes ridiculing Tabdeeli are not appreciable. The change/ Tabdeeli is not new for the people of Pakistan as this word has been used in different ways by many successive governments.

The very first time I heard this word “Change” was from Thailand when I had been in the country as guest of the then prime minister of Thailand during my exile time. In fact this was the beginning of yellow-shirt movement by Thai pressure groups/protestors against Thailand’s prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra that resulted in 2006 military coup in September. In fact, yellow shirt was termed as symbol of Tabdeeli.

The theory of “Change “originated in the mid-1990s as a way of analysing the theories motivating programmes and initiatives working for social and political change through certain well organised movements. In 1990, it emerged at Aspen Institute Roundtable on Community Change as a means to model and evaluates comprehensive community initiatives. Huey Chen, Peter Rossi, Michael Quinn Patton, and Carol Weiss were the main theorists and practitioners who worked on the idea and applied development in the evaluation field. The idea of Tabdeeli existed but there has to be a proper course of action for Tabdeeli through structural and legal reforms.

The Slogan of Tabdeeli is not new in Pakistan but it is a slogan advocated many time in the past. This idea of Tabdeeli inspired by Thailand was presented by a political party as a slogan of their election through both social and electronic media.

Let us see the previous slogans of the political parties, which were used in the previous elections time to time but no considerable change was noticed and it remained as slogans only:

1. Slogan to change education system but no change/reforms. 2. Slogan of Ehtesab/End of corruption but No Tabdeeli — no change. 3. We changed system from president to parliamentary system but no Tabdeeli. 4.We brought 18th Amendment without any Tabdeeli.

5. We shifted from cars - to cycles but no Tabdeeli. 6. We changed from 1600 cc cars to Suzuki 800cc but no Tabdeeli. 7.We sold all government luxury cars but no Tabdeeli. 8. We launched too many TV channels with freedom of speech but No Tabdeeli.

The political parties in the past played to gallery and unfortunately instead of promoting the system and institutions we fell into individualism and ignored the institutions rather used them to remain glued to the power. We politicians do everything to stay in power. I have closely witnessed many transitions of the governments and I found them getting crippled in the hands of bureaucracy. We get united to grab the power in order to hit our mutual political opponents but we never got together for the collective response required for our national interests and unity. We need to change and reform the laws and policies to bring about real change in the country.

I personally know Imran Khan as well meaning and literate person and let us hope that he comes up to the expectations and high hopes already arisen in the public mind. I pray and hope that he performs right according to the expectations of a common man.

The high hopes from public may meet the same fate as of the past if this subject is not handled by bringing in the required reforms; hence he needs to move with good advisers and with collective efforts. The present government is expected to devise a programme to bring meaningful change to improve the life of the common man. He needs to improve the governance by implementing proper rule of law. He should use accountability as yardstick for effective governance as per the given principles of effective governance by Ibne Khaldoon.

I remember the words of Abraham Lincoln who stated on change: “The best way to predict the future is to create it”.

Our religion has also given teachings on “change” and according to Islam; it can be brought at three different levels: the individual, social and political. As per Islam’s idea of change, the change comes from the “inside” and not from outside by doing cosmetic changes. In Quran Allah says: “Verily, Allah will not change the (good) condition of a people as long as they do not change their state (of goodness).

Hence, change can never be brought until we work on our inner selves so that it is there forever and not for a specified amount of time. For instance, the cosmetic changes are always temporary as even cosmetic surgery of face is not a permanent Tabdeeli in the face. The states need continued reforms and to avoid ad hoc changes in the system.

Let us go for real changes and not the cosmetic options. The change is required immediately in the following main areas in Pakistan:

Economy, foreign relations, national security, education, electoral system, political system and devaluation of rupee.

Mr prime minister, if you bring qualitative reforms in the above-mentioned areas, the people will start feeling the Tabdeeli. I propose the following to be done:Economic reforms: For economic reforms and debt retiring programme, use the Turkish economic model as the Turkish economy has been defined by the IMF as an emerging market economy as well as one of the world's newly industrialised countries.

The model Tayyip Erdogan used to boost the economy of Turkey must be followed as, in his first year of government, he ended "State of Emergency" (Olaganustu Hal) in East of Turkey in 2001. This increased the investments to the East, inflation rate decreased to around 7-10% that decreased interest rates and this boosted consumption in all manners and credit cards and consumer loans became available for the masses. Long term credits like mortgage and mortgage system became available after 2005-2006 and this helped people to build better houses, accumulations in treasury (dollar, gold) increased by 4 times. Long-term international credits became available, as before Erdogan Turkey was craving IMF for 1-2 billion dollar with high interest rates. Today, Turkey can borrow money for 30 years of payback. IMF offered 40 billion dollars in 2011 but Turkey rejected it.

Effective Governance and police system: For effective governance and appropriate police reforms, our government needs to follow partly Singaporean model of governance and police system. The most effective system of policing and governance is of Singapore where the crime rate is almost zero. We can pick the best part of it. We need extra ordinary police reforms for better rule of law.

Health care: For improvement in health and care, the government must use UK’s model of National Health services. It is a state-funded system called the National Health Service, or NHS, which guarantees care and services for all patients, whether rich or poor. That means everything free from ambulance rides to emergency room visits to long hospital stays, complex surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. In addition, any medication you get during a hospital stay is free, and the costs of most prescription drugs at a pharmacy are cheap.

Agriculture and farming: To make Pakistan green our government must use Philippine’s model of agriculture and farming. Women’s participation in agriculture and farming, like in Philippines, would help boosting women’s potential of farming and agriculture. We can copy their canal irrigation system.

Education: For quality education and increasing literacy rate in all four provinces of the country, the government must follow the Australian system of education as it is considered the best in the world. The cost of transport, living and tuition expenses is comparatively low in Australia than US and UK, which makes it easier for students to get higher education and become graduates.

Energy production: We have rich resources of water and we can opt for hydropower and production model of Tajikistan. Tajikistan is producing maximum power from a single river by constructing multiple hydro power stations. It will be cheaper to produce. Small dams with mini hydro plants are other option.

The government needs to bring well-drafted foreign policy to the joint Parliament session. The government also needs to bring well-drafted National Security Plan with the help of provincial governments to the joint Parliament session.

Industrialization: Government must follow Chinese model of Industrialisation. China achieved its spectacular economic growth with massive government spending in industrial sector. The Chinese government ownership allowed China to direct the companies to high-priority projects. The other major factor of Chinese industrial growth is that The People's Bank of China, the nation's central bank, tightly controls the Yuan to dollar value. It does this to manage the prices of exports to the United States. It wants Chinese products to be a little cheaper than those produced in America.

The government must expand tax base by more easy and doable tax reforms, which should be pragmatic.

A task force consisting of all the chief ministers headed by PM for implementation of above reforms should be formed, as the major implementation of law & order and development is the responsibility of provincial government.

My final advice is to bring desired national reforms for a common man and Tabdeeli will automatically find its way in the public.

The Article has been Published in ‘’The News’’ on August 29^th, 2018

The link to Article is: https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/360862-tabdeeli-or-national-reforms

Nation in search of old and better Pakistan by Senator A. Rehman Malik

If I compare the present state of affairs of Pakistan then I would find my 40 years old Pakistan much better and I have listed reasons below, as to why the situation is deteriorating day by day.

Every successive government harmed its institutions and very fiber of our society in the name of creation of new Pakistan. The other nations feel happy to take the concept of their old developed home lands and feel proud of their culture and history and promote their old values. Hence we should have not advocated for a new Pakistan after every five years just for getting votes, rather we should have reformed Pakistan for the benefit of a common man.

The new Pakistan cannot be termed new Pakistan with modern designer clothes worn only by elite class, dancing programmes and sophisticated demonstrations and slogan of Tabdili (Change), but we should have reformed our society and the laws coupled with great economic policies. Pakistan cannot be reformed unless there is proper implementation of “rule of law”. The “rule of law” was much better in our old Pakistan than it is today.

Amid the toasts, the fireworks and independence celebration of the 14th of August, hardly there was any mention of cataclysmic event of 1947 in which around 2 million people lost their lives, up to ten million went missing and 75,000 women were raped and abducted. Unfortunately, there’s no memorial to these victims, no mention and no tributes on either side of the border, but that’s another topic. The question is, are we actually living in the country we got after this large-scale historic violence and for which our ancestors gave up their lives so that we could breathe and move around freely? I guess we all know the answer; the Pakistan that Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah handed over to us, 71 years ago was quite different, peaceful, happy, dignified and more prosperous than today. I was further shocked sitting in the Convention Centre attending the celebration of Independence Day when the president of Pakistan did not mention a single word about sacrifices of those who laid their lives to make Pakistan.

Our beloved country Pakistan had experienced a growth rate in GDP of over 5 percent and in per capita income of about 2 percent per year over the first years of its independence. It witnessed this sharp acceleration in the growth momentum in the economy during 1960s and the 1980s. In spite of rapid population growth during this period, per capita incomes doubled, inflation rate was low and poverty declined from 46% to 18% by the late 1980s. This healthy economic performance was maintained through several wars and successive civilian and military governments during the 1950s, 60s, 70s and 80s.

Although we are known as the country with Muslim majority, the loss of East Pakistan, which used to be a part of Pakistan, gave us a huge set back in 1971. The separation of East Pakistan had weakened Pakistan as the nation was taken aback by constant conflict between the two wings (East and West Pakistan) which dramatically erupted into mass civil disorder which was due to the failure in resolving the disputes. The conflict was given rise because of several of our own mistakes, made early in the short history of Pakistan. The differences emerged when the East Bengalis started feeling a sense of discrimination and regional prejudice, which were successfully exploited by India through propagation by Akash Wani Indian Radio that West Pakistanis took all the wealth, privileges and better jobs. There was a great massacre, which was engineered by India and this act of separation badly affected our economy and system resulting into depleting progress. Did we learn any lesson for this tragedy as a nation? No.

We miss the time when there was only one TV channel and there were only three radio stations in Pakistan, in Dhaka, Lahore and Peshawar. Today we have hundreds of news and entertainment channels on TV, yet none of them can beat the programmes that were aired on that single TV channel; PTV. There were no fake or self-created hypes in those programmes.There was a time when we used to enjoy limited number of games like hockey, football and partly other games and now children have gadgets to play with all the time, lying in their comfort zones without any kind of physical activities.

Families were more friendly and united and personal interaction was a common thing. Children had so much respect for their elders. I miss the lost country where there were strong feelings for each other, where the people used to resolve their disputes by the guidance of the elders and there was hardly anyone to blame for being traitor.

There was no concept of child rape and there was hardly any serial killer. And in today’s Pakistan over 17000 children have been sexually abused since 2013 in this new Pakistan and these numbers of immoral activities are rapidly increasing every year for the past ten years.

There was no terrorism, no bombs, not a single suicide bomber in my old Pakistan. Unfortunately today, Pakistan has become a major target of terrorism, as for the last 15 years it has taken a huge toll on Pakistan as more than 63,000 people lost their lives so far. 2,096 is the number of fatalities from terrorist attacks from 2003 to 2017 and it happened because the then dictator threw Pakistan in others’ war and we allowed religious extremism to grow and become monster. We started witnessing number of sectarian killings, which stood as 5,303 from 1989 to 2017.

No TV anchor used to create a hype of an issue or play with the honour or dignity of others. Now we watch the news and find unauthorised investigators, prosecutors and judges sitting behind the screen convicting a person just based on allegation and in line with their own agenda. There was no such persecution and nobody dared to assume the role of court by sitting behind the screen. TV channels and newspapers used to get TRPs for ground-breaking news, but there was no over exaggeration of unnecessary news to get the better rating. There was no fear of breach of privacy and there were no social medial squads running after you to breach your privacy. Ethics and morality were above wealth and power in my old Pakistan.

The deterrence of crime was there; therefore, people were scared of doing corruption or committing crimes. People used to socially reprimand those who were corrupt. Values existed between blood and friendly relations.

I watch TV, read newspapers and meet various people from all walks of life but I don’t see the warmth which I had experienced being in old Pakistan and I hardly witness care of those values now. I do not see that love and care which I used to see as a child in the eyes of my fellow Pakistanis and in common man.

I now see that the idea of new Pakistan is still being sold by the politicians just to lure in the public to attract the member ship of parties and to create even greater craze for a new Pakistan where I see more deterioration in values in this new half broken Pakistan. Despite all this, we have not realised our mistakes as we continue to commit the same blunders. We beg off the world with our forever begging bowl in hand every three months to make this new Pakistan survive. We try to look like a modern state on borrowed money with modern clothes. We boast off our media tailored achievements whereas we are left far behind as compared to other nations who got independence much later than us. We have mortgaged our major national assets to give new look to new Pakistan. I am searching for my old Pakistan in this well-propagated new Pakistan rhetoric where I could see more values and honesty in actions. I am looking for my old Pakistan where the politicians would not exploit their votes in the name of change.

I need my old Pakistan where ASI (popularly called as ‘ChothaThanedar’) was more powerful than the IG of today who implement the rule of law better than an SP of this time. ASI used to enforce imminent rule of law just by taking a round of his area sitting on the back of horse.

Politicians are propagating for the new Pakistan with various slogans but in reality political, social and financial values are deteriorating. Instead of becoming a scientifically modern nation we as nation have become self-centered, we are becoming more orthodox and rigid in our postures. Now the success is determined by creating abusive squads to hit the opponents.

I need my old Pakistan when the debt was as low as $27 million that was taken on 27th March 1952 from IBRD purely for the cause of rehabilitation and development of Pakistan.

Old Pakistan had more respect abroad. My green Pakistani passport was respected abroad. Pakistanis were treated as innocent and honest. My PIA was the best airline, which used to lead and train today’s number one airline called The Emirates airline 35 years ago. Karachi airport was the hub of international airlines. Pakistan had the best shipping service.

Old Pakistan’s chief executives were used to be received by the president of USA and even Queen of England in person.

I want my old Pakistan where nobody was carrying a gun to protect himself whereas, now I have to protect my family, both at home and outside with a gun.Every government failed to perform to the expectations of a common man and every time a common man was betrayed in the name of new Pakistan and ‘Tabdili.’ A common person is already dead inside and he is hearing yet another slogan of Naya Pakistan. The common man is standing confused about the slogan, as the slogan of Naya Pakistan is not a new slogan. This slogan has now gone to the third generation.

Will the new Pakistan be able to give a common man respect like the old Pakistan? Will the new Pakistan be able to bring the real family values back? Will the new Pakistan bring peace and prosperity in the lives of common men and in the country besides restoring its forgotten grace in the world? Will the new Pakistan be able to get rid of financial slavery from international financial institutions and restore the ownership of its national assets?

There are so many challenges ahead of new Pakistan to tackle with and to bring back my old Pakistan. Let’s pray that the new champions of slogan of Naya Pakistan succeed in their mission of making the old Pakistan as new Pakistan with the same values and traditions.

Let us talk of reforming our old Pakistan by bringing about the rule of law where the elected members will dare not beat the common man on the street, where our women wouldn’t be mistreated in the political gatherings, where the leaders would walk with their chins up and work for the common man and where the leaders and officials would work for the national interests and not for their own interest or business expansions.

Give me my old Pakistan as there is no rule of law in this new Pakistan, which is merely a slogan to grab power. Moreover, the new Pakistan is now fully mortgaged to foreign lenders, whereas my old Pakistan was only mine and there was no mortgage on me or on my children. Will the new custodian of new Pakistan deliver us mortgage and debt free Pakistan?

The Article has been Published ‘’The News’’ on August 19^th. 2018

The Link to Article is: https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/357107-nation-in-search-of-old-and-better-pakistan